Howdy gang,
UGH! A
few weeks ago, I was in the process of working on two different blog posts when
I committed a cardinal sin of being nerdy…I didn’t save them. My computer
crashed and I didn’t save either one beforehand. What a dumb ass. I will give
you the short and sweet version of both of those posts.
Post 1:
Teething and work suck.
Post 2:
The Minnesota Wild game was a blast and Elizabeth loved swimming in the hotel
pool.
There
was more of course, but that is the gist of both. So, now on to the new post!
This last weekend we had Easter dinner at my in-laws which also doubled as
Elizabeth’s birthday party. We opted for a very low-key affair with limited
family and no friends. It was perhaps a strange and unpopular choice, but we
stand by it. We’ve been so damn busy lately that the very thought of having to
prepare for, entertain, and clean-up a birthday party sounds like as much fun
as allowing Elizabeth to shit directly in to my open mouth. We love our friends
and our extended family, but we frankly just didn’t have the energy to do the
full shindig.
Elizabeth
still managed to have fun though. Of course, she giggles at her own toes, so it
isn’t very hard to entertain her. She had a wonderful cake that was baked and
decorated by my sister-in-law, she received many books, a few stuffed animals,
a name sign that my Uncle/Godfather made for her; in short, she made out like a
freaking bandit. The books are more appreciated by my wife and I than by Elizabeth
though. We’ve read her existing books so many times that we kind of dread
reading time. I’ve taken to making up my own stories since Elizabeth doesn’t
know what the hell I am really saying anyway. My Father of the Year Award is
most likely in the mail already.
Over
the weekend we had amazingly nice weather. Sun was out, wasn’t too hot, wind
wasn’t terrible, etc. We spent a good chunk of Sunday outside enjoying the swing
set that my in-laws got for Ewok, playing in the grass, going for a walk, and
just generally enjoying NOT being stuck inside. Elizabeth had never really felt
grass until last weekend. Last summer she was “too little” to play in the
grass. I put that in quotations because I call bullshit. My wife had a wee bit
of First Time Parent Syndrome and was/is a touch overprotective. That being
said, I don’t buck it too much because generally speaking my wife is far
smarter than I am and as a general rule I also know jack-shit about raising a
child. So I do my best to just go with the flow.
Anyway,
back to my initial thought/story. She loved pulling out the grass and examining
it with the same look of confusion and intensity that I usually reserve for
when I encounter a salad. She loved getting the fresh air and going for a walk
in her stroller. The more interesting part of the day was her reaction to her
swing. At first we weren’t sure that she liked it. We put her in and gave her a
push and the look on her face was one of utter boredom. A little dismayed, we
pulled her out of it and she proceeded to point at the swing, make a grunt
sound, and then point or hit her own chest. It seemed like she was trying to
tell us to put her back in the swing. We obliged and the cycle continued. When
we went inside the house, she went to the porch window and pointed at her swing
and then pounded on the glass. Now, we’ve been making an extra effort to go
outside and get some fresh air before we do our dinner and bedtime routine. Out
of nowhere this evening, she started just giggling and smiling the whole time
she is in the swing. I’m not sure I will ever figure this damn kid out.
My wife
has been trying to pound in a legit bedtime routine and she has made some great
headway. She is really good about letting us know that she is tired right
around that 7:15 mark. She gets to pick out 3 books, they read them, they move
in to Elizabeth’s bedroom, Elizabeth turns off her bedroom light, and they rock
for a bit before my wife attempts to lay her down in the crib. She has had
limited success with this routine. Most nights, I would say a solid 60% of the
time, she puts herself to sleep in her crib and is OUT by 7:45 or 8. Then there
is the other 40% that is not as successful. For instance, tonight it was 10:00
before my wife was able to get her out. She kept trying to play even though she
was obviously tired. The great accomplishment that my wife has is that, for the
most part, we are down to only 2 wake-ups a night and she is great about just
going back to sleep by herself. That is a great improvement from the 1,248,372
times she was getting up every night. This though has lead to an interesting conundrum…
You
see, I can sleep through anything. And I mean ANYTHING. I’ve literally slept
through a tornado. My wife on the other hand is an incredibly light sleeper. In
theory, this actually shouldn’t be a huge issue because I am also a night owl
while she is the proverbial early bird. So again in theory, one would think
that I would just stay up with Elizabeth (since I am up anyway) and then my
wife would take over from about 5am onward. But here comes the wrench, if Elizabeth
is being fussy (like she is currently due to teething) my wife will wake up for
every single sniffle. So what we end up with, is my wife staying up all night
taking care of Elizabeth, since she won’t be able to sleep anyway and Elizabeth
tends to prefer Mom for comfort, while I stay awake all night playing video
games, surfing the internet, and reading. Before any of you co-parents out
there start getting our torches and pitchforks ready, make sure you read the
part where I strongly imply that I would LIKE to help out. We are going to
attempt a solution that is far from perfect, but that we hope will help. We
will start having me be on the night watch and my wife will start sleeping in
our downstairs guestroom so that she won’t hear Elizabeth fuss or cry. My
prediction though… my wife will attempt this, but will find herself lying in
bed and will keep herself awake because she doesn’t hear anything. I got $20 on
that right now. We will see.
I will
have another post up very soon as I have one in the works and I have saved it
this time. As always, thanks for reading, checkout Fatterhood on Facebook, and
check back soon. Prost!
