How Do They Do It?

I don't know how these father's do it.

I'm talking about the ones who just ignore their children and toss everything onto the young mother. The audacity it takes to say "Let her do it" is as selfish as it is stupid.

I know of a guy who is taking just such a stance with his first child. I think the blame can be spread onto both parents here. He's a selfish and naive sort to put himself and his "needs" ahead of those of the baby and mother. I've been raised to believe and have understood from scripture that the true meaning of love has more to do with serving the ones you love than feeling butterflies in your stomach.

The mother owns some blame too for letting this happen. If there's ever a justifiable time to be selfish for a woman, it's after giving birth. I know she's still sore, I know her body is recovering from the most radical and rapid changes it will ever incur, and I know that caring for an infant is exhausting.

I'm no sage and my wisdom is more than offset by my ignorance, but I'm old and wise enough to see that these are not only formative years for my son, but for me and my character as I grow into the man I'll be for the rest of my life. I feel angry toward and sorry for those men who take the first few years off. Shame on you for missing changes that occur faster than a J-lo relationship. And what a pity that will never be able to relive or recreate the many, many moments that make each day of parenthood worthwhile.

Now, someone help me off this soapbox.

Roadtrippin...

"Roadtrippin with my two favorite allies/Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies..." -Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We have now been on two road trips with our son, who is now 6 1/2 months old. The first in February when he was only three months, we loaded up and headed from our home in Kentucky to Tampa, Florida. Nothing like a nice 11-12 hour car ride with an infant.

Our son travels pretty well overall. He slept most of that trip down and good deal of it back. (Car rides are like Thanksgiving dinner for babies...a tip that will serve new parents well.) That is not to say the trip was without incident. It certainly was not.

When your child is breastfeeding, long car rides are difficult. We did our best by parking in the back corners of parking lots and trying to stay mostly out of the way so my wife could have some privacy. (Note to self...get windows tinted in the car.)

The most fun on the first trip was the poop explosion. Of course you know its going to happen. Our worst one occurred on the drive home. I had ran inside of a convenient store while my wife was feeding our son in the back of the parking lot. As I walked back to the car, she popped the trunk without saying a word. Cleaning off a child and changing his clothes in a Ford Taurus should be an Olympic event. As should the Tetris like effort of stacking luggage, play yards, extra diapers, wipes, etc in the back of said Taurus.

Road trip number two was a relatively short jaunt to Birmingham just two weeks ago. The key to roadtripping with a baby is let that baby sleep. I don't understand the parents who are so schedule oriented that they'll wake a baby up and make him eat, or change his diaper. Here's some knowledge for you parents: When babies are tired, babies will sleep. How would you like your spouse waking you up at 3 AM and saying, "Honey, don't you want to go eat a snack right now?"

RT2 was completely without incident, and for that I'm thankful. We conquered our fears of roadtripping with a baby. So if you're scared, don't be. Just take lots of diapers, tons of wipes and always have an extra outfit handy for the poop explosions. The rest is cream cheese.

Teething or Seething?

Is my son teething little, painful, nearly invisible teeth? Or does he simply seeth at the thought of listening to preachers preach?

My happy, joyful son seems to be in a good mood 80-90% of the time. But when we sit in a pew for a nice Sunday sermon it seems like the kid always ends up fussy. This weekend we made a trip to Birmingham, AL to see some friends. My boy was pretty good in his first ever bible class. Then he sucked down a bottle and fell asleep when we began worship service.

Then out of nowhere he woke up during the sermon and started fussing. It's one thing for a baby to be fussy. But when my poor, abused wife took him to the nursery he went hog wild. Thankfully the nursery was very well insulated against sound. But you could still hear him screaming at the top of his lungs.

So either we need Anbesol or the services of two priests armed with holy water. The saga continues.

Missed It By That Much

The first mother's day for a new parent is a trial. You can't come up short with your gift. It's a bit unnerving until you are finally blessed with that idea that will make you a gift-hero.

Many men are confused about what a good mother's day gift ought to be. There's something to be said for decking out your wife in some high quality jewelry (bling, as the kids call it.) And there's certainly something to be said for the overused, yet often appreciated, gift of a baby booty charm with the child's birth stone in it.

But jewelry is not your only option my friends. Good thing too, since I can scarcely afford to get the jewelry that comes out of the quarter machines at Wal-Mart, let alone anything of significant value. No instead I was forced to be sneaky, and resourceful.

I asked myself, "What makes my wife happy?" Answer: our son and trips to Red Lobster. I got it half right, but going to Red Lobster on Mother's Day is like waiting for the new roller coaster at your favorite theme park. NO THANK YOU.

So I did what any double-naught spy would do. I snuck my son out of day-care and went to have our portrait taken. I'm going to do something now I've never done before. I'm going to reccommend Wal-Mart. That's right, Wal-Mart. I was impressed. I had a 12:30 appointment (this was done on my one hour lunch break) and it went great. Great pictures, great surprise, great gift and my son was brilliant. He was smiling from ear to ear in each of the seven poses.

