LAF Night

The first monday night of every month is LAF night. It's a little acronym for 'Ladies and Fellowship'... though I've come up with some other great little acronyms of my own for that group.

Anyway... no, I don't attend this group... but my wife does, and in her absence, I get to spend the evening with my two little kids. I'm not one of those parents that would prefer to do pretty much anything other than spend their free time with their kids. If anything, I err on the side of too much time probably. But I can't imagine that I will lay on my deathbed and say that I regret that I spent too much time with my kids when they were younger.

Tonight was a ton of fun for me. Shortly after Melissa left, Emily brought me a DVD that she wanted to watch. It was Steven Spielberg's Gremlins from the 1980's. I told her that there were some scary parts in it and asked if she still wanted to watch it. She said yes but that she wanted me to watch it with her. I told her that the Gremlins are ugly and do some scary things. She told me to put it in and that when the monsters come, she'll hide her eyes on my shoulder.

Mixed emotions settled in. Afterall, it was a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed when I was a kid, but I also wanted her to sleep well tonight. But, I figured that the first couple of minutes where ok and I could gauge how she would do. Turns out I had nothing to worry about... she mostly laughed at the Gremlins... especially when they died gruesome deaths in blenders and microwaves. That was 90 minutes of my life well spent.

After Gremlins, she said that she wanted to watch 'Kermit the Frog.' Around this time last year, I bought the first season of the Muppet Show on DVD. For some reason, I have fond memories of The Muppet Show. I can't remember if I watched it as a kid... but somewhere along the line I picked up an appreciation for it. Emily really likes Kermit and has recently really liked watching the shows with me. We saw a 3D Muppet Show at MGM Studios in Disney World and I think that influenced her a little bit. We watched two episodes together and both of us laughed at the different antics of those crazy muppets. She laughed at the silly abstract sketches where different muppets do silly things. I laughed at the hecklers and Fozzy Bear. We both laughed as Crazy Harry blew certain muppets straight to... well... straight off the stage.

In the midst of all this, I fed Aaron (10 ounces in 4 hours), put his pajamas on and eventually got him to bed. There is very little Aaron can do right now to interact with me... but I treasure the one thing he does well... smile. It's not just a small smile either... he busts out these big ole open mouth smiles that can light up a whole room. He flashed several of those to me tonight as I was changing him into his pajamas.

To be honest, I'm still in the midst of a personal discouragement. It's kind of a hang-over from the summer. There are just a few things in my life and a few decisions made by others that have brought me some disappointment and some disalluisionment. Some days are better than others. It hasn't been a deep discouragment by any means... it's just lingered around me for longer than I expected.

But as I look at my beautiful, fun-loving little girl who shares an appreciation for the same movies that I loved when I was a kid... and when I look at my fifteen pound baby boy with the million dollar smile... many of my concerns temporarily melt away. I thank God for these two gifts that He has given me. I know it won't last forever. I know these precious moments will be gone in the blink of an eye. But I will do my best to live life to the fullest with them while they are still young.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a couple more Muppet Show episodes to watch with my little girl...