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.

Kissing Mommy

Everybody loves babies. They are cute and cuddly. Women like to dress them up in cute outfits and ferry them about the town. It is easy to watch them for hours enjoying every facial expression. They are the perfect entertainment.

While they may be the perfect entertainment it usually requires work on your part. Babies respond to certain types of stimulation in ways that are funny. Braden may laugh at a toy or scream after being tickled. The work won't always be necessary. One day he will be mobile. He is slightly mobile now. He rolls around and finds some toys on his own. I know this is only the beginning. Soon Braden will be able to "entertain" us by crawling into the entertainment center or finding old Cheetos under the couch.

For now it is still fun to watch him in his quasi stationary state. Seeing his mind work is amazing. He looks at toys and noise makers so seriously sometimes. You can practically see the wheels turning. A babies mind can work at humor too. I always thought a baby Braden's age could only be passive entertainment. In other words they are funny without knowing it. They can't get on stage and perform like Chris Rock.

Braden proved me wrong a few days ago. Arica and I were sitting together on our over sized chair watching TV. Arica was holding Braden. He was facing Mommy when he reached out, grabbed her by the cheeks with both hands, and planted a big kiss right on her mouth. It was a perfect kiss. It couldn't have been executed any better by a seasoned ladies man.

I started laughing uncontrollably. It was one of the funniest things I had ever seen Braden do. Arica was laughing pretty hard too. Braden raised up his head and looked over at his Dad the laughing hyena. He smiled and kissed his Mommy again. The second kiss was just as perfect as the first. He finished the lip lock and looked back to find me laughing even harder. Guess what happened next. Yes, he did it again.

Braden repeated the kiss four of five times looking at me after each one. By the time he was done I was in tears. It was absolutely amazing to see Braden recognize what was going on. He got a laugh and knew what to do with it. A true stage performer knows how to interact with his audience and work a joke. Braden seems to already be developing those skills.

I am a huge fan of stand up comedy. I have seen virtually every comedy special HBO has ever done. Many of those performances are comedic gold, but none of them past, present, or future will ever be able to compare with Braden's first stand up act.

Teething: Are Teeth Evil?

I have a love/hate relationship with my teeth. I am a devoted carnivore. Therefore I need my teeth to enjoy the red meat I crave. Actually I am a food lover of all kinds. I grew up eating only southern food, but I have since branched out. My travels introduced me to strange new cuisines, and I love them all. Teeth are needed to eat no matter what you enjoy. Italian food requires teeth. Mexican food requires teeth. So does Chinese, Thai, German, and everything else not being served from a blender. From this point of view teeth are my friend.

Despite their helpfulness with food, my teeth have led to much pain in my life. The mere existence of teeth supports the need for a dentist. This person is paid great sums of money to execute a legal form of torture. I've had numerous bouts with the dentist. Most of my teeth have fillings. I have always brushed my teeth, but small cavities cropped up anyway. I haven't had one in around ten years, but I think that's because every tooth in my head is already filled. The removal of many of my baby teeth required professional help. I even had three permanent teeth pulled because my mouth was too small. Then there are the wisdom teeth. I had those removed too. Everyone is aware of the joys of wisdom teeth removal.

Throughout my life these two areas seemed to balance each other out. I would put up with my teeth's misbehavior in order to eat the foods I love. Not only that, but I once heard you had to eat in order to survive. Teeth are a necessary thing.

Fast forward to life with a 5 1/2 month old baby. Based on information I received from a stranger at Wal-Mart, Braden may be teething. He has always been a happy baby enjoying everyone and everything. In the past few days this normally cheerful baby has turned on us. He is only happy for very brief intervals. Those all too short times are followed up by crying and copious amounts of slobber. Nothing can keep him happy for very long.

Dealing with an unhappy baby is a trying thing. We are constantly trying to find new things that might make him happy. After all he can only eat and nap so much.

This new development has made up my mind. Teeth are evil. I can stand them hurting me in return for help with the food. Now they are hurting my son which in turn makes life unpleasant for everyone. Hopefully the culprit will show his face soon enough. Then we can return to a joyful existence until the next tooth tries to make its escape from the gum line.

Happy Birthday

I wanted to write a quick post today just to say Happy Birthday to my wife Arica. She keeps our family running. Without her Braden and I would both be lost.

So today I took off from work in order to give her a break. I am forgoing engineering to be a stay at home dad. Of course my run as a stay at home Dad will be pursued with a safety net. Arica will be here should I falter or should I need a helping hand. I only hope she can get some much needed rest today and enjoy her birthday.

The day is off to a good start. Arica was able to sleep in which is a rarity for anyone in this house. Later I plan to bake her a cake. I love cooking, but I am no baker. This will be my first cake ever. Arica is the normal baker, but she can't bake her own birthday cake.

Today I will certainly be reminded how much she does for us every day by attempting to do it myself. So once again Happy Birthday Arica and thanks for everything you do.

Free Parenting Advice

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Don't be fooled by the title. I am offering no advice today. Frankly I don't have any advice to offer. Apparently I'm the only person on earth that feels that way.

I am sure every parent has noticed the flooding of advice you get when you have a kid. The advice starts even before your child is born. When my wife was pregnant we got constant comments from everyone we met whether they knew us or not. That train kept right on rolling after Braden was born.

We were at the store recently when one of these incidents occurred. I am sure you regular readers can guess what store we were frequenting. We came around the end of an isle and were met by an "Ohhhh! He's so cute!" We enjoy compliments as much as the next person so we offered our appreciation. That would have been a good place for this conversation to end. Instead the complete stranger says "He's drooling. He is probably cutting teeth." It's hard to recreate this incident on paper. You readers can't see the air of superiority this lady was projecting. The "you should thank me for enlightening you" smirk is undetectable in this writing. I truly believe this woman thought she had done a great service to the world.

I am sure many of you think this is no big deal. You think I should take it easy. I guess it is OK for strange people that you just met to tell you things about your child. I, however, wanted to ask the lady if she had any feeding tips. Maybe she would like to instruct me on the proper way to change a diaper.

Instead I just smiled and walked away muttering under my breath. Children have many affects on people. They turn a lot of people into babbling idiots, myself included. I never understood before I had a child, but sometimes you can't help but make those silly noises. Anything that makes the baby smile or laugh is fun. The little creatures can certainly instill feelings of love, pride, and a million other emotions as well.

One of the craziest things a baby can do, in my opinion, is turn random strangers into experts. Everyone on the planet has an opinion on everything that relates to babies. They have no reservations about sharing said opinions with everyone they meet. People will tell you your baby is teething. They will tell you he has a tummy ache. They will tell you he is going to be short, tall, fat, skinny, smart, a ladies man, a football player, or virtually anything else imaginable. A family friend told us our son would be good at sports because he has a big head. This man is a very successful doctor by the way. What gets into these people to make them say such crazy things. I guess it's a good thing that babies eventually grow up. If they stayed infants forever they would probably control the world.

Next time someone suggests our son is teething I think I will disagree. I will look them straight in the eye and say, "No he's not. Our species doesn't even have teeth."