Journal FroMan's Journal: [parenting] 1 year 6
1. Being a father is easy. Being a good father is a bit tougher. I suppose it'll take more than a year to know if I managed the good part.
Well, getting to be a father wasn't too hard, and quite fun infact. I'm sure mom's out there will object and say certain parts of becoming a mom are not fun though, such as the whole birth thing. Being a good father is certainly challenging. I think of things daily of how I could have handled a situation better, or see things that might cause harm, or a dozen other things that concern me as a parent which never would have been brought to my mind otherwise. In the end, when I am dying, I hope to hear my son say, "You raised me well dad," more than anything else.
2. Bath time. Well, bath time can only be properly enjoyed at the time of the bath. Though the high speed setting on the camera helps.
I think "bath time" is one of the few phrases that my boy understands now. I can take the gate off the bathroom door and give a holler and he will come crawling. Usually I'll hand him off to mom to stip him down and bring him to me, but sometimes he'll hear me getting the bath ready and come crawling along. He'll holler and yell and splash like a wild man in the tub. It is so much run to see him enjoying himself during a bath. One of his favorite parts is after I've washed him up and drained the tub I will then count to three before I turn the water on to rinse. Sometimes I'll Monty Python is and do, "One, two,
3. No means no. But no has nothing to do with squirming when the diaper is being changed.
Changing time can range from pleasent and quick to unpleasent and wrestling a poopy baby for 5 minutes trying to protect oneself from errant dirty legs and arms. It also happens to be where he hears the word no more often than anywhere else. He is very strong willed, but isn't every little kid, but usually after a little restraint and repetition of the word no he seems to get the idea dad is going to change the diaper whether or not he likes it and settles down.
4. Front facing car seats are way better than rear facing car seats. At least when driving around. They are not nearly as convient for getting a kid out of the car.
Af first he didn't like the car seat facing forward much. I think this is partly because he could see on coming traffic and that kinda scared him. But now he thinks it is great. The old car seat is getting too small, so he has more space in the new one. And the old one also let the sun shine in his face a lot more, especially when the sun was behind us. Also, he can see much more now. The only disadvantage is that sleeping in this one is a bit harder since his body is more upright.
5. 13 hours to grandma and grandpa's and 13 hours home do not make a happy baby the next day. Other than falling asleep and waking every time I'd have to stop after dark he was great in the car though.
The drive out to grandma and grandpa's went well. We made decent time until we went backwards for an hour outside Buffalo. Who knew there was a tollway on the south west side? Anyways, it was a bit longer of a trip by about an hour and half then, which made our arrival a bit later and way past the little boy's bed time. But he held out like a trooper. The next day was probably one of his worst though. A foreign crib, house, and people were very confusing for him. He slept terribly, and was in a foul mood the whole day. After that though he was fine the remainder of the stay. When we got home he was a little upset the day after getting home, but not as bad. I suppose he remember his own home and bed.
6. One might think the stinkiest things come out the back end of a baby. One probably has not had to deal with baby yogurt puke.
There are some mighty foul things in this world. And a baby puking up yogurt is somewhere near the top of the list. And I live not too far from a dairy farm. We had just finished feeding him and eating dinner at a sandwich shop and were about to hit a store to see about picking up a new car seat. Mom says, "I think he's gagging on something." Then the smell. Thankfully nothing soaked into the car seat, but cleaning the stuff out of the seat was miserable. I can only feel sorry for mom and him riding home in the car together. I had to take the truck home since we met at the sandwich shop that day.
7. If the doctor isn't worried, well, why should I worry. Granted it isn't his kid.
The little guy has a weak tongue and we've known about it for quite a while. But the doctors just finally got around to seeing him about it in the last couple weeks. It seems that there is nothing too bad about it, so we try not to worry. I took him in to a neurologist who checked him out and asks, "Are you worried about this?" Um, yeah, kinda, I'm here with my kid who seems to have an issue with a weak tongue. But he is like, it doesn't seem to be anything neurological, so don't worry. Okey, we'll give it a shot.
