Oh what a wonderful time in my life this was, my daughter Rose was progressing wonderful and I was enjoying being a stay at home dad. I was progressing from being able to sleep only 1 hour a day to being a able to get a few hours in each day which worked perfect for someone with a young child.
My girlfriend Jade* was loving being back at work, she couldn't handle being stuck at home all day and our relationship suffered due to her not working. She was only putting in short hours and I could tell she was worried about me being in charge of Rose for such a long stretch of time each day but god I loved.
We had our little routine going we would wake up and both enjoy some baby custard, that stuff is like crack. You can't just have one spoonful to get your child to eat it you need to down a jar or two of it it as well and if Rose was lucky she would get a spoonful. We would follow this by a walk down to the park lands near me to get some fresh air. Id spent nearly a year of my life either in Rehab or not allowed outside so my anxiety levels were huge but god did Rose love it.
She smiled at all the girls working at the shops and would get us free stuff and she was always putting on the cute face when the single mums would sit there and have a chat to me, Rose was also a **** blocker though if she felt I was flirting a little to much she would scream and make sure that daddy was looking at her.
Daddy had to look at her.
Daddy had to give her every bit of attention.
Daddy was her world.
Daddy's world was Rose and everything he did was with her in mind.
And oh was Mummy starting to get jealous. No longer did Rose want only her Mum, she wanted Dad to put her down to bed and she wanted Dad to feed her. She wanted to only play with dad and dad had to carry her everywhere never mum. It was a hard time for Jade and she couldn't understand why it was becoming so hard to clinge to her child until she realized that she needed to add some fun into there relationship as well and started taking her out more.
I felt it was time to really show my girl I loved her. I grabbed together every cent I had and asked my father to help me get a home loan for the other 50% of the house and he agreed on the condition that if I left Jade and Rose or if I ever became addicted again they get to keep the house and I say good bye to the money I put in.
I felt it was time to take her out for the day down to Loch Ard Gorge...
It was a beautiful night and I was looking for something dumb to do so I said hey baby i think I want to marry you? Well no not really it was more along the lines of that she was the only one I ever wanted and the only one I ever needed and she looked at me and said yes and we got it on as the stars above shined down on us.
For her it was the moment she had always dreamed of, the man of her dreams (well I guess some people do dream big) the father of her child wanting to marry her.
Straight away I got on the phone and called her mother, I thanked her for the support she had giving me and I told her that she was more like a mother then id ever known. She responded by inviting us over for a Roast Lamb dinner, what can I say shes an old school woman and knows her place.
Jade and I drove home, but I took the wrong directions and pulled up in front of a 4 bedroom house that looked like it needed it a hell of a lot of work. The grass was higher then Keith Richards and the paint was fading faster the American economy but I asked her if she could see us raising a family here?
What the hell are you on about boges? What the hell is this place?
I explained to her that I wanted to buy it and explained how Id spoken to my father bout helping us out with a loan and how if I didnt gamble or do drugs and if she didnt go spend to much on shoes we should be fine paying it off.
Yet again she cried.
Dam these women cry a lot?
We went home and I picked up Rose and said do you want Mummy and Daddy to marry? She had no idea what I was saying but she hadn't seen us in 2 days and just had this huge smile.
It was the happiest moment of our lives, we had a perfect little family.......
And we had another on the way!