Trial & Error- Tips & Advice For New Dads – The Little Things

When I say "the little things" I'm not referring to the kids, I'm referring to those moments when your growing children make your laugh & smile, as opposed to the majority of the time when you're screaming at them to clean up their room.Enjoy those "little things" as much as possible, because once your kids moves out of the stage where everything they say & do is cute & adorable you'll be subjected to an endless stream of smart mouths, unbrushed teeth and sibling fighting.

For me, I had one child leaving the "cute" stage I've written about in the past while another was in the "cute" prime.  Now that my 2nd child is getting closer to the "cute" boundary, I've really come to appreciate the little things.  Sometimes they're hard to spot, while other times they're there for the whole world to see on Facebook.  Think back to David After Dentist.  That video has been viewed 118-million times on You Tube.  Incredible.  Other times, there's no one there besides you and your kid.

One of the times that sticks out in my head came during the height of the Capitol One commercials featuring the Russian customer service representative that went by the name of Peggy.  "Peggy" was actually a bearded man, but his "Hello, my name is Peggy" was spot-on, and I'm sure by now you've heard it.  If not, you've got to watch it.  I watch a lot of ESPN, and that commercial was all over the network at the time.

One afternoon at around nap time, I went to lay down with my (at the time) 3-year old son, Logan.  It would help to get him to sleep sometimes if you'd lay down with him until he was sound asleep.  Yes, it was a big pain in the butt.  Yes, I shouldn't let him dictate that to me. Whatever.  After a few minutes of rolling around trying everything in the world to avoid his nap, he finally began to give in.  He rolled over close to me, laying his head on my pillow just a few inches from my face with his hand reaching out and resting on my cheek.  As I started to think to myself, "This is one of those special moments", he said it.  Out of nowhere, and with impressive accuracy, he says, "Hello, my name is Peggy".  Normally I'm able to subdue laughter (and even a smile) if I'm trying to settle the kids down, but I couldn't control myself and busted out with uncontrollable laughter for the next five minutes as I told my wife the story, told his brother the story, I even told Facebook, but no one will ever know quite how funny it truly was.

Enjoy those moments.  Whether you get to share them with the world or not, enjoy them.  Sometimes the best moments are moments that are just between you and the family.  Enjoy the "little things", because soon enough the kids will do something that will make you want to ground them for eternity... or as my dad used to say, until their clothes go out of style.