Friday, June 22, 2007

Hello everyone

It's been a while since I've taken a turn updating. True, my wife is the sole founder of this blog, but I still like to say hi to everyone who reads it. I get asked often how Quinn is doing from random people who know of him. Well he has put on some weight.



No not that much weight, and his eyes didn't turn brown. Quinn has his mothers awesome eye color. I was at my mothers house last week and saw some old photos of me in 1977. I was about half Quinn's age. I thought there were some noteworthy similarities. If Quinn had brown eyes and were a little fatso, that's what he'd look like. I thought that at Quinn's current age, I would be hard pressed to find behaviors that remind me of myself. But when I see him do things I know I use to do back in the day, I like to watch him. It's like seeing the world through the eyes of a child all over again.


When he's calm for example, sometimes I'll ask Steph to let him be for a while. I'll even leave the room so he thinks he's alone. I know I spent a lot of time as a child gazing off at nothing in particular, with my brain in test pattern mode. It's self soothing at it's finest. Anytime my dad caught me doing this he would ask what I'm thinking. "Nothin" was the best I could come up with until I was into my teens. A few decades later and now I ask Quinn what he's thinking. But I know. And what's more, I can tell he doesn't care for the interruption because sometimes he doesn't even break his gaze. The thing to realize is that he's not thinking, he's feeling. Whatever mood strikes him and puts him at ease. And after a bit, if no one bothers him, he dozes off in his own peaceful world.


Makes me a little sad to think of all the innocence he will lose in growing up, but seeing him mature is a fascination on it's own. Doesn't matter how old and wise you are, you can't anticipate everything. And you often wonder and search for how many of life's lessons can be learned easier than the way you learned them. You think you're paying attention to the traits you want to rub off on your kid, but their perception has you guessing a lot. They'll pick up on whatever they choose. Regardless of any uncertainties, I love being a dad.
Steph still loves to throw the hypotheticals at me about raising Quinn. It's making me a skillful debater. She never seems to run out of material.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW PETIT PRINCE YOU ARE LOOKING SO AWESOME. NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT TRAITES HE WILL HAVE WHEN HE GROW S OLDER, I USED TO THINK ABOUT THAT BUT FINALLY RELIZED GOD MAKES THESE BEAUTIFUL KIDS IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND AND EVEN WHEN THEY GROW OLDER THEY CAN STILL BE WHAT US AS PARENTS TAUGHT THEM. LOVE AND BEING HONEST IS SO IMPORTANT. ALL OF THE BENOIST S WISH YOU A WONDERFUL SUMMER VACATION . GROS BISOUS FROM FRANCE . KATHLEEN,MARIE AIMEE, GABRIELLE, JOMI AND CYRIL

GoQuinnGo! said...

Dan, that is too funny that you mentioned the "test pattern" gaze. Joe and I totally saw Quinn do that the last time we saw him. I even said to Joe, "That reminds me of the test pattern thing you said Dan used to do."

Like father, like son.

Kristin