{"id":51362,"date":"2026-07-15T06:17:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51362"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:19:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:19:39","slug":"dad-brog-170-year-five-of-forever-the-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51362","title":{"rendered":"Dad Brog (#170): year five of forever, the sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Today, my younger child turns five years old, and as is often the case, I wonder just where in the world has the time gone.\u00a0 I can still remember the time before children where the biggest stresses and anxieties were planning a wedding after dealing with the increased responsibilities at work after a promotion after moving into a new house.<\/span><\/p>\n

As cliched as it sounds, the last few years of parenthood have been a blur, probably amplified by the fact that I had two kids in short succession, and as much as it sounds like everything all one melded memory, I do remember most all of the individual details of everything that has transpired.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny because by default I usually just refer to my kids as a year apart, but there\u2019s always this odd six month gap in between when my oldest has her birthday and the youngest is numerically two years apart, that always feels like an eternity where I have to mentally do the math that such is the case, and then #2\u2019s birthday hits and it\u2019s all like where has the time goneeee?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, my youngest is now five, and back to being a year apart from her sister. \u00a0My beautiful, precious younger child, whom mythical wife likes to refer to being, the spicy child, her clone, her mini-me, in the sense that she tends to have adopted more of her personality traits contrary to my own, and quite the opposite of her sister whom many say is more like me, personality-wise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes and no, because #2 does fiercely enjoy her independence, which isn\u2019t to say that her mother, mythical wife does not, but there are aspects of her behavior when I see her meandering off on her own that I can see that reminds me of, myself.\u00a0 As a second child myself, whether she or anyone wants to admit to it, there are always going to be some things that I really can relate to, that those who are not, won\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like for example, mythical wife often accuses me of being harder on #2 than I am on #1, and I don\u2019t entirely disagree, but it\u2019s mostly because she\u2019s more defiant and independent which often comes off as being obtuse and uncompliant to reasonable asks, and I apparently do not deal well with when my kids aren\u2019t listening to me, especially when I\u2019m asking for simple things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therein lies one of the constant struggles of parenting multiple kids, is constantly reminding one\u2019s self that no two kids are ever going to be alike, and to be capable of being fluid enough to switch gears depending on the configuration of present children.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of the very-white, all-rook-same-ing statement I occasionally get, asking if my kids are twins, in my eyes, my girls couldn\u2019t possibly be any more different from one another.\u00a0 They look nothing alike to me, especially since one has really curly hair while the other does not, and their personalities are also very different.<\/span><\/p>\n

But regardless if my youngest occasionally gives me a harder time than my older child, I don\u2019t love her any less than with every fiber of my being. \u00a0It\u2019s the fact that she\u2019s more like her mother in some personality facets that makes her perfect, and much like her mom, she might drive me crazy at times, but when the day is over and things settle down and get quiet, all I feel for her is love and the want for nothing but to be the best dad I can for her, even if I am wildly imperfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

So from one second child to another, my spicy daughter, the wish for her to have the happiest of birthdays, and the want for her to know that she is loved, treasured, and most definitely cared for, and as long as I draw breath, I want little else other than for her to be happy and live a good life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love you, forever.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, my younger child turns five years old, and as is often the case, I wonder just where in the world has the time gone.\u00a0 I can still remember the time before children where the biggest stresses and anxieties were planning a wedding after dealing with the increased responsibilities at work after a promotion after … Continue reading Dad Brog (#170): year five of forever, the sequel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,193,192,83,89,99,190],"class_list":["post-51362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-comparison","tag-dad","tag-kids","tag-observations","tag-racism","tag-reminiscing","tag-white-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51365,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51362\/revisions\/51365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}