Thanks for reading

09:15am 27 Oct 2009 37 comments

BY KERRY WILLIAMSON

From labour day to Labour Day, the boy is now nine months old.

It is incredible to think that nine months ago, we were at Wellington Hospital, tired, exhausted and completely overwhelmed.

The boy, the wife and me - just like that, we were an instant family.

The dog, of course, was waiting for us at home.

In the past nine months, our lives have completely changed.

Mostly for the better, but some for the worse.

One thing is for sure - I can barely remember what it was like to not be a dad.

I can barely remember what it was like to sleep in until noon on a rainy Sunday.

I can barely remember what it was like to just jump out of bed and go.

I can barely remember what it means to have an evening at the cinema, a dinner at a decent restaurant, more than a few pints at the pub.

But I can also barely remember what it's like to come home to a cold, empty house.

Now, when I get home from work, my boy is there waiting for me.

The boy and his black eye

09:17am 21 Oct 2009 11 comments

BY KERRY WILLIAMSON

The boy has his first black eye.

But before you judge me or call the cops, please, I can explain.

The boy has reached the stage where he has become a terror to himself.

Whereas just a few weeks ago, he could barely crawl and was rarely in any danger, things have definitely changed of late.

About two weeks ago, he figured out how to pull himself up onto things - couches, coffee tables, bookshelves, the legs of visitors, his toy-bucket, the vacuum that seems to have found a permanent home in the hall.

The importance of family

08:41am 19 Oct 2009 8 comments

BY KERRY WILLIAMSON

He might not realise it just yet, but the boy is lucky.

In fact, he’s luckier than most.

I just spent the weekend away from my son. In the space of three sad, funny, exhausting, heart-warming, tearful days, I achieved quite a bit.

I said goodbye to my nana for the last time, resumed special friendships with rarely seen members of the Williamson clan, and came to realise even more just how important family is.

My Nana Willy

07:13am 15 Oct 2009 2 comments

BY KERRY WILLIAMSON

It's something I was always meaning to do. And now it's too late.

My grandmother died early yesterday morning. She was 91, and simply decided that that was enough. She went to sleep on Tuesday night, and never woke up.

As always, it was her decision. She decided that she was sick of being old and that she didn't want to fight anymore.

She was stubborn to the end.

I'm pretty sad about it, as you'd expect. She was my last surviving grandparent and she was a cool old lady. While we didn't see a lot of each other, we'd always had a bit of a connection, and I'll miss her.

Two kids are tougher than one

08:00am 12 Oct 2009 6 comments

BY KERRY WILLIAMSON

I knew I was in trouble when the girl burst into tears every time I caught her eye.

Here I was, sitting in a strange house with two babies who weren't about to make it easy on me.

And every time I looked at the girl, tears would spring from her eyes, and an absurdly piercing scream would burst from her lips.

I knew I had been thrown in the deep end. And here I was, going under.

Looking back, I'm sure it was a set up. The first I found out about my babysitting duties came last week, when the wife meekly announced that she'd signed me up to look after the neighbour's kid.

I'm still not sure how it happened. The wife gave some excuse, said she was sorry, said all the right things. But in the end, all I could think about was that I was about to look after two babies ... for several hours ... without any help.