Memoirs of a Babysitting Father:Entry 2

So this is the second day after Funsho has begun his vacation. Knowing the challenge before me, I was somehow just hoping today would go smoothly, just like yesterday. However deep inside I knew it wouldn’t just be like yesterday.Let me give you some background, ok? I had worked late into the night and went to bed sometime after 2 am in the morning. What else could I do? Was I to leave my business hanging because I didn’t have any babysitter yet? Definitely not! So I tried to do some work before I crashed for the night.I wasn’t as lucky as I was yesterday as my sister-in-law didn’t do me the favour of bathing my son. When I eventually got up from the bed, to listen to a 6.30am programme on the TV, I was groggily as I walked into the sitting room. As soon as I finshed watching the programme...

Read More

Memoirs of a Babysitting Father:Entry 1

We started off the day but not like our normal days. It had been a very physical weekend for me and I was short on sleep, so I was looking forward to making up for all the lost sleep. I was wondering how I was going to make that happen since my very energetic two year-old Funsho was home on vacation, having ended the school term.My sister-in-law had bathed for him before she left for work, so that made things a little bit easier for me. That took one domestic task out of the way. I was really looking for ideas on how to keep the little laddie busy. How I was going to do it, I didn’t know but I knew I had to just pull it off somehow, at least until 5 o’clock when the shift would change.To make things a little bit more complicated, my little son, not understanding the concept of school terms...

Read More

NOT BY POWER...ALONE

There's no need to say its been such a long time since I posted anything here so just read on ok? My handsome son has been a source of fascination for me in the past few weeks. He's entered the toddler tantrum stage where he sees what adults do and wants to do the same stuff with the ease and perfection adults do but of course can't do. Because he can't get the same results as the adults around do, he gets angry and frustrated and just begins to hit the person nearest him or just fling the item in his hand away.What is most interesting is that when anyone wants to help, he vehemently refuses. One day he was throwing one of those tantrums again. I watched as he kept trying to feed himself without spilling the rice he wanted to eat. You could see the frustration he experienced as he kept spilling...

Read More

OPEN UP!

WOW! Its been (thinking...how many months now?) more than four months now since I last put anything on this web space and... Sorry about that. I was chasing a spider of my space. Apparently they had taken over the whole place since I haven't been this road in a couple of months. Well, I'll just have to handle both the spring cleaning and blogging at the same time. So straight to business.A lot of water has gone under the bridge (or should I say a lot of traffic has passed this expressway?) Whatever! There's a lot that has happened in the past few months. I'll be filling you in as the days go by. However what's primary on my mind now is simple.I was looking for a Don Moen CD recently, the I Will Sing album in particular, and I passed by this music stand somewhere in Iyana Ipaja, where I stay,...

Read More

THE JUMP

Here I am lost in the myriad of people in this valley - this valley of decision.I see frustration and lack of content on all their faces. A desire to be free, a desire for abundance, a desire to be in control but it appears there is no way of escape . Or is it that the demands of the freedom are too high? At the top of one of the hills around I see a sign "This way to freedom" it reads. My heart leaps for joy at the thought of a way out of this choking valley. I wonder how people have been able to feel comfortable in such uncomfortable surroundings. Even though there was a promise of freedom. I advance towards the sign and I feel a hand tug...

Read More

The picture on the left is of my son on my knees, Olu-funsho (I love to call him Funshito). Whenever I return from work, and I'm welcomed by his toothless smile, my heart leaps for joy and every hard time I've had in the day just evaporates. Just today I listened to something a respected worship leader said. He said, and let me try and paraphrase, Help us Lord not to cringe away when You raise Your hand thinking You want to hit us but help us see that You want to put Your arms around us. When I heard this, my heart leaped in me because I have been meditating on the fatherhood of God.We are so quick to assume God is the strict disciplinarian who...

Read More

NEGLIGENT DRIVER

August 3rd, 2007 began as it usually does for my family- wake up, bathe the baby, take our baths, get dressed and leave for church. The difference this time was that we would be going to church in our car, with me on the wheels (I'm grinning from ear to ear). We got ready and soon we were in the car, my (beautiful) wife Mojisola, our chubby baby boy, Olu-funsho and I. We had to buy fuel and pick a friend, who happens to be my instructor and a member of our church along the way, so the real test of my driving had not really started. When we had picked him and bought fuel, we started the next phase of our journey to Gbagada, where our church is located. Being very new at driving on the roads of Nigeria, I had to drive slowly and carefully so while other drivers are speeding off, I'm just crawling...

Read More