Updates to babygirl

Babygirl, you're one day shy of being a dozen weeks old!

This past wknd being Patriots Day here in Boston, as well as Marathon Monday, daddy had a long wknd, and a long wknd it was spending with you. There was many moments of quality time all wknd long. I'm even beginning to think that you're even liking me a little bit more than the previous weeks. You're able to endure long periods of me holding you, and just hanging out with you, all this is evident by your smiles, new noises, and the sounds of premature laughs/giggles.

Some of the things you've enjoyed is daddy beatboxing, choreographing movements for various songs he sings, or general infant calisthenics to give those joints range of motion. You particularly like fist pumping, bilateral arm swings, and knee bends. We had a nice long walk in the arboretum, where I had you harnessed in the carrier, you slept the whole time, so I guess you liked it.

Mamma has been reading you kiddy books with pictures, while daddy continues to read you updates from Team Slipstream, Sports Illustrated articles, or anything else that daddy likes to read. Since there haven't been any vocal complaints with daddy's selection of readings, I will continue until you get bored and demand colored pictures about koalas, worms, or bears.

If you were wondering, there are less poopy diapers throughout the day, but that just means there's a 50/50 chance that we may have an explosive mess to clean up from time to time. Of course cloth diapering continues to be a big hit with your butt- no rash, and no complaints. Hopefully we'll have you in underoos in no time.

Yesterday daddy was able to get away and play some ultimate! I've been itching to play shortly after you were born. It was good to get out there, and scrimmage against a team that I was familiar with. Of course the team that I picked up was not so familiar to me, but it was good times. Like I told mamma, "expect cuts and blood," and of course I didn't disappoint. One left handed layout attempt at a pass that looked like it was for me, but wasn't, led to scrapes on the elbow, hip, and knee area, and minimal blood. As for first time playing and throwing since the fall, I felt pretty good. Had some good throws, no dropped passes, no stupid throws, and holstered the hucks. I also had one lucky D, where I jumped in front of my defender with my back towards the disc, and able to knock the flight of the disc away from my opponent, and negated the other teams attempt to score, yeah daddy!

Other than that, daddy's been able to run at least 2 times a week for the past 3 weeks, and that's been feeling great. Not feeling entirely fast, but hoping to get back some speed, lose some this slowly growing gut. I've also started doing yoga workouts from the DVR, pretty good way to start the morning while you're asleep of course. So now that you're older, daddy's been a bit more active, and even mamma's getting the itch to get away from strollering, and get back to rock climbing and what not.

You've been a joy so far, and you're doing some cool things these days, I hope that I can just keep up with you and catch them along the way!

large coinslot?

You might be wondering what does coinslot have to do with being a dad? Well it has to do with everything in the end.

Let me first back up this truck for just a quick minute. If your babymamma and you used to fight about not putting the dishes away, after lil baby arrives, most likely babymamma and you will have a fight at some point for not putting away baby's clothes, toys, etc. If you're a dad like me who has developed all these neurotic and OCD like ways of accomplishing tasks/chores/activities, and you expect others to learn and fully embrace the "daddy way," you might be the same way when it comes to taking care of your baby.

If one has all these neurotic ways of doing things, of course any other way than the "daddy way" is always going to seem so silly, naive, or futile to me. For instance this babydaddy likes to fill the car up with gas when there's 1/4 tank left, why would one delay the inevitable any longer? Ask me how many times I've been caught with no gas in the tank? That's right, never, and I intend to keep it that way. Of course it would just blow my neurotic mind if babymamma would ever let the refueling process go until the warning light went on (Just to set the record, babymamma has always been diligent at keeping the car gassed up). The point is that I have accumulated a whole mess of ways of doing things, and of course this has translated to being a dad as well.

As I've mentioned before, we've been cloth diapering baby girl. Of course since the start of diapering, there have been a series of the "daddy way" of diapering. Such as, since babygirl's first days of life at the hospital, I just assumed that I wouldn't want some strange man undiapering me, an wiping my butt with a wet washcloth. So being the empathic human-being that I am, I would give babygirl a sign, I would give babygirl a warning wipe off to the side of her butt, just to let her know that daddy is about to plunge into the nooks and crannies of her girl parts for a cleaning with something wet. Of course this continued as we came home, and started using wipes (being the practical parents that babymamma and I are, we opted not to get a babywipe warmer) I would continue to give her the cold warning wipe to the side to let babygirl know how cold this wipe was going to be, and she could brace herself for the unpleasantness of someone wiping her bottom.

