Why Dad Gets Grumpy? Hypothesis, etc.

Now, I'm not a grumpy person, but I do get grumpy sometimes. The reason I usually give my wife is, "I don't know." But that answer was always very unsatisfying to both of us. She wanted to know, and I'm sure my kids did too, but I usually just wanted to be alone and grumpy for a while, until now. So, I thought about it, and we talked about it. It turns out that talking about things helps. Eventually I came to the conclusion that a man needs a sense of accomplishment, meaning he is challenged at work and providing for his family at home. I don't feel that sense right now, mainly because I have not yet provided my family with a place to live when move at the close of the term. We are still looking. We feel unsettled. Work is also slowing down a little now that all of the oral arguments, except for one interlocutory appeal, are through and almost all of the opinions are out. We're in limbo, which has never been a happy place for us, and it has never been helpful to my need to feel as though I am accomplishing something. It's a little refreshing to pin-point this mood swing I get. Hopefully it will lengthen the fuse during those otherwise grumpy moments.

I couldn't close the post without mentioning a few other things:

First, few things make a dad feel cooler than when his four-year old son states, "Dad, I have a hypothesis." In this case, what he really had was a question, but I thought it was amazing either way.

Second, this same son figured out a why to get a toy back from his baby sister, who continually takes the other kids' toys and has enough attitude to fight them off when they try to get it back. When this happened in the car today, he gave her a snack for each hand, causing her to drop the toy. Brilliant!

Third, while I was a grump this evening, our little girl asked her mom to read her a book. They wanted to ask me if they could read together without any other kids--since there are three kids, two of whom are girls, our little girl never gets to read with one of us alone--but when they wanted to bring up the idea to me I was busy with something and was too grumpy to listen to the idea. I still feel bad.

Fourth, my son remembers everything. We read a knight book. We only have one. But he remembered three other books from our very large collection of children's books that had one or two pictures of knights in the whole book. Each books has tons of pictures. It is still a mystery where he got that kind of memory.

Fifth, my little girl put me in my place today. Her big brother was tired of walking around Mt. Vernon and took over the stroller. Our little girl wanted to push the stroller with him in it on a dirt path. Impossible. Or so I thought. I continued helping her push the stroller despite her protests, but it was no use. She was persistent. So I tried to teach her a lesson by letting her push the stroller. At first she couldn't budge it. But she wasn't about to let Daddy win this one. This little determined two-year old somehow did it. She pushed it for about 10 feet, just long enough to put me in my place.

Sixth, I felt a strange sense of accomplishment when, after sticking out my tongue several times and saying, "tongue," my baby girl stuck her tongue out in response. The little things seem to have the greatest impact on me. The things my kids do always make me feel so fulfilled and happy, especially when the same baby girl woke up from her nap and, using her new skill of sticking out her tongue, licked her Mommy's cheek like a little puppy.