Tag: trans dad

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

We promised K that he could get a kitten once we bought our own house. 

Now, two months after we’ve settled in – he’s finally gotten his wish. 
She’s a ginger kitten, with still-blue-eyes, and an absolute joy. Our labrador isn’t too terrified of her (she was petrified of our old cat, who sadly died from old age). They even boop noses and have started curling up together. 

K is smitten. It’s amazing what having a baby animal in the house does for morale. So much smush. 

Also we are driving a 4 hour round trip to go to a Pride event nearish to us this weekend. I’m trepidatious, but I think being around community might do me some good. We’ll see. It’s not like I’ll be “out” anyhow. 

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

If your message/question hasn’t been answered – please try again. 

Despite my best attempts, I continuously have at least 4 messages regardless of empty inboxes. 

IDK why, but I can’t see them!

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Stuff is super hectic in terms of parenting and work.
I’m away for work until next week, and miss my family lots.

K has been seeing an OT for his inability to perform certain physical activities as well as his weak muscle tone despite him being active. We’ve known he was a little “off” in this department for years, and have taken him to countless different GP’s to try and get some answers, to no avail.

Anyway, turns out K has a slight sensory processing disorder. Now we have a framework to put these behaviours/challenges within we can start making the little dudes life a bit easier.

He’s fine, just not as able to be physical as some other kids his age. But time spent with the OT and physio is going to do him wonders, and he likes the Drs themselves so thats a bonus.

Regardless, that’s why I’ve been AWOL recently.

Hope everyone out there is doing well.

I respond to asks more frequently, so get st me that way if you’d like.

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

So, our lives have been thrown into chaos lately due to having to unexpectedly vacate the rental we are living in.

Alongside this, we had to put our beloved family cat down two weeks ago and little K hasn’t been taking it very well. They slept together every night, and K was smitten with our cat.

We’re surviving though. Wife got a new job with more hours, and we’ve secured the new rental which is not only cheaper rent, but far more suited to our family than the current rental anyhow.

I’d say with the amount I’m working, alongside my Wife landing that new job – we’ll have enough saved for a deposit on our own little house in 12 months time.

Life is hectic, but our love surpasses anything.

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

Whoa, things have been hectic here as of late.

There’s not long to go until Christmas, and we have only one weekend at home before we host Christmas for Wife’s parents and her family.

Needless to say, between work and preparing the house/land, I’ve not had much time to sit down and write. For that I do apologize.

All is well in our little family, though. K is so grown up now it’s beyond a joke – I feel like his maturity has soared in the last six months. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what has changed, but all I know is I feel very blessed to have such an amazing little man as my Son.

K has had a big fear of swimming and putting his head under water in general since a rather horrific swimming lesson experience in Kindergarten where the teacher literally pushed his head under the water, and threatened him with a lack of Santa that year if he didn’t do it himself. Needless to say we fired that swimming coach, and it’s been a work in progress ever since.

We finally convinved him to give lessons another shot – I mean we live in Australia surrounded by gorgeous bodies of water, rivers and oceans. It’s just not safe if you don’t know how to swim around here.

So last week K had his first one-on-one, swimming lesson since Kindergarten. We didn’t tell the teacher how phobic he was, deliberately. She knew he was an absolute begginer but had no idea just how terrified he was at the thought of water over his head.

Within 10 minutes, K had jumped into the pool, had the water over his head and was doggie paddling across the width of the pool by himself.

This progressed to doing a series of Pin Drops – jumping feet first into the water, arms by your side and springing off the bottom. I was in awe. The instructor is absolutely brilliant, K was having the time of his life and although you could see his fear a little bit – he also knew he was very safe.

Proud is an understatement.

He says he can’t wait to go back this week, and can’t wait to finally go along with his school friends for group swimming next year.

SIde note: I am aware I need to review the Freetom Prosthesis! Had a little bit of a stuff around and I ordered it later than I anticipated by a few weeks, so I’m still waiting on it. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas and I promise to give a good review. I’m taking three whole weeks of around Christmas/New Year – I’ll have the time. Thanks for your patience.

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

Today I had to take K to a class I had due to circumstances beyond my control. He was ridiculously excited to attend a lecture, enthralled with the magnitude of the library and kept saying “I can’t wait to go to University!”.

In short, it was probably the cutest thing ever.

Hormones.

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

Things have been turbulent recently for our family due to many things changing in our lives, so I’ve not been as attentive with this blog and for that I apologize. I am also mobile blogging so I apologize in advance for any errors.

K is going through a lot of changes recently alongside the ones we face together as a family, mainly due to a disrupted schedule and more recently – hormones. He’s been having a bit of difficulty controlling his temper, trouble with friends at school having disagreements and generally being a lot more obstinate at home. I’ve heard lines such as “you can’t tame me!” which while are endearing coming from the mouth of an eight year old are still somewhat out of character.

My Wife and I continue to create an environment which clear lines of communication can be had and despite his recent troubles he is being an absolute champ with the new changes that are taking place.

I’m really proud of him, and remind him of that regularly.

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

Organized Sport.

K is an indoorsy type of kid, and for the most part we’ve allowed that to happen because it’s simply his personality. He had a brief stint in hockey which we encouraged with gusto but it just wasn’t his thing. He takes regular Drum lessons, does Chior with school and has done dancing in the past, though.

He recently came home from school very excited at the prospect of playing basketball for a local team comprised of his school mates. We jumped at this and paid the fairly expensive registration, team and uniform fees because hey – it’s an organized sport and he’s taken an interest.

I’m excited about going to his first training session this Thursday.

~ transmandad ~ Leave a comment

Third Grade.

So K has gone into third grade in the last two weeks. He absolutely adores school and learning, so he’s been looking forward to going back to school all holidays.

After his first day, he came home a little overwhelmed. Not with grade three itself – but because being in third grade meant he began thinking about his schooling future. He was freaking out about High School and the prospect of different classes etc. After I went through some of his concerns (which are all valid) I explained that he doesn’t need to look toward his future with concern, but live as best he can right now to prepare for his future the best he can.

We spoke about Math, and how he really loves that subject. We spoke about how he wants to become a video game designer, and how even at eight he’s taking steps to make that become a reality when he’s older.

It really takes me aback when I think about the conversations I have with my eight year old Son. I often wonder if other parents have to have these conversations so “early” like my Wife and I do.

I think it’s got something to do with the fact that he’s an only child. I was too for the most part as my siblings are much, much older than myself and had moved out/moved states when I was around K’s age. As a result I grew up being spoken to like an adult, and while we do that with K to a certain degree – we still make sure that we allow space for him to enjoy his childhood.

Anyhow, I haven’t written here in a while but still log in each day to see what’s been happening. If you have any questions or topics you’d like to see covered, shoot me a message/ask.

– TMD.