Wook (2 year olds can't say their "R's")

In Connisonville, after we do our little dance in the morning, two people venture off to work.

Dad leaves and goes to work for the great State of Louisiana. Mom stays at home to work for our family (love her and can’t thank Jen enough for that).

As a background, I have a love/hate relationship with work. I could go on and on about how the system is broken when people go off to a job for 40+ hours a week, where they probably waste a ton of time doing mindless activity to fill up that time because there is no incentive to get your job done as you are still required to be there for the same 40+ hours!!! Don’t get me wrong, I like work. It can be a challenge, it can be exciting to see your work help people (I help build software systems, I don’t save lives), but I like it on my terms. To put it differently, I don’t mind working, I just don’t like jobs. Anyway, back to my story.

Owen has gone through various stages when it comes to work. First, it was learning the sign for work. He would use this when PawPaw stayed at our house and worked from our computer nook. Then it was “Bye Bye!” where he didn’t give it a second thought that I was headed out for the day. In fact, it seemed as though he looked at me with an expression that read: you’re still here? I know that it wasn’t what he was thinking, but it was like I couldn’t get out the door fast enough. We then moved to the game where he would tell my “Bye Bye” but then watch me from out front window with his face pressed on the glass while I got in my car, and drove away. It is pretty heartbreaking to leave this sight.

We have recently had some minor (and major) meltdowns when it is time for Daddy to leave for work. As if it isn’t tough enough to leave the family and go to work (where I don’t want to be, where I am continuously working toward a solution of independent wealth so I don’t have to go) and I have to hear, “Daddy, work, don’t want to, don’t want to” as he gives me a leg hug and a kiss goodbye.

This is the stuff that no parenting book will prepare you for…or at least I haven’t written it yet.

No Wakey, Me Need Sleepy

I recently heard that the average person is going to have about 25,000 mornings in their lifetime. I have also heard that you should relish every one of them. Morning time in the Connison household can be pretty crazy sometimes, but it has been my new mission to take a deep breath and enjoy each one.

I haven’t always been a morning person, but have always erred on the side of morning. Since graduating from LSU, I have worked for IBM, LSU (LEO), ICF, and OCD/DRU. Confused yet? You should be. I have been getting up for work for almost 7 years since LSU (man I’m getting old), not to mention the many early mornings I had in college working at the Gap. It is now ingrained in me to get up early. Even before kids, it was tough for me to sleep past 7 and almost a miracle if I made it to the “eights” and usually alcohol played a small role in the night before to make that happen.

I am now a morning person and also a functioning caffeine addict (I will elaborate in a later post). The truth is, mornings are hectic in our house and every second counts when you are trying to get dressed for work, have coffee, eat breakfast, and get the kids up/changed/dressed/fed. All of this is to try and take some of the chaos out of the rest of Jen’s day because she has enough to deal with being my wife/SuperMom that stays home with our wonderful sons while I “get to go to work.” There are some days where I get into my car to go to work (after some series of chaotic events) and I take a deep breath and think, “wow that was insane.”

Sometimes it is tough to relish in the craziness of the morning time, but Jen sent me this shortly after I left for work today and it’s things like this that make it easy to enjoy each morning.