man time.

so brady and i have a kind of new thing we like to call man time. it is essentially any time we get to hang out him and me w/out the girls around. tonight it was sucking up and grinding leaves while the girls went to dance. in the gathering dusk, brady troops out to the huge pile in our front yard, where i'm already covered in dust. he becomes intensely interested in how the vacumn works, and loves when we get to crush the bags down to make more room for the leaves. it gets darker; we need light. pretty soon he's back out with a hat so he can wear my headlamp (useful for hiking, looking around the tent at night, and being a little boy on the loose in the front yard). he gets the red wagon so we can haul the bags back to the garage. he gets his work gloves to break up the sticks. he grabs the rake and narrowly misses my head in his efforts to help out. we have a great time working, playing really, in the leaves. i mention how daddys like to have tools -- they are kind of like toys for grown ups. he points out how i still like to play transformers and star wars with him, and how i like his toys too. point well taken. i really enjoyed our hour of man time tonight. i hope he did too...

amazing how important that time is with our kids -- investment. as simple as breaking up sticks and talking about toys, that time is something that i'll never have again but also something no one can take away. and i learn as much from him as he does me. it is such an honor to be a daddy, to start raising my boy to become a man. and to remember that i'm still a little boy at heart, too...