Over the last several days, I have been privileged to be instructed in the ways of the world by a mind so uncluttered that my perspectives have likely been forever changed. I\u2019m speaking of course, of my two-year-old son Aidan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It all started when Jonathan (my older son, or as some know him Mini-Me) was kept at the AI DuPont Hospital for Children for a three-day stay. Jonathan was born with a rare and serious blood disease called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) which nearly took him from us shortly after he was born. Thanks to the responsive and meticulous care of the Hematology and Oncology staff at AI, he recently celebrated his 5th birthday with us in December. However, as this disease is not clinically curable, whenever Jonathan develops any inexplicable or significant medical symptoms he\u2019s carefully checked for any potential re-involvement of the ailment. Therefore, when he started showing flu symptoms and his blood counts were suspiciously low last week, back to AI he went. With Shannon staying close to Jonathan\u2019s side, my attentions were now redirected to care for our younger son (and future NFL linebacker), Aidan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n To any of you that don\u2019t know us, my wife and I very definitely have his-and-hers children. Jonathan, in a nutshell, is me. I understand nearly everything he does and why he does it. Aidan however, is a male version of Shannon with a slightly destructive twist. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love both my children to no end. However, sometimes I have problems relating to the thought processes that dictate Aidan\u2019s actions. He\u2019s a wonderful child with an incredibly warm heart and a seemingly endless reserve of energy. It\u2019s just that his methods for getting from point A to point B sometimes serve to confuse me completely. Therefore, while I was in sole custody of this little enigma I took the opportunity to carefully follow and analyze some of his daily routines. From this, I learned some important things.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s call this list \u201cEverything I need to know, I learned from my two year old\u201d (Ok, so it\u2019s not terribly original, but you get the reference.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 1. An object is not necessarily made from the sum of it\u2019s component parts. In fact, it\u2019s very likely that if you smash it repeatedly into something else, it will have a whole new set of parts you knew nothing about.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 2. Poop is funny stuff. In fact, it\u2019s even funnier if you squish it around until it\u2019s coming out of every seam of the diaper trying to contain it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 3. A child\u2019s hearing ability is inversely proportional to how badly they really want to do something they aren\u2019t supposed to.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 4. An item\u2019s original intention is never as interesting as the myriad of things you can make it do outside those boundaries.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 5. The word \u201cNo\u201d can be an entire language onto itself if said with varied volumes, tones and facial expressions.<\/em><\/strong> 6. Perpetual Motion can be achieved through the right balance of chocolate milk and mac-and-cheese.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 7. Computer wires look exactly like the ropes that \u201cDora the Explorer\u201d uses to swing across rivers and such.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 8. Drawing and coloring should never be restricted to something as unimaginative as paper.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 9. Do everything with a sickeningly cute smile and 9 out of 10 times you\u2019ll get away with it. On the 10th time, run faster than daddy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n And I\u2019m learning more every day\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n God I love my kids.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n ~Phil Malmstrom<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Therefore Father, to mark Aidan\u2019s Birthday today I thought I\u2019d share some additional \u201cchunks of wisdom\u201d<\/em> that he\u2019s enlightened me with since that time.<\/p>\n Lessons from a Nine-Year-Old<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Laundry baskets are far too structured an idea for truly free thinkers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 2. With the right combination of Lego parts and some cheese quesadillas, you can in fact create sentient life.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 3. The time required to shower is directly proportional to how much hot water is available and how many good songs are playing on the radio.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 4. The response \u201cOne more minute\u201d is actually a phrase apparently derived from some other language meaning \u201cWhen I feel like it\u2026\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 5. When you have HUGE dimples, you can get out of amazingly difficult situations.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 6. If you want to stay up a little bit later than regular bedtime, the phrase to use on dad is \u201cCan I just go read my Bible for a while please?\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 7. With the proper amount of barbecue sauce, almost anything is edible.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 8. The word \u201cno\u201d is simply the beginning of the negotiation process.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 9. If negotiations don\u2019t go well and finally break down, it\u2019s still good to be able to outrun daddy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n And I\u2019m still learning more every day.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n I thank You Lord, for Blessing our family those nine years ago by placing Your child Aidan into our care.\u00a0 He\u2019s a kind, smart, fun little boy Father, and I feel privileged to be his earthly father.\u00a0 Please continue to watch over him Lord, and guide him to grow into the godly man that I know he can be.<\/p>\n In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray,<\/p>\n Amen.<\/p>\n ~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Aidan-in-Blackbird-Forest-2-Cropped.jpg\" "\\"Aidan")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
![Pin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Lord; Happy Friday Father! Today Lord, we\u2019re celebrating at the Malmstrom home.\u00a0 Nine years ago today at 12:23pm, You Blessed us by bringing Aidan Patrick Malmstrom into our lives.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 I love both my children dearly Father, and over the years each of them has brought me unique perspective, as well as taught me […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[124,724,181,350,762,99,28,359,465,207,168,256,419,358,107,129,286,132,2153,1620,915,546,778,1274,487,611,4,173,844,628,110,966,457,686,444,964,780,140,593,916,1067,923,120,569,269,116,190,119,118,407,2151,2150,104,133,1170,283,641,141,845,753,123,55,146,217,695,585,727,547,227,232,796,732,836,73,117,258,606,469,493,334,788,114,226,697,738,2152,791,157,504,378,379,348],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-a-i-dupont","tag-actions","tag-aidan","tag-amazing","tag-anger","tag-attention","tag-balance","tag-bible","tag-birth","tag-birthday","tag-bless","tag-blessed","tag-blessing","tag-blog","tag-care","tag-celebrate","tag-child","tag-children","tag-chunks-of-wisdom","tag-clutter","tag-dear-lord","tag-difficult","tag-direct","tag-disease","tag-earth","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-father","tag-follow","tag-friday","tag-fun","tag-god","tag-grow","tag-guide","tag-happy","tag-happy-friday","tag-hearing","tag-heart","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-hematology","tag-histiocytosis","tag-hospital","tag-intention","tag-jesus","tag-jonathan","tag-kids","tag-langerhans-cell-histiocytosis","tag-lch","tag-learning","tag-lessons-from-a-nine-year-old","tag-lessons-from-a-two-year-old","tag-light","tag-love","tag-mark","tag-meaning","tag-medical","tag-mind","tag-need","tag-nothing","tag-oncology","tag-perspective","tag-potential","tag-pray","tag-problem","tag-read","tag-rest","tag-serious","tag-shannon","tag-sick","tag-significant","tag-situation","tag-situations","tag-smile","tag-son","tag-song","tag-songs","tag-sons","tag-speak","tag-speaking","tag-staying","tag-thank-you","tag-thanks","tag-understand","tag-unique","tag-unique-little-boy","tag-whole","tag-wife","tag-will","tag-wonder","tag-wonderful","tag-word"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Happy-Birthday-Sign-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-qg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1637,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2F%3Fp%3D1628&media=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F11%2FHappy-Birthday-Sign-1-Cropped.jpg&description=Inspirations+from+Phather+Phil+-+Lessons+from+a+Nine-Year-Old\"){kind=link}