Today is the day that I begin to chronicle the time I spend with my children. The reason that I am doing this blog is, during a 30 day period, I get to have about 72 hours with my two youngest children (and lately it has only been my daughter). In a month, that is not very much time at all to try and squeeze a months worth of love in, but we do.
Let me back up a bit and introduce you to myself and my little family. My name is Derek and I am a divorced father of three. Now my oldest, Derek II, is from a previous relationship. In 19 days, he will be 18 years old and the following day he will be graduating high school!! I am very proud of Dee!! In today's society, to have an African American male who has not been in any trouble with the legal system (and doesn't want to be) is a blessing. He is a scholar athlete and is on his way to college in the fall. Next in line is Henry. Now even though biologically he is not mine, I have loved him since he waddled his big head into my life almost 9 years ago. Henry and I have a great relationship and enjoy every moment we spend together. The dude is also a educational sponge!! He loves to read and learn new things any chance he gets. Last, but definitely not least is my Zuri!! She is the only girl and she loves every minute of it. Now Zuri is my little social butterfly. Any place she goes and anyone who meets her falls in love with her!! She is as sweet as sweet can be. She will sing and dance and draw and laugh and hug and the list goes on!! When she came into the world 7 years ago our lives changed for the better.
These 3 individuals are why I do everything that I do. They are the reason I enjoy being a father. There are so many guys who walk away from their children and never look back...how they can do that, I will never understand. Well, what I am hoping to achieve with this blog, is to give you all an opportunity to see how my children and I can squeeze so much love in such a short period of time. Even though I hate reality shows, one like this would be nice. There are some really great dads out here who go through a lot just to spend a little time with their children. Hopefully this will open some eyes to the ups and downs of being a part-time dad trying to give full-time love.
Today was a very busy day for me and the crew. It started this morning at 10am with Zuri going to Coachlight Skating Rink for skating lessons with her aunt C.C. and cousin Jelani. Then Dee had a track meet that started at 9 (even though he didn't run until after 12. Before any of that could happen though, Zuri had to clean her room and I had to make her breakfast. I'll tell you what, trying to get that girl out of the house on time is a huge challenge!! She wants to look around and play with her toes and she's walking slow and she wants to watch me cook and I'm like "HEY, GO GET YOUR BUTT IN THE SHOWER!!" Then 2 minutes late she is back again showing me this non existent scratch on her and so on and so on!! Eventually she did eat and get in the shower. We made to the skating rink about 10 minutes late, but we were right behind her aunt. From there I had to rush across town to Clayton High and meet my mom for Dee's track meet. Now when we went on Thursday there was no admission, but today its 5 bucks for adults and do you think either of us had any money? NO!! So we stood outside the gate and watched for about an hour. While we were standing there, Dee walked over and informed us that he wasn't going to be running for quite some time, which was cool because we needed to leave and go pick up Zuri from her aunt at a park near my house, so back across town we went. We stopped and got food, stopped by the house to get the other camera and headed to the park. Zuri and Jelani had a blast!! They played on the swings, the monkey bars and the slides. After about an hour of them playing, Zuri, my mom and I left C.C. and Jelani and headed back across town to finally see Dee run!! He metaled in 3 events, so he was pretty happy and we were proud. He piled on the bus with his team mates, I took my and Zuri home and I headed to Dee's school to pick him up and give him a ride home. Now that we are home, Zuri is outdoors playing and mom is going to babysit for me while I go and host a poetry show!! Now I'm off to hit the shower!!
