As you know from my previous blogs about being a dad of two boys while also being blind, life can be chaotic and most of the times I am relying on other  senses or my best guess to determine the current situation.  At  the current time, our oldest Kennan is 3.5 years old and is definitely starting to be defiant.  He is responding with sass and while I can’t see his facial expressions and gestures, I am very adept at knowing  what people are doing without seeing it.    He probably thinks he can get awaywikth smirks and eye rolling but that’s not going to work on this daddy.  Unfortunately, his actions have led to increased time in his room.  On the other hand, our youngest Tut has exploded with words and is saying everything.  Tut comes off as the sweeter and innocent one of the two but in reality he is sneaky and devious. 

Because Tut is beginning to understand the world better and Kennan thrives on getting his younger brother to follow along with him, they now have begun to team up.  This means that Blind Baby Daddy’s head must be even more on a swivel.  It also means that our yard has become a construction zone  fencing off all danger  zones.  We have a medium sized coy pond in our back yard and a stream that runs the length of our side yard.  With the kids being quick and with the limited range of sight of dad, containment is the best strategy.  I know I can’t stop them so I only hope to contain them!

I want my kids to learn the importance and value of teamwork but not necessary in the mode that they are currently implementing it. For example, as we leave the front door to you outside, the devious Tut likes to show off his get away speed.  If he gets a chance he will sprint away from me often running around the side of the house to a small nook to hide.  Kennan has noticed that this gets daddy a little irritated  and so he says, “I’m gonna run and hide from daddy too!”  He proceeds to run to the back deck hoping that I will chase him.  Once the two run aways have been wrangled in, we get a push car for each boy and we head out on a walk.  One time Kennan rammed his push car into Tut’s car.  He of course thought that was funny so Tut proceeded to ram his car into Kennan’s.  This back and forth bumper car game continued until Blind Baby Daddy stepped in  I had no trouble knowing what they were up to as I heard the back and forth bashing followed by little toddler chuckles.  

Inside the house, we have wood floors and that means more noise.  In the evening just before its time for the bedtime routine, the “crazy maniac” switch turns on in their heads and they proceed to “dump and run” all of the toy bins and choose the loudest car and thrash and bash in the hallways.  Kennan typically begins this wild rodeo and then we have two as Tut joins in.  If their not running with loud cars through the halls than they are taking pillows off the couch and in WWF style tackling each other.  As a parent , you hate to tell them “no” all the time especially because they are just having fun but sometimes it gets overstimulating and leads to a disaster getting them to sleep.  

From the above commentary, you are probably thinking that our home life with the boys is a real mess.  This is only 80% true as 20% of the time the two boys show their understanding that “Sharing is caring,” and that cleaning up is essential to restoring order.  The hope is that in the near future, the teamwork skills that they have developed will be put towards more productive outcomes.  I am not giving any guarantees on when this transition will take place but for Blind Baby Daddy’s sake, the sooner the better!