Hurricane schmurricane ...

If weeks derive their personalities from some sort of underlying motivation, then this week's motivation was storm preparedness.

As most of you know, Hurricane Hannah had the mid-Atlantic states in her sights this week leading the vast majority of us to reminisce about storms from the past like Isabelle, Floyd, Hugo, Katrina and the oh so destructive, but not too terrifyingly named Bob.

Anyway, I spend a lot of time at work prepping boats for storms that never arrive and then convincing everyone that it is always better to be prepared than to wait until it is too late. As with many things it is too easy sometimes to fall into the "boy who cried wolf" mentality. For better or worse, that is not a trap I tend to fall in.

I think that the entire Hurricane Preparedness scenario is a really good analogy of parenthood. You spend countless hours attempting to prevent any number of catastrophes ranging from dropping your kid off of the changing table , keeping them from choking, sticking fingers in electrical outlets, to the much larger picture of making certain they will get a good education and be exposed to the proper value systems.

We plan and we worry and we try to keep laughing and smiling the whole time, because this is fun after all. Colleen and I are embarrassingly new to all of this and I'm not ashamed to admit that we do some pretty stupid things from time to time. For example, if Sequoia is sleeping too soundly we have to go nudge her to make certain she is ok ... Anyway, my point is that regardless of how funny the moment is, we are always balancing our joy with the ever present "did we forget something?"

All we can do is trust in our instincts and do everything possible to prepare ourselves to help Sequoia prepare herself for the future.

I know that there will be plenty of times that we will study about, worry about and prepare for some unwelcome development or another that never materializes. I am equally certain that many of the situations that we have diligently prepared for will come and go without any of our "expertise" being needed.

That will be just fine with me. If we get to the end of this adventure and can look at Sequoia and say " Well we did not screw you up too bad...." that might be all we can ask for.

Granted, I certainly believe that my little girl is going to turn out far better than anything I could take credit for. Colleen and I have already witnessed glimpses of her personality that tell us she is something special - an old soul in a babies body.

What she becomes in life will be the result of not only us and our immediate families but of her extended family of friends, teachers and the world around her.

We will do everything we can to put her in a position to take advantage of what the world has to offer.

We will do our best to protect her from any storms life might direct her way.

But mostly we will sit back and continue to be amazed by how incredible this little person is.

She will keep it all in perspective for us and remind us what is really worth worrying about.

Of course I will continue to prepare for anything that poses a threat to my Sequoia, but I will never once feel let down if all of our concerns and preparations end up being an exercise in over cautiousness.

That's what us new parents do after all ...