Keeping Malachi

This past weekend my wife and daughter went to visit family in South Carolina, leaving me alone with my one-year-old son, Malachi. It's significant because this was my first time watching him by myself  over an extended amount of time.

In the past, I have watched my daughter, Grace, who is 4, with my son for an entire weekend, and I have even traveled with both of them by myself. But to keep my son... with no other sibling as a playmate (distraction)... for a weekend -  well that was a task in itself.

When I first pitched the idea to my wife I said it would be a breeze. I joked to her, I'm gonna 'learn em' about what a man does this weekend.  But nothing could be further from the truth.

My brave proclamation was shot down almost immediately, when Malachi refused to eat the specially prepared breakfast I cooked for him. He began pointing away from his food and at the chocolate muffin bread my wife baked prior to her South Carolina sojourn.

Malachi eat your biscuit and eat your eggs. He began shoeing my hand away after each attempt. Then the tears came. After the tenth attempt and tears from both of us, I caved in and gave him the chocolate bread.

Since it was raining we were mostly confined to the house for the whole weekend. Malachi began a 5-room reign of terror, where he began emptying out the contents of the desks and cabinets in various rooms.

No, that belongs to your sister I yelled! No, that's your mother's crochet yarn, you can't play with that! Not the iPad! That's expensive!

After he calmed down a bit, then it was time for a nap. Malachi did not want to sleep. I put him in his crib thinking he would cry himself into his mid afternoon slumber, but instead as soon as I left the room I heard a huge thud! Malachi had jumped out of the crib and was on the run.

I gave in and let him stay up. We listened to music; played in the rain; played ball; caught colds; and watched wrestling on the WWE network! In that time I think he bumped his head 5 times, fell about three, and kneed me in the groin six times.  He even learned how to cut the vacuum on.  Oh and he kept refusing to eat his food!

Suffice to say when his mother and sister came home I was extremely happy. And I discovered it wasn't me 'learning' Malachi how to be a man, but the other way around. Yup. I'm a better man because of this weekend. Thanks Malachi.