Things I found exciting before becoming a dad are somewhat different to things I now find exciting. Here are some really not-very-exciting things that have been getting me excited in recent weeks:
1. Hearing on Nick Jr that there will be a new series of Paw Patrol starting in October! A NEW SERIES!!! How thrilling is that?! Pre-parenthood I can guarantee I wouldn’t have given two shits. I wouldn’t have even given one shit. ZERO SHITS would have been given! But now I’m genuinely excited.
2. Similarly the change in animation style of the new series of Shimmer & Shine. I’m not sure if I completely like it – but it’s exciting! And the new baddie character. And the new songs! Oh my it’s exciting and no mistake.
3. Joshua telling us that he has done a poo. After 2 years of denying the fact, like a pie addict saying he hasn’t eaten any despite crumbling pastry cascading down his over-stretched T-Shirt, it’s exciting that he now at least admits to it. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that 3 years ago I would not have garnered any excitement by someone telling me they’d laid a log.
4. Completing Joshua’s Paw Patrol puzzles. They only have about 10 pieces but I still get excited when I complete one. Some days it’s the only thing I achieve.
5. Building a tall tower with Joshua’s Mega Bloks. Strangely satisfying, although generally short-lived as he will tend to come over to destroy it within seconds. I might ask for my own set for Christmas so I can build 50cm towers in peace…
6. Buying toddler clothes. Three years ago we used to enjoy buying things for ourselves. Our shopping trips now consist of arbitrarily walking around clothes shops looking at stuff for us, but then leaving with things for him. If I manage to buy a 3 pack of boxers for myself it would now class as a successful shop.
7. Successfully leaving a park without a meltdown occurring. ‘Shall we go home now for dinner’, ‘No Daddy. Joshy like it dinner’ (he still says ‘like it’ when he doesn’t like something!!) ‘Shall we look at the horses?’, ‘No Daddy, Joshy like it horses’. Balls. But once in a blue moon he will decide we can leave the park in relative peace – and those are exciting times.
8. When Joshua kicks his legs at baby swimming. Little one used to treat swimming lessons as a spa session – laying back and floating around. But some days now he musters the energy to actually do a few kicks! That’s pretty exciting.
9. Making it through a whole chocolate dessert without the little one noticing. This usually requires extreme stealth but when it happens it’s a glorious moment.
10. Joshua waking up after 630am. Rarer than a donkey driving a Ford Capri, but on the 1 or 2 occasions this has ever happened it felt a little bit like waking up from a nap on the beach, under a palm tree, with a cocktail waiting for me. Three years ago if I was woken up before 8am on a non-work day I would have been spitting feathers. These days 7am would be positively a lie in and cause for great excitement.
So there we have it. I appear to get excited about a lot more little things these days – those small little victories or pleasures that would have felt pretty meaningless pre-Joshua in the grand scheme of things have now become the things that get me through the days with (some) sanity intact!