One of the biggest things that I've made sure in cloth diapering, was the position and the tautness of the diaper. As I've mentioned before I liken changing a diaper to a full service pitstop for a NASCAR driver, there's a need for organized speed, and crucial elements that need to be taken care of. From day one, I've always wanted a taut diaper for my babygirl, cuz that's what this daddy thought was best for babygirl. The thought of poopy pants, explosive poops that blow through diapers, or God forbid a poopy bed sheet in the middle of the night seemed like things I would not like to experience, and completely avoidable.

To counter my poopy nightmares, I figured the "daddy way" is going to be all about a taut diaper that will contain all runny fecal matter where it's suppose to be. Of course the reality of keeping poop in the diaper and diaper cover is tougher than all the precautionary steps one dad can take, but I like to think "daddy's way" is still pretty good. On the other hand, diapers that babymamma places on babygirl, have led to some uncontained explosions. Of course there is no scientific proof of this or any way of confirming this, but this is what I like to think. (not that I'm hating on my babymamma, I love her dearly!)

As babygirl is currently in the 90th percentile in length, positioning of the diaper is important. I understand that sometimes babygirl is fussin' during a change, or that babymamma's tired, but sometimes babygirl's diaper is just sagging like a straight up thug when I go to change her. Of course babymamma would say that this occurs because babygirl is squirmy, active, and cuz the shear amount of pee and poop in the diaper has weighed down the diaper. I like to think "daddy's way" of proper positioning and tautness would have avoided such things.

Now bringing it back to coinslot here. Not sure if babygirl's is just long or large(however you want to look at it) due to her 90th percentile in length but, the "daddy way" is all about covering every bit of coinslot when he's diapering. This may mean that our babygirl looks like the Steve Urkel of babies, with her diaper hiked up way high, but when I go to change that poopy diaper, ya know what, all that runny poop is where it's suppose to be- all up in the coinslot, and in the diaper.

Long story short, or at this point, to make an already long story from getting any longer, the "daddy way" of diapering is: 1) Making sure that babygir's diaper is covering all of her coinslot 2) Taut enough around the waist to prevent any sagging 3) Covering every bit of cloth with the diaper cover to prevent any leaks. Of course this being the "daddy way," it's not babymamma's way all the time, and of course this become a point of contention. Ain't no blows being traded, nor at this point I wouldn't even call them fights, but it's one of those things when I'm changing a diaper, I shake my head and think, this is definitely not the "daddy way."

And for this reason, I may have in the past said something to babymamma about diapering the "daddy way" and then a verbal exchange would ensue. Which of course is why I like to warn all the dad's to be, whatever that it is that allows for unpleasant discussions to occur at loud or low volumes, those patterns and themes of why those happen will only be carried into when this baby arrives. Sure it's all sweet and sugar plums to have your own progeny in the flesh living at your place, but the same relationship struggles just mutate into baby related things.

Here's to all the dad's to be, good luck!

9.5 weeks going on 13 years old

So Wed with daddy #4 went a bit better baby. You and I went to my friend's house who recently gave birth to a little girl just like you, except she had a little peanut head and generally just a bigger baby than she was. Daddy's friend also had a 3 y/o son who liked to talk and talk and talk. I think you weren't used to all this extra noise. On top of that daddy's friend also had her mother there, and she just kind of liked to talk and had something to say about everything.

You didn't embarrass Daddy too much, other than you did go into a mild crying fit, but luckily it didn't take too much to console you and get you napping in a swing. If it's any consolation, Daddy also wanted to cry since he wasn't used to so much talking from a little boy, all he wanted to talk about was how the pinwheel went around and around.

So I don't think you hate me as much as you did last week. Although when I hold you with our faces facing each other, you still fuss and cry. You don't like to be cradled by me. Basically I have to just face you outward, so you can just be ignorant about who's really holding you, I guess basically if it's not Mamma, you're unhappy, and you'll let people know about it.

You were able to eat/drink better this week, since my newly discovered trick of wrapping up your bottle in the burp cloth. Who knows why you'll only take a bottle like this for me, but when Mamma offers you a bottle, it's all good. Maybe only seeing a clear nipple, and having the bottle hidden away is sort of like Mamma's boobs?!? Still trying to figure it out baby. So I'm not feeling the hate as much as I did last week, but Daddy still loves you.

Looks like the weather is going to be nice on my last wed with you. Of course the new babysitter will also be checking in with us but perhaps we can do some fun things like get on the T, and walk around, get lost, and explore. :)

Happy Baby



Baby and the Boy who likes to talk