September 3rd, 2009
I’m not sure there’s anything better than getting home from a long day of work and walking through the door to have your daughter look up and SQUEAL with excitement. I just think it’s the coolest thing ever! Of course, not going to work in the first place and spending the day with her would probably top it. Perhaps it’s one of those unique things that moms who stay at home don’t get to enjoy to the level of us working dads. Either way, it’s great incentive to get my butt out of the office on time.
Courtney has been doing the baby hand wave for quite some time now – at least 2 or 3 months. But she’s only really been copying people as far as I can tell, and normally with a pretty good delay. But yesterday when I walked through the door I got a big squeal AND an immediate baby hand wave from across the room. I suppose it could have just been a coincidence, but since I have the smartest baby in the whole world! I’m sure she’s finally putting it all together.
In spite of her being completely pitiful while she works through her first cold ever, she seems to still be advancing rapidly. Today, while we sat on the floor, she stood up on her own for a few seconds before she realized there wasn’t anything to hold onto and promptly squatted back down. And I’m pretty sure she’s using “da da da da” correctly when she sees me now, which I have to say is SUPER cool. Makes me wonder how much more she would’ve accomplished if she wasn’t in the midst of such a bad cold. I swear it’s almost like I go away for 9.5 hours or so during the day and when I come home she’s changed. I guess before I know it she’ll be shunning me in front of her friends and moving out! It’s sort of scary how quickly time has passed this year.
By my crazy calculations, I figure that the reason the days, months, years – time in general, goes by so much more quickly the older you get is that each one of those units is less substantial on its own as you add up the numbers. For example, if you’re 10 years old, one year is only 1/10 of your entire experience, so one year is pretty damn significant as far as you’re concerned. But if you’re, say, um, 41 then one year is only 1/41 of your entire experience and therefore less significant on its own. Things just sort of blend together. Now, add a baby who changes daily to the mix, and you’ve got the “baby modifier” that makes it go even faster! I know it’s a little fuzzy from a scientific perspective, but you have to admit it kind of makes sense, right? Please?
Posted in Melting Moments | No Comments »
September 1st, 2009
Well, we made it 9 months and 11 days, but our little girl finally found her kryptonite. She appears to have contracted her first real cold. Up until now she’s never even had a runny nose.
Talk about feeling like a bad parent… We’ve been working on maintaining the sleep schedule, so we’ve made an effort to not go into the nursery during the night if at all possible. We even had to let her cry it out a few times. Our efforts have paid off for the most part, as she has been sleeping through the night very regularly. Last night, however, she was whining for quite a while off and on. I finally went in there and she had snot running down her nose and a fever and looked absolutely pitiful.
In retrospect, she had a different, more whiny cry than her normal “let me out of here” cry. Of course, since she’s never been sick we didn’t really pick up on that. At least we should be better prepared for the next time. In the meanwhile, I don’t think there’s going to be much sleeping going on in the house until she gets back to her normal, incredibly happy self.
Speaking of sleep… Good night.
Posted in Illness | No Comments »
August 31st, 2009
Mondays have become more of a bummer since having the baby. Before the baby, one week was just another week that wasn’t much different than the previous one. It’s not like I was missing much while I was at work. The older our little girl gets the faster she seems to evolve. For example, about three weeks ago she first started trying to feed herself with finger food. The first day didn’t really go all that well and more ended up on the floor than in her mouth. But by the end of the week she was two fisting it with a new sense of purpose in life!
During the week, if she wakes up early enough I get to see her for a few minutes before leaving for work. And I normally only get to see her for about an hour or so in the evening when I get home. I do bath time at around 7:00, read some books and then it’s lights out by about 7:30. So needless to say, when she has a big week of advancement I largely don’t get to be a part of it. Fortunately, Karen gets to stay at home and often documents many of the “first” moments of things on video so I get a better sense than most working parents.
Today was my live fantasy football draft which began at 6:00 this evening. Because of the timing, I didn’t get to see my little girl at all this evening 
. Although, this morning I got to retrieve her from her crib, change her poopy diaper and deliver her to the teats before I left for work. And then my wonderful wife pinged me just before lunchtime to see if I wanted to meet them out for lunch. As luck would have it I was available and was able to spend some time with them during my lunch break. So today wasn’t a total loss on that front.
On the plus side, Monday is almost over, leaving just four more days before the long weekend. Now I’m just left wondering what the heck happened to the first 8 months of the year?
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August 30th, 2009
Sorry, I just had to use the geeky title.
Last year my wife Karen started a blog right around the time we found out that she was pregnant. It was mainly just a nice way for the family to follow along with all of the developments of our rapidly growing new addition. However, she recently became a lot more active in her blogging and it became apparent that I don’t necessarily share ALL of her perspectives on our journey through life together.
She’s currently a stay-at-home mom, and as a result, spends a lot of time with other new moms she’s met through various mom/baby activities. Since it’s a bunch of mommies hanging out with their offspring blathering on about their new lives as mommies, their view of the world is decidedly skewed to that of being a mommy.
I have the unfortunate job, of having a job, to ensure that our little family remains solvent as long as possible with my wife out of work raising our kid(s?). And by “work” I mean the paycheck kind; I’m well aware that it’s a lot of work to take care of the baby all day! So aside from being a male, which clearly predisposes me to different views anyway, my experiences are often very different in our child-rearing journey because I’m just not around as much.
Now, to be clear, I’m in no way suggesting that there are any faults in my wonderful wife. She truly is an outstanding mother and wife, and I’m so incredibly grateful for everything that she does. I love her dearly. She merely has a different perspective – sometimes.
So bear with me as I slowly put this place together. I’m sure it should be easy since if you’re reading this you’re likely the only one 
.
Posted in New Beginnings | 2 Comments »