"We Aren't Cartoons"

I'm not the father I'd like to be. I remember when I was a kid thinking that my dad didn't spend enough time with me. He'd promise to do things with me and then he'd forget and those things would never happen. Now I understand a little more. It's difficult when there are so many things I want to accomplish to remember that all I really wanted was to be a father. Also, I tend to bury myself in the computer. Yesterday I was looking at this blog and the pictures that I posted and my five-year-old came down and asked me why I always go to this site. I said I like to look at the pictures of him and his brothers and sister. He said, "Well, why don't you come and look at us. We aren't cartoons, we're real." Then he asked me to read the book we got from the library, The Bungalo Boys: Champions of Ice Hockey I told him we'd read it after dinner, which I was cooking right then. We never did read it. Last night, in the middle of the night, I felt bad about that. So this morning, I got up a little earlier than usual, knowing he would be up, and we read the book together. Of all the things going on in my life, all the goals and aspirations, none are more important than my kids. They're so amazingly smart, and, as this incident reveals, they have a lot to teach me.