The Big Guy & The Angel

I don't know much about parenting, in fact, I know next to nothing, but that doesn't stop me from learning as much as I can, as fast as I can. Unfortunately, my perceptions of how everything supposedly goes, doesn't always jive with how it actually goes.

I always knew there would come a point when I'd have to change a diaper, and I planned on that being a LONG time before I have kids [there's an image for those who know me really well...little pun riddled Dans running around], but I didn't know it'd be quite this hard. It's one thing to see some one else changing their kid on a table in a restroom, it's something entirely different when that kid is yours. Now I say "yours" in a secondary sense, because Jamie and Jason are my niece and nephew. It's not easy to do, and A LOT worse to smell, when the kid getting changed, is your flesh and blood.

Everything has a stronger...impact. Everything means more. And since I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm constantly afraid of hurting them in any way. When you have kids, or in my case, my brother and sister(in-law) have kids, EVERYTHING changes. And I don't just mean your entire world...I mean EVERYTHING! Everything within you, and every part of who you thought you'd be around kids, changes.

You notice things that have been dead to your mind for your entire life. You see things your eyes have never crossed, you feel things your hands have never touched, and you cetainly smell things your nose never fathomed. You can see all this happening to thousands of people many times over, but none of it truly hits you until the kids become yours [again, I refer to my brother and sister(in-law)].

I have always understood a parent's love for their children, but I never felt it like I do with Jamie and Jason. I may not be their parent, but I sure feel that close. I love them like their parents do and I will protect and guard them as their parents do. One of the first things I told my brother and sister(in-law) was: that if it were up to me, which in some cases it's a good thing it's not, I'd find the tallest place I could, and do the "Lion King" thing [hold them up to the heavens, as an angelic beam of light graces them].

Jamie and Jason fill my life and my heart with a joy and love, I never knew. They give me a pride and everlasting smile in my spirit that makes me glow every day I wake, and every night I go to sleep. There is nothing this world that makes you happier than kids. Everything Jamie and Jason do is cute. They are my pride and joy. Jamie is "My Angel", Jason is "My Guy."

To be their Uncle is an blessing nothing will ever match, or touch. They are my heroes. It's amazing to be an Uncle, but it's beyond words to be their "Unc-D."

Thank you Lar & Lor, for my heroes.