Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Art of Patience

One of the most important things that any new father should learn is the art of patience. But patience is one of those things that can't be taught. And the Wifey knows very well how I deal with patience. But when it comes to babies, patience is just something that has to be realized. Babies don't have the privilege of understanding basic commands as soon as they are born. And since they can't talk and communicate, the only thing they know how to do is cry. And babies love crying. Now I will be honest, I've let the Baby cry a little longer than she needs to but it also lets me deal with my frustration and impatience. Really as cliche as it may sound, it's all about taking a deep breath and realizing that some things are out of your control. Fortunately for a baby their list of wants is not that long. They either want to be held, a diaper change, or to eat. Not an extensive list. Of course there are always the variables that come into play like teething and illness but that's why there is whiskey. But then you realize that you wish your child would exercise patience. They seem to be in a hurry to start moving around and learning new things. Sometimes the Wifey and I miss the days where the Baby would just lie there and the only moving she would do was to grab her toes. Now the Baby can't stay on her back for longer than two minutes without her crawling away. Of course to top it off, she is pulling herself up and standing. But what goes up, must come down and the Baby has already toppled a few times. I can see the bruises and Hello Kitty band aids in the near future.

One of the other big things to deal with is sharing. It's still a big adjustment for the Wifey and I to share our time with the Baby. We have had some nights out and it has been nice but I miss just spending time with my wife. She used to come home from work and she would throw all her stuff down and we would just lie on the couch and catch up on our shows. Now she throws her stuff down and grabs the Baby to feed her and then our night consists of watching the Baby and the "internets". I'll be honest, I love the Baby and how much she changed our lives for the better and I can't wait to hold her and play with her but as she is growing up and consuming more of our time, I can't help but miss my wife. I guess I just have to be patient for my turn again.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Seven Months

This past weekend the family loaded up the car and headed down to Austin for our first weekend road trip. I had to do an event at the Longhorns game doing some promotion stuff and since it was company paid, we figured why not make it a family trip. The original plan was to drive down Friday morning and go through a drive-in petting zoo near San Marcos but the rain and my absolute hatred in being in a car longer than I need to be pushed up our departure to Thursday evening. The Wifey found a 25 dollar hotel in Austin through Priceline so we could drive down and have more time on Friday to do stuff. Despite the Wifey's beliefs that I told her I "just love driving" we have an agreement that she drives down and I will drive home. I sat in the backseat with the Baby and we were off. The Baby did really well for her first extended road outing. She slept for a good portion of the trip and when she was awake, she enlightened us with her rendition of Hamlet. We got into Austin a little after 10pm and since none of us had eaten dinner, we went out to Kerbey Lane for some food. We walked in thinking we were the trashy parents hauling their infant for dinner at 10pm but we saw two other babies who were younger than the Baby already inside the restaurant. Crazy Austin and it's hippies.

Friday morning we went out to Juan in a Million for some breakfast tacos and with the high chance of precipitation, we altered our plan of going to the petting zoo and opted to go outlet mall shopping. When we were through with that portion of the trip we checked in to the company paid hotel at the very nice Casulo Hotel. It's located in South Austin and relatively close to downtown and since I booked this hotel a couple of months ago, I had a pretty good rate but even then, this hotel's regular rates are pretty good, $130/night for a home game weekend. I really suggest checking out the pics, the rooms were a decent sized but everything was really well designed and it felt like a fancy hotel. But then again, the Wifey and I think Holiday Inn Express is pretty nice too so I guess it's all personal preference. But the Casulo has a huge shower with the rainfall showerhead and a regular one and an oversized bathtub. But it also had a window that looked into the bedroom. It was actually pretty creepy, especially if you are sharing the room with someone who you aren't married or dating, but other than that, we loved the hotel. We also had dinner at Moonshine in downtown Austin and the Baby was able to eat her fair share of crostinis and pickles. She really didn't eat the pickle but just squeezed it and looked at us and laughed. But the crostinis she loved. It's fun watching her eat and just look at her food and the reactions she makes every time she tastes something. So far she loves bread, celery, broccoli, pickles, and chicken. I gave her a raw onion and she wasn't too happy about that but that's been the only thing she doesn't like to eat.

Saturday morning I went off to the game, the Wifey had breakfast in bed with the Baby. She also left a lot of her breakfast in the bed, mainly my side, but that is neither her nor there. Lunch we drove out to Salt Lick in Driftwood to indulge on some BBQ. The Baby turned seven months old on Saturday and she said she wanted to try out Salt Lick, so we went. That evening we stayed in and caught up on some sleep and prepared for our drive back in the morning.

Sunday morning we met up with my old college roommate(s) Charles and Matt. I actually lived in the dorms with Charles at A&M and for one summer I slept on Matt's couch at his apartment. Except one night I woke up and Matt was starting at me in the middle of the night, so I took that as a sign that I had overstayed my welcome and abruptly left. Charles likes to miss all the major events in my life by playing GI Joe and being an All-American hero in the Middle East but now he's at Fort Hood. He actually gets paid by the government to break into the bases and other maximum security government offices and then tells them what they need to fix to keep people like him out. Crazy stuff. But anyways, we had a good breakfast, shared a few laughs, and then the family left for home.

