Lucky now

Round 15: April 2024

Tom Patterson is 31, Dixie is 30 and Liana is 8 months.

(Alexander and Bobbie are 73.)

Narrated by Tom Patterson.

I'm a stay-at-home dad now. Dixie stayed home with Liana for the first 6 months and now it's my turn. We'll most likely put her in day care after her birthday but for now it's been really great spending so much time with her and getting to know her.

I've never been very good with the household chores but I've learned to keep the house somewhat tidy and also cook simple meals. It's nice to see Dixie smile when she comes home from work and notices that the dinner is ready.

Liana stays happy in her bouncy chair just long enough for us to eat and talk about our day. Liana's a very happy baby anyway, she hardly cries unless she's hungry or needs a diaper change.

Dixie says that she loves her work but she also misses Liana the whole time so she plays with her in the evenings to make up for the time she's been away.

We have a nursery but we often let Liana fall asleep on our bed and then carry her to her crib. Most of the nights I fall asleep before Liana does though.

We get a lot of help from Bobbie and Alexander. They adore all their grandchildren and are always happy to babysit.

They would probably stay over night if we asked them to but for now we've been happy just to have a couple of hours for ourselves. We love our daughter but sometimes it's nice to do grown-up stuff without her.

Most times we're too lazy to get out of the house anyway so we just cuddle on the sofa and watch a movie or something. It's nice to just be together and relax a little bit.

Bobbie and Alexander have eight grandchildren now after Charlie and Brooke had a daughter just a couple of weeks ago. Alexander is such a doting grandpa and he never hides the fact that he wishes for many more grandkids.

Bobbie has been talking about retirement for the past five years but she's still working full time. Now she's saying that she'll retire when she turns 75 - which is in two years - but I doubt she'd know what to do with her time if she quit her job.

She could come live with us and cook all our meals if you ask me! Dixie and I can both whip up an edible meal but we don't come even close to what Bobbie always serves us. The family meals are always interesting. We often talk about our work stuff but lately Alexander has been pestering us about having another child. We both want more children but Liana's not even 1 year old yet so we're definitely not in a hurry. Bobbie tells him not to interfere with his children's lives but he says he's not interfering, he's just saying.

We won't let anyone pressure us into something we're not ready for. Dixie and I have talked it through and we'd welcome a new baby any time but we're not actively trying yet. I was a lonely child growing up without siblings and I don't want that for Liana so baby #2 is definitely in our near future.

For now we're just really enjoying watching Liana grow. It's like there's something new to her every day.

Notes:

• Title reference: Lucky now by Ryan Adams.
• I'm loving these poseboxes that I downloaded the other day. Dixie's pose in the family portrait and the photo of the whole family lying on the bed is from those boxes. Unfortunately babies do not want to co-operate so Liana's not looking into the camera in the family portrait but I got impatient and didn't want to spend 30 minutes trying to get the perfect picture.
• Dixie's ideal family size is 4 and Tom's is 3 so baby #2 is hopefully going to happen at some point.
• I need to write a new rules and regulations post at some point but basically the maternity/parental leave thing goes like this: a mother can start the maternity leave 1 month before the due date. Maternity leave lasts 3 months and paternity leave (for the dad) is up to 3 weeks after childbirth. Parental leave when the baby is 3 months old lasts about 6 months until the baby is 9 months old. The parental leave is for either of the parents so it is up to the couple to decide who stays home with the child. This is roughly the system in Finland so I'm going with it from now on in Wellington. There's also a child home care allowance for a parent who stays home to take care of a child aged 9 months to 3 years but I still need to tweak it a little.