Thursday, April 30, 2009

Times They Are a Changing

Learning to be a Dad is an ever changing journey. You start out with a shiny new baby that is an eating and pooping machine. That pooping machine sleeps a lot but not for long periods of time. That leads to your first great challenge in parenthood. I have written ad nauseam about that topic here, here, and here. Eventually you get a routine worked out that helps you sustain life.

Then you are on to new problems. The kid needs more clothes because he is growing like crazy. He needs new diapers because he is overfilling them. Those things are super absorbent, but at some point they are just full. Of course then the next closest absorbent material is clothing. This is not desirable so you get bigger diapers.

There are always changes. Just about the time you get one thing figured out you move on to another. I wrote Tuesday about our newest challenge of teething. We are managing that like anything else. You just jump right in and do your best.

Recently Arica and I have started sleeping in the same bed again. It is a welcome development. For the past several months one of us had slept on an air mattress in Braden's room every night. We still spend some time on the mattress most nights, but at least we are getting a partial nights rest in our own bed.

So our lives are being changed by the additions of teething and sleeping in our own bed. These are balancing forces of good and evil. There is another storm of change brewing on the horizon. We can see it coming ,but are not sure when it will arrive. That storm is crawling Braden. He is currently scooting around his blanket on his belly. He constantly turns over on his stomach to survey his surroundings. He then sets his sights on something and heads that direction. Braden is not overly mobile right now, but it is only a matter of time.

He has all the proper crawling motions. He already knows how to spot things that belong to Mommy and Daddy. Of course those are the things that interest him most. He loves water bottles. Any time we drink from a water bottle he is dead set on getting that bottle. To a lesser degree he likes any thing we use to take a drink.

From what I can imagine our lives in the crawling era will be very different. I fully suspect that one day I will leave the room for something only to return and find Braden gone. He will be off on a wild adventure. We will have to box him in and out of certain places. I will have to crawl around the house looking for things that might by perilous to a crawling baby. The pack and play might be used as a cage rather than just a changing table. I definitely expect it to be insane.

With that I want to say goodbye to stationary Braden. We had some fun but it will soon be over. Please don't forget your Daddy when you are out cruising the hallways.

10 comments:

Tom said...

Oh, what fun you are in for now. The crawling baby is the beginning... crawling, and grabbing, and putting into mouth. That is the way of the mobile baby.

Keep those floors shiny clean!

PJ Mullen said...

In about two weeks you won't be able to find your cell phone or any remotes in the house. Braden will have found new and interesting places to hide them on you as he crawls by them and claims them as his own. And don't think that giving him an old cell phone or a remote to a TV you don't own anymore will work. He will quickly discover said replacement items do not beep or change the channel and he will let you know. Good luck.

WeaselMomma said...

Building on what Tom said, you can put sham-wow's on his hands and knee's, sprinkle a little detergent on the floor and shaboom! Clean floors courtesy of Braden. (when he soon starts crawling, but allow 4-6 weeks delivery).

WeaselMomma said...

BTW, I left a little something for you at Weasels.

SurprisedMom said...

When the crawling stage hit, I learned two new words: Play pen. It's name says it all, a safe place to play while being penned in. It's a wonderful device, comfy and can be various sizes and shapes and a great place to nap. You can see baby, baby can see you, it's a happy place. Until they start throwing the toys from the play pen at you.

Have fun!

Mike said...

Good luck with that. When their mobile all hell breaks loose. They learn to crawl then walk and you learn to run...after them...

Super Mega Dad said...

Shamwow clothes! That would have been AWESOME! Nice find Weasel Momma!

Somehow we were able to keep Princess K contained in the living room by using boxes and gates stuffed between couches. She didn't wander TOO much, but MAN, when she did she was EVERYWHERE. I feel for ya man!

Captain Dumbass said...

Oh I remember those days. Back when you could leave them in the middle of the floor and they'd play with their foot or something and you could actually get something done and not have to worry about them.

My new terror is eating. My boys are only 5 and 4 but they're going through more than 8 litres of milk a week... er... what's that in Americanese? Two gallons maybe?

Un-Hawthorne-ed said...

There's nothing good about air mattresses. Period.

Texasholly said...

Oh I miss stationary babies! What a treat. You can put them on a blanket and look at them. You can leave the room and come back to them. They aren't crawling the halls looking for carpet fuzz and dropped legos to eat...
*sigh*