The Runtyun

She was born the same month that I was, forty years later though. When the excitement of the birth was over and the baby was clean and wrapped up in her birthing cloths, when I stopped feeling woozy and found a certain control over my emotions. The nurse handed me the cooing little bundle–my daughter.

She was warm in my arms. All I could see were her eyes, they were so big. I know that at only a few minutes of age there is not very much for a baby to reference, yet she looked straight at me and she had me. At the time I did not know the adventures that I would go through as a father. The things I would endure as a parent and man. At the time all I saw were eyes and a bright red pudgy face and a little bubble of saliva at the corner of her mouth.

I put her down on the birthing table and just stared. What had I done? This little creature, perfect with ten toes and ten fingers, one little head that looked too big for that little body. What had I done? I put my hand out to her to see what she would do. Nothing. I guess she could not see–being only few minutes old. My finger brushed her hand, she did not jump, but reached out and gripped my finger. She was strong!

She would have to be strong coming into the life I was involved in. We went through a few struggles before getting to the somewhat stable life we live now. During her toddler years she was very out going. Her smile in the morning was brighter than the sun at sunrise. It carried me through some of my darkest days.

Now she is so wise, yet strangely naive. She can understand things beyond her years, yet in another minute ask a question so innocent that I can only wonder. The Runtyun is growing into a fine person despite my parenting skills.

I have stumbled through this whole parenting experiment and you know what? She is doing pretty well despite me.


Monday, February 18, 2013

A day at the Arboretum


So, last Sunday my little Runtyun invited a friend of hers to go to the North Carolina Arboretum, we have a pass for the year so we can go as many times as we want and take as many friends with us as I can squeeze into the back of the pick-up. The place is a man modified wilderness that has a tremendous bonsai garden and other attractions and learning facilities. Most importantly though, at least for me, is that it is close by and a great excuse to get outside with little planning as well as a tremendous learning facility, all I need to do is shoe horn her into the truck and go. This is so convenient because there are no lunches to deal with and it is so close that I do not have to spend the whole day there to make it worthwhile.
At any rate though, the Runtyun’s friend and her wanted to go off by themselves and explore, sans dad. Yeah baby! I get to sit and relax and enjoy the world without kids pulling my shirt-tail. I brought my computer and got the kids a map --- and proceeded to follow them around. We played sight tag for a bit. They would try to hide and I tracked them causing squeals of laughter and panting kids. Finally they got tired of shadow-dad and said they wanted to explore on their own. I found a table at the visiter center and got settled.
My fingers got itchy and the phone came out and I had to text them to make sure it worked. The girls sent one back and breath came back into my lungs. OK now I will write a little, but something new bounced around my brain. I had to fiddle with the phone again.
There does not seem to be a public WiFi connection there, so of course I had to use my phone to tether to the internet(ya’ gotta love all the choices we have nowadays!)
About the time I got settled through the routines I have to do to get into work mode, mist started to fill the air and the phone rang, “We're hungry, its’s starting to rain, we’re bored.” I was getting a message here.
We headed on home to watch TV. While I would have liked to stay a little longer and have the kids wander around the Arboretum more, I learned a couple of lessons. I love the fact that there is a place near by resembling true wilderness that feels comfortable enough for me to let the Runtyun roam free to explore as she feels the urge. There are birds here, probably deer roaming around and other critters for her to learn about. When Spring begins to bloom, in about a day if the weather keeps on the way it is, we’ll spend time taking pictures and learning about composition and nature. However, I think maybe the most important thing for me is realizing that kids need to be told what they cannot do so they can explore what they can. Kinda like a horse running free, it gets reigned in and it will run further and not get hurt. Kids need to have some restraint imposed on them so they can grow and learn and then grow beyond artificial restraints imposed by parents. They need to experience how to work within guide lines to learn how to experience the world around them.


olc
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