Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father looks like Fay-ther.

In the last five minutes of our travel to Jesse and Bekah's place in Tokyo, after the long hours of waiting, plane riding, seat jumping, toddler tantruming, Amaya vomited all over her front, my front, our bag front, the seat front, the floor in front of us, and the aisle-way. I've never missed Jake so much in my life.
Although several people jumped up to give us tissues of different sizes, and luckily, a plastic grocery bag, I was the one cleaning the vomit and holding the vomit-stained child, and trying to keep calm. Usually when Amaya does this, I put Jake in charge of vomit clean up, and I deal with her, which is always less work.
One thing about being a father is that I expect him to deal with things I find very unpleasant. He's very good at that. I don't really feel bad about it, unless I'm vocalizing it like this, and I realize that other people may consider me selfish. On the good side, Jake will seem unselfish, which is what Father's day is all about, right?
Jake is lucky that he can take the father role very seriously, considering that he watches Amaya more than I do. He's conscious of how she's developing and what he can do to help her become a better person. I am grateful that he is consistent in his parenting because I am not. How much I pay attention to what rule she's breaking is directly correlated to how tired I am. Which is often.
Jake is also fun. I, am not.
He makes Amaya sized jokes, runs Amaya sized outings, and does Amaya sized talk. My itinerary is usually follow Amaya in the yard, watch shows, or read books. I rarely vary from that. I'm trying to emulate Jake more while I'm in Japan. Yesterday I took her for a walk and climbed over rocks, and felt a little better about myself.
When I married Jake, I had no idea that I was marrying such a good father. Lucky, aren't I?

2 comments:

jake said...

So I feel odd writing a coment on an entry about me but we haven't been able to hook up on the phone so this is what we'll do instead. I've been thinking a lot about all of the ways in which you are beter than me for the last couple of days (yes it does take days to list them all. it's a little like reciting pi). In light of my general self loathing your post struck me as a little obseard...but I appreciated it none the less. I may not seem like a person who's ego needs any inflating, but it's been a little low, so thank you.
-J.

Keiko said...

Hey, Mariko! I didn't know you are or were in Tokyo. If you are still in Tokyo, you might like Ghibli Museum. I heard there are "Neko Bus" (Cat Bus from Totoro) and all kind of stuff. Here is the website.
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/
Amaya might be too young though . . . Have fun in Japan! I haven't been back there for almost 8 years!!! I constantly adding a thing to do in Japan list to my long list. I know I'll have some culture shock when we go back.