A taste of parenting?

I think I got my first taste of what parenting might be like this morning.

I've recently become a step-dad to CV's two beautiful Dachies and both Pab's and Lolita, have crawled their way into my heart over the past few weeks. They're such a delight, especially since they've warmed nicely to thier new step dad, showering me with a lot of love daily. I just hope that soon enough they will even start listening to me. According to CV's 'family custom', they have their bed in our bedroom.

At around 3am this morning, we got a wake up call from 'our eldest' - Pablo. His little feet padding around the room woke me. CV, who is a far lighter sleeper than I, woke up too and tried to figure out what was wrong.

Let me say here that Pab's is a sleep lover. He's in bed by 8 most nights and generally doesn't stir until Daddy C (I would be Dady F in this case) urges him to join the world of the living at around 8am.

Point is, if Pab's is waking us up in the wee hours of the moring, it's gotta be a pressing emergency. Now, if you're reading between the lines here, you'd have figured out what the problem was... But, I'm not wise to these things yet and thought the little boy was feeling a bit lonesome as Lola, 'our youngest', had somehow manged to get away with sleeping in the crook of my arm.

But, CV being the sensitive and astute man that he is, quickly realised all was not well. In his way, Pab's told him he needed to 'go'. And so he let Pab's out and get on with his business, which was followed by the loud lapping of water, as he replenished his on board supplies.

But dear little Pab's was not to keen to go back to his bed. Closer investigation revealed the need to 'change the linen', cause our dear little 'boy' had done what little boys do. He'd wet the bed. My (rare) anthropomorphic side still tells me it's because he was feeling a little insecure with Lola not being by his side. In any event, a few seconds later and all was resolved, including the heart wrenching but altogether neccesary ousting of our little Lolita from the bed.

I could have been grumpy about being woken up in the middle of the night by a little water sport, especially since I have to wake up at around 4am every morning. But I wasn't. In fact only two thoughts prevailed: "Boy am I glad I didn't actually have to get out of bed to sort this out." And, "Is this a mild taste of what's to come if we ever go the family route?".

I'm pretty sure this had nothing on the real deal of parenting, but my overall reaction makes me a little bit more comfortable with the idea of evetually going there.