So this past weekend we realized the Baby is pretty good in the car. She also can't stay in a hotel room for an extended period of time and prefers to actually go out and do stuff. She already understands being stir crazy. The Baby has also started moving forward with a mixture of regular crawling and army man crawling and now she can roll onto her butt and sit up by herself. And as of today she is able to pull herself up and stand up. She eventually comes crashing down but the fact that she even does that has gotten the Wifey and I are to start baby proofing corners and lowering the cribs. It's absolutely nuts to fathom that the Baby is actually seven months old and she is learning new things faster than we can keep up with. But all in all, great weekend. Happy Seven Months baby.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Doggy Tales

Howdy Friends!

Shrek, the family dog, guest blogging today as my bestest friends in the whole world are gone.

About seven months ago they brought home a rather peculiar thing  and seem to have almost forgotten about me. This thing makes weird noises throughout the day and just slept. They call this thing "baby" and every time it would make a sound, my best friends would drop everything and run to it. But every time I make a noise, I get yelled at for being too loud. And don't get me started on all the cool awesome stuffed animals "baby" gets and I can't even touch them much less sniff those fabulous toys. All this "baby" does is eat, sleep, poop, and cry but it sure makes my best friends smile and laugh all the time. At the beginning, I was not impressed.

But now "baby" is becoming more fun. She likes to staring at me and boy do I love being stared at. Her face tastes so good too and she smells delightful. But I like her because she pets me and she looks at me. And sometimes in the middle of the night, "baby" will start crying so the my girl best friend will get up and walk all the way across the house to get her and I get to follow. I love following. I love walking. I'm starting to notice that "baby" looks like a combination of my best friends and it is incredible. "Baby" likes to get on her knees and touch me and I am alright with that. Now that she is becoming more active, my best friends don't pay as much attention to me. I am fine with that because that allows me to sneak off and snatch the "baby's" precious toys. I tore up a gifraffe, two hedgehogs, and chewed the hell out of a wooden porcupine. The girl best friend was not so happy but I definitely was smitten. I've also been spending a lot more time outside, but it's also nice weather too, so I don't mind.

"Baby" has also been sleeping in the bed with my best friends. I don't mind because "baby" isn't sleeping at the foot of the bed which is my spot. But every morning I like to creep and just smell everybody and lick "baby" toes. I always get yelled at but I always sneak in a few good lickings.

In summation, I don't mind this new addition to the family. "Baby" is slowly becoming my best friend. She doesn't yell at me or tell me "no" she just stares and touches. I love being stared at. Anyways, time to go chill outside, "baby" is about to come home.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Rawr

The Baby has discovered something new and that is the art of the growl. She growls mostly at her pacifier but anything she has in her hands, she will just start growling. It's a very deep, scratchy growl and sounds almost devilish in a cute baby way though. Last week she was just screaming at the top of her lungs in the highest pitch she could let out but this week it's the growl, just a simple "rawr". I will have a video uploaded pretty soon.

Currently the Baby has two little bottom teeth that she is using to tear her stuff to shreds but it seems like she has some bottom molars popping in as well. And the pain is becoming unbearable for the Baby. She can usually take her pacifier or a bottle but now she is grimacing in pain when the teething gets bad. That leads to a grumpy baby that can't sleep. But she seems to sleep pretty fine when we bring her into our bedroom.

Now I've never been against co-sleeping, which is where the baby sleeps with the parents, since that's how I was raised and so were my siblings. But I think my parents did co-sleeping out of pure poverty and not by choice. Growing up, I did sleep on the same twin size bunk bed with a spaceship and planet design until I was 18. But anyways, the Wifey and I and the Baby have been good about sleeping in our separate beds but when the Baby is fussy, it's a lot easier to just keep her in our room instead of trekking across our house to go comfort, get her back to sleep, and only to have her wake up as soon as your head hits the cool side of the pillow. We do have a little bassinet next to our bed for this very reason but recently it seems as though the Baby prefers to sleep in the grownup bed. As soon as we lie her down she is asleep. Now my only big issue with the Baby in our bed is the fact that I am scared I will smother her. And the fact that along with the Baby and the Wifey in the same bed, they take up 90% of it. So I am relegated to my sliver of pillow-top as I have to make sure not to roll towards the center of the bed for fear of crushing my only daughter. Luckily she is still young and still very pliable and has already survived being steamrolled. But the Wifey does a good job of cuddling the Baby with her arm so if I do roll over, I crush the Wifey's bones and not the Baby's body. Good job on taking one for the team Wifey!

Now the Wifey leaves for work long, long before the Baby and I actually get up and since I've been known to sleep through tornadoes, we like to make a Fort O' Pillows around the Baby. This is just a precaution to keep the Baby from rolling off the edge or the bed or just getting up and sneaking out of the house. It's a simple and effective tool to thwart the Baby from rolling around. Simple pillows keeping her confined to a space. All she has to do is climb the pillows and she is free. Babies are so dumb.

Speaking of climbing, the Baby has started to get on her hands and knees and started rocking back and forth. So she is going to start crawling around pretty soon. I can't wait. It's going to be harder now she is a baby on the run but I just want to see her crawl around the house chasing the dog. Should be interesting.