Amelia wanted to do it herself. I wasn’t ready to let her.<\/p>\n
Key ingredients – a scooter, a helmet, and a rapidly beating heart. Mixed together, it’s a cocktail from hell. And I don’t drink to begin with.<\/p>\n
So there we were, heading to see the Sloan’s new house. Amelia, wanting to copy everything that Lindy was up to, was on her scooter. I couldn’t let go. She kept asking me to let her do it herself. After some tussling, I let her go to see what would happen… and she road her scooter.<\/p>\n
She went downhill expertly. She was able to adjust direction (not very well, but she did it). And she knew the speed she was comfortable with, and stopped the scooter if it went too fast. It’s as if she grew 10 years in front of my eyes.<\/p>\n
I know exactly what’s going on, but I don’t know how to fix.<\/p>\n
You see, Amelia and Luka are at school (Luka starts Monday), or with Genevieve, for a huge chunk of their week. Micky and I get to be with them for a few hours every morning, and a few hours in the evening. So when it comes to the weekend, and I get to be in full on parent mode, it’s hard for me to realize that they’re not frozen in time.<\/p>\n
That where I left them last weekend isn’t where they are today.<\/p>\n
It’s somehow conceivable that they would have learned, grown, become more capable, or simply just changed.<\/p>\n
It’s a really hard reality check, and it’s proven impossible to pull off.<\/p>\n
And so, I’m pro-actively making sure I back off. Letting them run around the playground themselves. Giving them the marker, and watching the chaos ensue. Letting the scooter run down hill. It’s so, so hard, but the smile on their faces is also so, so gratifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amelia wanted to do it herself. I wasn’t ready to let her. Key ingredients – a scooter, a helmet, and a rapidly beating heart. Mixed together, it’s a cocktail from hell. And I don’t drink to begin with. So there we were, heading to see the Sloan’s new house. Amelia, wanting to copy everything that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[64,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-bU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1211,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/06\/01\/happy-birthday-amelia\/","url_meta":{"origin":738,"position":0},"title":"Happy birthday Amelia!","date":"June 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Darling Amelia. You turned three years old today. What a year we shared together. You started school last August, and you're getting ready to \"graduate\". We've moved house, travelled across the US, met elephant seals, learned to communicate, did potty training, and so much more. You hate to sleep. Especially\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1168,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/05\/06\/the-day-after\/","url_meta":{"origin":738,"position":1},"title":"The day after","date":"May 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Your browser does not support the video tag And she's up and on her scooter. What a star! Today, I told Luka on my way to work, \"Luka, I love you\" and he says back to me, \"Thanks\". :-) They're just goofballs. Long may it last.","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1230,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/07\/17\/learning-to-let-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":738,"position":2},"title":"Learning to let go","date":"July 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I always tell people that I have 3 babies: Amelia Luka OpenTok And all three have had an amazing year. They've gone from needing epic hand holding to having a village around them that makes them better than I could alone. At work, the hardest part has been learning to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Becoming a PM"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":977,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/03\/04\/this-just-happened\/","url_meta":{"origin":738,"position":3},"title":"This just happened","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We were in the locker room getting dressed after swimming tonight. Amelia & Luka noticed that another baby from their class was using the hair dryer. They asked to use it, and then this conversation happened: Amelia: Daddy, you do it first Me: Amelia, I don't have any hair to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1033,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/03\/22\/amelia-goes-safari-style\/","url_meta":{"origin":738,"position":4},"title":"Amelia goes safari-style","date":"March 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We're at the Boat Playground today (45th & Lincoln) hanging out with Mat, Mary, and Baby Reece. It's quite fun to just jaunt around the Sunset with folks. We can pretty much walk anywhere (as long as it's a San Francisco crowd) because nothing is more than a mile away.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":711,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2013\/12\/08\/iso-recipe-for-freezing-kids-in-this-moment\/","url_meta":{"origin":738,"position":5},"title":"ISO: Recipe for freezing kids in this moment","date":"December 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What a wonderful week of Amelia and Luka. We spent last week in North Carolina visiting family and friends. It's amazing to me how much they trust Doruk even though they barely see him. Maybe a month ago I would have said barely know him, but after this past week\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}