When my wife came home from work today I was a bit crabby. Gavin and I had a good day together and everything, but I was ready for my shift to be over. My allergies were bothering me and I was really tired. "Two weeks with Gavin starting to feel like a lot?" she asked.
"It's been three weeks, Honey," I said. "Three." And then I thought, "Holy shit, has it really been three weeks already?" Mind you I'm jumping the gun a bit since Friday lies before us (lay before us? I am not good the whole lay/lie thing. I do know that lye is not a good thing to get on your skin, though).
Uh, oh. Gavin is crying. It's 9:30 so he's been in bed since before 7. He's not screaming. He's making his pissed off trilling sound. Kind of sounds like he's rolling the letter D, much like how in Spanish you roll the letter R. And by "you" I mean you since I can't do it. This really pissed off my exploratory Spanish teacher in junior high. As if I were faking my inability or something. But I still can't do it. And my wife is a Spanish teacher so it's clearly not something I have against the language.
I realize that writing that my son is crying right now makes me seem like an asshole. I mean, I'm obviously not going to get him. Because I'm on the Internet. And that's important. Babies just don't understand. I'm kidding. Sometimes he cries at night but then gets himself back to sleep. If he's not asleep by around the 15 minute mark, then I go soothe him. Granted, if he were screaming or something seemed out of the ordinary, I would go to him right away. I'm not a monster.
Speaking of out of the ordinary, the last nap he took today he slept for almost an hour and a half. For months now his naps have been 45 minutes like clockwork. When I realized that he'd been sleeping for almost an hour I went to check on him, convinced he was dead, that he'd flipped himself over onto his stomach and died of SIDS. Of course, if he wasn't dead, I didn't want to wake him up, so I didn't, like, fling open his door or anything. I opened it quietly and watched him intently, looking for a rising and falling chest. My eyesight isn't great, so I couldn't see anything from across the room but as I was about to move further I saw his hand twitch. A sign of life. And then he slept another 20 minutes.
Okay. So I just went to check on and soothe Gavin. He was on his stomach and had his head in the corner of his crib. This is his new thing. We obviously can't prevent him from sleeping on his stomach since he can get there on his own. I suppose we could tie him down or keep vigil by his bedside. Maybe rig up some kind of alarm that would sound the moment his belly and the mattress met. It's not the stomach sleeping that is a problem. It's the creeping. I can't imagine it's super comfortable to sleep with your head in the corner of a crib. So I readjusted him and then scooped him up to let him calm down. Then back in his crib he went, which pissed him off. I soothed him further by patting him on the chest. He really likes rhythmic patting. If he's on his stomach I'll pat his back, but since we put him to sleep on his back I figured why not trying patting out a rhythm on his sternum. And he likes that very much. As soon as I stop he starts to cry again, but it helps soothe him enough that even when I leave the room then, the crying doesn't last for very long. Which is what happened now.
Today was a big day for us. Our first official social activity. Yesterday I signed Gavin and myself up for Baby Time at the Ferndale Library. Every Thursday at 9:15 in the morning. We were the only new folks in the group. Everyone else knew the songs and stuff. I am not much of a "sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' in public" kind of person, but I did sing, quietly, right into Gavin's ear as he scratched his fingernails through the industrial carpet we were sitting on. Baby Time basically goes like this: moms (there were no dads) and kids gather on the floor. Lady in charge sings a song welcoming each kid (sung to the tune of "Frère Jacques"). Then everybody sings a song about friends or something (it went by so fast. I was given a song sheet, but I was primarily focusing my attention on Gavin so that he didn't tip over on his little carpet square and also looking at him looking at everything). Then a couple of other songs are sung. Then the lady in charge reads a book. And that book was (is always? I don't know, but all of the other kids already knew all of the hand motions and everything) Itsy Bitsy Spider. A quick read. Then after the very brief story, it's playtime and the lady in charge busts out a basket full of toys and the kids play for about 15 minutes. This was, I think, Gavin's favorite part (see photo). I haven't seen him do much interacting with other kids so this was interesting. I observed the following: 1. For Gavin, playing with other kids at this point consists of trying to take toys away from them. 2. Other kids' shoes are fascinating and must be touched and would definitely go directly into his mouth if given the chance. Overall, I would say that Baby Time was a success and we will be back next week. And I'll let you know if they hear a different story.
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