I couldn't manage to keep the pictures from my wife until Mother's Day. I tried. I stayed strong up until the proverbial twelfth hour, but I broke Saturday night and showed them to her.

Job well done Daddy. I'm rather proud of myself, I must say.

S.O.S., Save Our Son (from sickness)

The cold that will not end...hasn't ended. My son still has a little rattle in his chest and is still coughing quite a bit. He's begun antibiotics. We didn't want to do that, but this cough has lingered long enough.

Dr. Speeddoctor, our pediatrician, recommended Robitussin CF. It's for cough and congestion. Sounds good right? Notsomuch. Aiden hates it. At first he'd spit out a little of it. Then he'd spit it all out. Then I held his cheeks so he couldn't spit it out (and BOY did that make him mad.) Then last night he'd spit the second it hit his mouth.

So I'm asking for help. I know the readers of this blog are few and far between, but if you do read it and you have a suggestion to help us get our son to take this cough medicine I am open to it. I'm flunking Cough Medicine 101 at this point. Please use the comments field to offer tips.

Cold Update

My son is STILL dealing with his cold. It's lowered down into his chest which means lots and lots of coughing. My brother knows what that is like with my nephew. God bless them, it's tough. But it gives me opportunity to talk about a new phenomenon. Speed doctoring.

I love our pediatrician. He's great. A man of Indian descent (accent indicates he probably is an immigrant actually) who is very competent and relays a feeling of calm. He encourages questions, which any good pediatrician would. Then he gives his answers...in light speed.

To say this man talks fast is like saying that Rosie ODonnell is curious. He zooms through diagnoses and suggested treatment. I'm sure I've never talked for more than 3 minutes with him. Friday we took our son in to check on this lingering cold. In less than one minute he checked him out, told us it was a cold that would run its course, suggested Robitussin CF, told us to pat him on the back with some effort to loosen things up, said he doesn't like to prescribe anitbiotics to infants, said if he's not better by Monday give him a call and he'll call him in a prescription.

And one minute might be stretching it. He could have worked in a monologue on the impending nuclear tensions with Iran and provided definitive proof that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll.

There's usually not a long wait for our Doctor (in doctor hours that is.) Normal doctors in my experience can get you into an exam room and they'll see you within the hour. If you're lucky. The pediatrician is usually in the room within 10-15 minutes at the very latest and then you're walking out the door not 5 minutes later. So there are no long doctor visits for our son. Which any parent will tell you, ROCKS!

So the update on Aiden's cold is that he's still fighting it, and it's winning. But hopefully today will turn it all around.

Choosing Who To Support

There’s a time in every young man’s life when he must choose where his loyalties will lay. When he lays aside infatuations and affinities and gives himself fully to only one. When the opinions of others are mere buzzing flies swirling around his head to distract him from what his heart knows to be right. When he must choose which college basketball program to be a fan of.

For our son, that was at his birth. Acting on his behalf, we chose our alma mater Western Kentucky University. He’s already appeared in the Alumni magazine for WKU, dressed in a WKU sleeper alongside WKU mascot Big Red and next to a WKU towel.

And this weekend we added to his convictions (of which he is unaware) by dressing him in another WKU outfit. An outfit bought by friends of ours who work for WKU and have their season tickets right next to ours.

Freedom of choice is overrated.

And Now Introducing...CARROTS!

Ah the simple joys of parenting. Not the least of which is laughing yourself silly at the expense of the little one whose motor skills are not quite at professional athlete level. Dexterity is something I think we take for granted. Seeing a kid grab a spoon probably has very little effect on the non-parent. But for a first time mom or dad, it's as exciting as getting the IRS refund check.

Our son has been eating cereal for several weeks, as you've seen. And now he has ventured into the wonderful world of vegetables. Now that he's eaten and enjoyed two different kinds of vegetables (squash and carrots) he's pretty much eating more than his uncle who consumes only french fries (which don't count) and corn.

Ok, his uncle probably eats more vegetables than that, but it's not much more. I suspect nephew will surpass uncle by the end of the month. He's taken to vegetables very well. I sincerely hope he grows to like a lot of them. Because I want him to be very healthy? Sure, I suppose that's true. But mostly because a can of Green Giant is much cheaper than a pound of beef. It's all about the bottom line baby!

Cold Tag

No, cold tag is not a run and chase game played in the snow. It's when one family member catches a cold, passes it to another, who passes it to another, who passes it to yet another. You get the idea.

My wife's job exposes her to quite a bit of sickness from time to time. She works in the social work field and so is exposed to many people who aren't 100% healthy and often aren't 100% clean. So she picked up a cold a couple weeks ago.

She gave the cold to our son.

Our son gave the cold to me.

Never one to leave a bad deed unpunished, it seems I've given it back to him.

It's no fun and I'm sure deep in her heart my wife resents me for giving him another cold. I'll take some of that responsibility. Let's just hope that this is the end of this cycle and that once he's rid of it, we expel cold bugs/viruses from our home for a while.