I remember

Eight ten on a cold wet autuum evening. I am waiting...waiting for ...well the song says waiting for the world.

I remember...and this is why I have decided to blog again after such a long hiatus (that's fancy talk for an interruption or pause).

I remember when I first saw Joan through the window of the nursery.

I remember when I first saw Joe in a room off the delivery room with an oxygen mask on his tiny face.

I remember when I first saw Kate emerge and when I first held her in the delivery room.

I remember your mother on all these occasions. I remember her wanting a cigarette in her room after Joan was born and how I held Joan and took her out of the room while her mother had a smoke.
I remember her look when she woke and asked how Joe was.

I remember the smile when she heard Kate cry and how she held out her arms to take her back from me. How we sat together in the recovery room.

I remember how we planned for Joe to be a natural birth and how in the end the dr. insisted on an epidural and then administered it wrong so that you mother was paralized and Joe was delivered with a forcepts and then given oxygen. I remember the marks on his head.

I remember holding all of you as very tiny babies and sitting in the rocker and watching you and wishing that I could make every moment of your lives as happy as mine was sitting there watching you. I remember carrying you around the house in the snuggli...I remember taking all of you to the Mall to the carousel and into the Smithsonian Museum. I remember the look of awe as you saw the giant Mamoth in the lobby of the science building. I remember your laughter on the carousel.

I remember Joan climbing out of the crib and refusing to go to sleep. I remember coming home from work and getting down on the floor to play with all of you.

I remember Joan pulling all the books out of the bookcase until we filled the bottom shelf with her books and then she pulled up to get our books out of the upper shelves.

I remember Joe playing hide and seek...standing in the toilet and thinking I couldn't see him.

I remember playing on Saturday morning in the basement on Cheverly Ave when I would fall asleep counting for the hide and seek game and being roused by Joan. "Daddy, you're not looking"

I remember the little play house in back of the house in Cheverly and how the termites had made the floor unsafe.

I remember the slide I made in the backyard at Cheverly...from a piece of awning that blew off during a storm...

I could go on and on with the memories...happy...sad...but all a part of my life and yours.

So maybe there will be more of this some time in the near future.

Remember to enjoy every moment of your lives...whether hard or pleasant,enjoy...enjoyment a state of mind that says that I will...no matter what happens..see the brighter side and enjoy.

I remember Joe playing garbage man in his room...dumping everything on his bed so he wouldn't have to go to sleep. I remember sitting at the top of the stairs in cheverly Md. so I wouldn't have to go all the way up to put Joe back into bed after he got up for the one millionth time.

I remember Kate not wanting to sleep at night after her two am feeding and me walking around with her in the Snuggli and her looking up at me and refusing to fall asleep.

I remember going to work with baby smell on my clothes after hugging all of you goodbye in the morning.

I remember so many things that you brought to my life and I thank you for all of them...Love, Dad