9 Comments
User's avatar
Soala's avatar

this is so sweet

Expand full comment
mskfb's avatar

It’s an amazing thing, how fatherhood can give you a sense of deep satisfaction in the potential joy of someone else, how the knowledge that they will have opportunities you never did can be something that brings satisfaction instead of resentment.

Expand full comment
Robert Charboneau's avatar

Great work Nick. Neither you nor your son will forget to remember these moments, because you've cast them in stone.

Expand full comment
Nick Chapman-Jones's avatar

Yeah, a good reminder of a (probably more meaningful) benefit outside of the likes and engagement from the outside.

Expand full comment
Darrell A. Harris's avatar

Our eldest grandson is now 17 and now no longer sleeps over. However, when he was a wee lad and slept over on the sofa in our master bedroom, one of my fave moments with him was seeing in the morning , just as he waked from sleep. His eyes would open and within a second or two - before looking around or making any eye contact - he would spontaneously break out into the biggest smile. It’s like he was so excited to be beginning another day, no matter what that day held.

I sent your poem to our daughter, his more. She was wiping tears. That waking smile is intrinsic to his very being.

Expand full comment
Nick Chapman-Jones's avatar

Thank you for the story Darrell! I am so happy that you sent it around and that it was appreciated.

Expand full comment
James Hart's avatar

Definitely hard to keep up with, are newborns. Your sleeping schedule will never, ever be the same as it was, I fear. :)

Great tributes shared here—both yours and Coleridge's. Try to enjoy this time as best you can, even among the sleep depravity. Mine's only 6 but I already miss her baby years.

Expand full comment
Nick Chapman-Jones's avatar

Yes, I remember sleep...!

I do enjoy the time, on the whole.

Expand full comment
Philip Costea's avatar

Great words, Nick! This one reminds me of Yeats' "A Prayer for My Son". You're channeling him a bit here and it's brilliant.

Expand full comment