Trying to figure this whole parenting thing out.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Week 20 Day 5: All bear, part monkey

Little Dude is hollering from his crib right now. It's almost 11 p.m. He's been asleep since 7. I'm hoping he goes back to sleep on his own. No doubt this is what Stacy is hoping for, too, since she's already gone to bed.  So now I'm sitting in the living room with "should I stay or should I go now?" rumbling through my head. He might actually need me. Or he might not. He's not crying especially hard, and there are no desperate wails to be heard. Mostly soft crying with some hollering. He definitely doesn't sound content, but nor does it sound like an emergency. Then again, as far as I know he could've soaked through his clothes and be covered in poo. Or have an earache or, more likely, a teething ache. Or a fever. Or manged to get his head wedged in the corner of his crib and is too tired to figure out how to back out of it.

That's the hardest part of having a baby, I think. The not knowing. All of the guesswork. I mean, if Stacy started crying soon after she went to bed I wouldn't even hesitate to go check on her and ask her what was wrong. Well, assuming that I wasn't watching something really good on television. But first commercial and I'd be right there.

Gavin, on the other hand, can have his entire night's sleep derailed by an unnecessary visit from one of his moms. Conversely, if he really does need us and we want too long to go in and check on and/or soothe him, he can also have his entire night's sleep derailed. Which means, of course, that our sleep is derailed as well. And Stacy and I both love Sleep. Admittedly our relationship with Sleep isn't entirely healthy at this point. It's kind of an on again off again kind of affair. That largely started when Gavin was born. But we want Sleep to know that we still love her and there will always be a place for her in our hearts. We appreciate her willingness to always take us back at a moment's notice. Nights without her are very, very long.

Good news: Bear is now quiet again, back to sleep. No intervention was required. Let's hope he doesn't wake up again until tomorrow morning. And by "tomorrow morning" I am hoping for 6:30 at the earliest. 7:00 would be great. This morning he woke up at 5:00. That is way, way too early. It's like, "Dude, this isn't prison. You're allowed to sleep in."

So I finished installing Gavin's car seat today. Once I figured out how to get the LATCH belt installed actually getting it in the car wasn't that hard. Tightening the belt was the toughest part. It basically takes every ounce of strength you have -- and let's be honest, I'm not exactly a powerhouse. But I feel pretty confident that it's secure. Now I need to put the seat we'd taken out of my car and put into the van back into my car. Then both vehicles will have their very own carseat and we will never have to take them out again. Ever. Even after he outgrows them. He'll just have to sit in a different seat. Because these car seats aren't moving, Buddy. Except, of course, when he gets too big to use them rear facing and we have to turn them around. But then, then they're forever. And ever. Amen.

Gavin and I went over Rosemary's today to visit with her and her kids. Stacy met us there after work. Gavin digs being at other people's houses and playing with other kids' toys and it's good for us to be out. Best of all was having Rosemary's girls and my son all in the same room, something that doesn't happen nearly often enough. It's hard to coordinate. It seems like every time Gavin and I are healthy someone in her family is not. None of us ever seem to get colds at the same time. And her girls are in day care part of the week, which means they're exposed to more kids and more germs as a result. But thankfully it worked out today. Her youngest seems like a totally new little girl with the curliest hair ever. Like I said, it's been too long. And kids grow so freaking fast. Rosemary remarked about how much Gavin has grown, too. And she called his feet "practically four dimensional" because they're so fat. He really does have chunky feet. He had a lot of fun watching the girls romp around and crawling in and out of their igloo tent. I dressed him in jean short overalls and he looked like a little country boy, especially since he was barefoot. At Rosemary's house in between the living room and the dining room is a step, so the dining room is slightly elevated. Gavin was crawling along and just crawled right up as if he'd been encountering stairs all of his life. There was just no hesitation on his part. Just one hand up, other hand up, first knee, second knee, continue on... As I mentioned yesterday, climbing is his new thing. And he is not tentative about it at all. He may be a Bear, but he's definitely part monkey.

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