Journal FroMan's Journal: [parenting] Bumps 3
1. Like father, like son. Most of my baby pictures I have a black eye. Ethan's first shiner came from the table in the livingroom.
Much of my youngest years I was a pretty clumbsy kid. That has continued, but a little less obviously so. Ethan is following in his father's footsteps of being a little clumbsy. On Saturday he was cruising with the help of the table, but managed to trip and fall on the toy mentioned in '8' and continue to bump right below his eye on the table leg. It took about 10 minutes to get him settled down and playing again.
2. Baths are the best.
This is mainly daddy's job. I'll have my wife strip him down and bring him to me in the bathroom while I draw the bath. He usually arrives a little before the tub is ready and is still filling. I'll sit him down on the end away from the faucet, but he'll get on his knees and crawl down to the faucet and toss his head under. Or he'll put his hands under the running water trying to grab at the water. Much yelling in glee is accompanied. I'll get him all cleaned up and start draining the tub and he'll play by the drain, seemingly trying to stop the water from going away. Then I slide him back down to the other end of the tub and turn the water back on for a final rinse. Again he'll rush down to the water to play again.
3. Chewing food? Bah, gag me with a cheerio.
Ethan's first tooth finally broke through the other day. My wife finds this upsetting as he likes to bite her toes. But that isn't the topic at hand. He seems to have trouble with thick food or food with chunks. We have tried a number of things, but inevitably it leads to him gagging and throwing up what he has currently managed to eat. His doctor, who hasn't seen him for this, is sending us to a gastro-something-ologist, but from our research we should be taking him to an infant speech therapist. I guess we'll see what happens, but hopefully we can get him on some more solid food than cereals, purees, and yogurts.
4. Grass is cool. Leaves are like little tasty snacks all spread out upon it.
We have had a very dry summer so far, but at a family reunion on a lake a couple week-ends ago they had a very lush and green lawn. This was Ethan's first oppertunity to crawl around on grass. At first he was not too sure of it. But then he discovered leaves that had fallen from a crab apple tree and he was in love. Daddy, mommy, and one of the nieces were pretty much following him around trying to keep him from eating all these leaves. Then he discovered some potted flowers...
5. Babies do the cutest things in bed.
After we pray and put him into bed, he will lay flat out for a second and turn up his hands. I will then lay the afghan over his back and he will grab it with his hands and curl it around himself. In the morning we will usually let him yammer away for a few minutes before we head in to grab him incase he is just babbling a little and might fall back to sleep. Well, when we peek in the door we know it is time to get up when he is standing n the crib holding onto the slats likehe is some sort of prisoner. He'll also start his excited babbling saying he is ready to get up.
6. Babies do the stinkiest things in their diaper.
Oh dear, I thought formula diapers stunk. And they do. But diapers with chicken or other meat just blow them away. We have a diaper pailthat is supposed to reduce the smell, which it does fairly well. But when it comes time to change the bag it stinks the whole room up for a bit of time.
7. Monosyllabic babbling is for chumps. Multisyllabic babbling is for Ethan.
Ethan never really liked to do the repeating a single syllable babbling. He seems to have skipped that for just random babbling now. Certainly nothing approaching a real word, but we can see each day he is getting better a making harder consonant sounds. It is pretty exciting to hear him working through different noises.
8. Why would one want to put shaped blocks into holes similarly shaped? It is much more fun to have daddy do that and then rip the lid off and dump them so he can do it again.
We bought two toys recently which every kid has had or should have had. The tower of rings and the shape blocks which fit into holes. Well, Ethan likes to play with both. The tower is for dismantling after daddy stacks the rings. The box of blocks I will try to show him how to put the block in. There are two of each shaped block. Well, I'll put one in and try and get him to put the other in. Well, he will look at it, then look at me, then smile and take the top off the box and dump all the blocks I have put in.
9. Daddy reads too slow. Next page.
We have a small cache of cardboard books. Everyone has seen these, there are all ove 10-15 words per page with brightly colored pictures. Usually before I can read those 10-15 words Ethan is attempting to change the page on me. I am thinking he is not likely going to be an intellectual if this keeps up, or he's already smarter than me.
10. Alarm clock? No need, 6 is when daddy gets up anyways.
I really don't need an alarm clock too often anymore. Usually come 5:30 or so Ethan will be up babbling in his crib. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep, other times he'll be up and ready to go for the day. Well, atleast an hour before he needs to go down for a nap. It would be really nice to have him stay down for the extra hour of sleep he really needs, especially on weekends. Oh well, atleast he is sleeping through the night most nights now from about 8:30-9:00 until 5:30-6:30.
Nice (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I have been keeping a written journal each night which contains a lot more of the hard times. I suppose I should say it is a much more complete journal compared to the one here which I only update every month or two.
Re: (Score:2)
Two teenage stepsons have taught me quite about about how much patience I need to learn;-) The important thing, IMHO, is that you truly do relish the good things. That's what will serve you so well as you continue raising him and whatever siblings come along later.