8. When people who see babies every day remark on how incredible your son's eyes are, you start to wonder if they really are that amazing.
Everyone, even the neurologist above, remarks on his eyes. We are still considering setting up a website ethanfanclub.com and selling t-shirts. There are a couple girls at church who I am pretty sure will wind up waiting 18 years just to marry him, so they better hope he likes older women. Everywhere we go, the first thing people say about him is how amazing his eyes are and what a great looking kid. Un-surprisingly though his height and weight are in the 5th and 10th his head is in the 50th, everyone fawning over him is giving him a big head.
9. When posed with 4 buttons on a car, the one that is closest to music will be the one pushed.
I believe I am cursed to raise a son who is going to wind up with a BA in music. Mom and dad both have BS in computer science, love all things logical and geekish. But somehow there is a gene in me that will make my son a liberal arts major. I blame my dad though, as he originally wanted to be a musician. Anyways, he absolutely loves music. One of his favorites is the intro music for shows, like Buffy and Angel. But even the A-Team will do. He will stop whatever he is doing and crawl up so he can hear the music play where ever he is. He found this car at the doctor office whch had 4 buttons. The first three he pushed played car noises, like revving engines and horns and stuff. The last button he pressed played some sort of music. The other buttons must have felt very lonely once he discovered the music button.
10. Dad, you know nothing about how to play a keyboard. Those white and black buttons are dumb. The little green one makes all the music.
Related to the previous, one of his grandmas had a kids keyboard from one of her previous grandkids that she let us have. He at first liked the beat on the keys and make noise with those. Then he discovered these green buttons that play preprogrammed music. There hardly goes a minute with that thing in his sight that he isn't playing with the green buttons. I personally wish it didn't have the preprogrammed music as I think it'd be better for him to try playing the keyboard instead of just having music play for him.
BONUS. If it doesn't have a tail, its not a monkey. Its an ape.
Veggietales is wonderful. A mixture of music, biblical stories (not Bible stories), and humor for the parents. We started our Veggietales library before the little guy was even born, but since we have collected even more. He loves to watch them (though we keep it to only one a day unless he is really cranky, which is rare). Junior Asparagus seems to be his favorite we are pretty sure. Personally I am a big fan of Larry the Cucumber as he reminds me of myself too much.
Tomorrow it will be one year since Ethan has been born. Without a doubt this has been the hardest year of my life. There were so many rough points like when we were worried that he would never sleep or eat when he was just born, the night spent in the ER when he wound up with hives, and the days after his immunizations, and the random days where all he would do was cry and fuss. It has all been worth it though. When he figures something out, like how to crawl or cruise. Or get off the couch without diving head first. Or even how to eat a cracker all by himself. Or raise the sippy cup up and drink from it. Or stack blocks.
Each night was give thanks to God for blessing us with such a wonderful child. We pray for him, that he will grow strong, healthy, and wise. We pray God would touch his heart and lead him all the days of his life. We pray that Ethan will seek God as he grows older and in more understanding. And also that God would grand us wisdom and patience as parents to raise and teach him correctly.
Even? (Score:1)
What do you mean even the A-Team will do?
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Now that I think of it, I don't think BA ever says "I'd pity the fool" in the A-Team. But saying a plan came together just doesn't fit for my reply.
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Bah duh duuuHh. Duh-duh-duh. Dah-na-na-naah. Nuh-nah-nuh. Interspersed with machine gun fire.
Classic.
Of course I can't really judge those other shows you mentioned. And I have no discernable music appreciation. My school of thought is as follows:
There are three categories of music:
1) Johnny Cash
2) Acceptable
3) Utter crap
I'd pity the fool who thinks the A-Team theme music is great
Why do you hate America? (I'm jesting, of cou
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Wow (Score:2)