I don’t even know where to begin. The last time I wrote anything was on July 14th of 2010! So much has happened there is absolutely no way I could find a way to discuss them all in one or even two sittings. For those who are reading this without any kind of regular contact with me, shame on you. But here’s a rundown of things that have happened since my last blog post:
Henry Peirce Miller was born July 16, 2010. He’s awesome and amazing and I am once again awestruck at God’s unbelievable work.
I finally found a job. It’s with a certain huge banking institution. I’m not going to mention their name because although I only skimmed through the employee handbook when I was first hired, I think I recall reading somewhere that I was not to say anything about the company in online arenas of any sort where it might be misconstrued. Anyway, it’s not exactly what I had in mind when I had to find a new job, but now that I’m back in the game I’m enjoying it. I am exceptionally fortunate in that I have really been enjoying the work but I also have some really great coworkers which has made the job even more enjoyable. I’ll write more on it later.
I started school again. I took two sixteen week classes that ended in December. I continued in my quest to astound myself by getting A’s in both classes – astronomy and English literature. I’m now at the point where I need to decide on a major and go for it – I have completed all of the required general education and elective courses.
A new year has come.
Leslie Nielsen died.
Um. Not sure what else to mention. I’ve actually made some time to write this weekend as Crystal and Henry have gone to San Diego to attend the funeral of her Aunt Gail. It was certainly unexpected and she will be missed. They flew out with her parents on Thursday and will be returning Sunday afternoon. I opted to stay home with Dominic and Ezra (as opposed to going to the funeral with the boys as well) and just have some fun with them.
On Friday I took the boys to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. After we ate, I let them play for a bit in the play area. Dominic had insisted that he carry a lollipop that he had received earlier in his pocket so it went with him into the play place. A couple of minutes in and he came running up to me to tell me that it had fallen out of his pocket but he couldn’t find it. He went and looked for it in the area where he thought it had fallen without success. I told him not to worry about it and sent him back to play. A minute or two later I spotted a little girl about three or four years old hiding in one corner of the play area. She had the lollipop in hand and was nervously looking all around. I immediately knew I had found the culprit. Unfortunately, before I could do anything about it, she had popped the lollipop in her mouth, although it was quite clear she was not able to enjoy it due to the amount of time she was spending looking around in all directions.
I thought about the situation for a minute and decided that since she was already eating it I should let Dominic know – he could use the opportunity to confront her without worrying that the candy would be aggressively snatched from the girl’s grasp. Knowing Dominic’s eating habits, he wouldn’t touch a pre-eaten anything, even if I offered him a lifetime supply of Legos. I have a hard enough time getting him to eat food I have prepared for him, let alone a lollipop that had been licked by a stranger! I called Dominic over and compassionately let him know I found out what happened to his lollipop. He was disappointed but knew he had to at the very least confront her about the theft. I let him go for it. He approached the girl and asked her why she had taken his lollipop. I was too far away to hear the interaction but it became quickly obvious that she was upset that Dominic dared confront her at all because she gave him the remnant of his lollipop – a partially chewed up stick with a few chunks of candy hanging on. Dominic rushed over to me, stick in hand and made sure I knew she had eaten the majority of the candy. The girl must have known she had upset Dominic, started for the door out of the play place. Dominic saw she was trying to leave and asked her again, “Why did you take my lollipop and eat it?”. Her response?
“You shouldn’t have brought it in here.”
I am serious. This little three or four year old girl calmly said it was Dominic’s fault the candy was eaten. At this point the little girl was within my reach, but to avoid jail time I opted to say something instead. Just to make sure I heard her right, I asked the girl as she was opening the door, “Why did you take candy that was not yours?”. She turned to me and without hesitation said, “He shouldn’t have dropped it”. This was certainly one of those moments where I had to absolutely control my temper. Although I knew she was trying to get away from the situation as casually as possible (probably because she knew if her mother or father were to get involved she would face bigger troubles), I stared her down and told her, “Maybe you should think about stealing other people’s candy, regardless of where you found it”. The look on her face after I accused her of stealing was priceless. She said nothing else and crept out of the play area. Another mother sitting nearby who watched the entire interaction asked me, “Did that girl steal his candy and then say he shouldn’t have dropped it?”. I gave her a brief recap of what had happened and she was just as shocked as I was. It’s moments like this that make me want to whisk my family far away to a place where they don’t have to interact with the future of our world. It’s quite depressing. But on the other hand I was able to talk to Dominic briefly about how to handle these situations and what to do if he was the one who found something that belonged to somebody else. I guess that’s the only benefit to dealing with children with no respect for anyone is that I can use them as an example for my kids on how not to behave.
Perhaps, as time permits, I will make an effort to write a little more about life in the next few days. We’ll see how ambitious I am.
