What We Have Learned (So Far)

There's so much that I didn't anticipate in regards to having a baby/being a parent. POOP One of the more humourous things is that poop has meaning! LOL! I figured that I'd see poopy diapers and that they may be different colors, etc. I NEVER thought I'd be paying attention to how many poops K had each day as well as the color and consistency - all of this to determine what's going on inside him and his body! I used to be disgusted by even thinking about poop/diapers. Now, not so much. That's not to say that I'd like to stare at it all day long for the rest of my life, but since it "means something" I have an entirely different perspective. (Much like the mashed potato mountain Richard Dryfuss made in Close Encounters). NO SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS I have no idea when this happened. We got up last weekend and thought it'd be fun to watch some cartoons with K since he's starting to be able to follow bold colors, etc. After flipping through who-knows-how-many-channels, we found ABSOLUTELY NO CARTOONS. Not a damn thing! I was totally bummed. I can remember when I was a child I'd get up at 5:30am and put together my blanket "fort" and get my cereal/munchies ready (all this while the farm report was on). Then at 6 am came the cartoons! Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo, Captain Caveman - hours and hours of cartoons. Now, there's informercials and news. No wonder kids are rolling out of bed, into their reclining chairs with xbox controller in hand. There's nothing to fucking watch! IF BABY IS HAPPY, PARENTS ARE HAPPY I don't think I need to explain it any clearer. MAMA LOOK/VOICE K was hating his bath (as usual) last night and towards the end he was screaming his head off and turning beat red. We go through this every night (bath/bottle/bed) and I keep reassuring him in a calm, cute-mama tone. Finally I had had enough (not in a "I'm losing my patience" sort of way, but really the screaming was quite over the top) and abandoned the cute mama voice for a deeper tone and reassured him that he was okay and to calm down. I must've had a mama look to go along with it, because it worked! K cried a couple more times, but I followed it up with the deeper tone of voice and he calmed down. **We'll see how well this goes and if I do indeed have a mama look after tonight's bath. TAKING A TEMPERATURE I have become very skilled at taking a rectal temperature. I don't know that this deserves a badge of honor as I don't enjoy doing it. However, before each time we make a call to the Ped's office we have to do this - in case they ask (and they ALWAYS ask). PUNK BAND MAKES KIDS ALBUMS NOW I was browsing for Clifford the Big Red Dog (K's "favorite" right now - mainly because he's big and red) DVD's and ran across They Might Be Giants. I was taken back to my punk days when TMBG served as my soundtrack while I walked/cycled to the university for classes. Now, they make kids music. Who would've thought! Of course, who would've thought I'd be married and have a child! LOL CAR SEATS MAKE GOOD BEDS Especially when K was sick. Now, he loves it. Won't sleep anywhere else for more than an hour. TRANSITIONING FROM CAR SEAT TO CRIB IS GOING TO BE CHALLENGING See above. BABY MILESTONES They're beginning. K rolled over from his belly to his back yesterday. Of course he was only able to do it once, but that's how things begin. J and I were (of course) ecstatic and probably made more to do about it than other people would. We don't care. It's cool to see how K is growing and doing more things. He "found" his hands over the past 2 weeks and they are in his mouth all the time. Practically everything goes straight to his mouth at this point. He is also holding his head steady and able to raise it up (from tummy position) for about 5-10 seconds. K is still learning to look around while his head is up. If it takes too much work, though, he just puts his head down and mushes his face into the blanket he's laying on (to avoid carpet rash). Now is when we can really start interacting with him. He's starting to recognize us and smile/laugh at certain things. Now is the fun part. I'm excited to start feeding him on rice cereal after our appt with the Ped next month. It will be messy, but totally fun! BABIES + NEW TASTE = BEWILDERED/FUNNY FACE When we gave K some infant tylenol before his shots last month, he made quite the face. Consider that K hasn't had anything but formula/breastmilk since he was born and then introduce grape flavored liquid medicine. He got this look of "what the hell?!" when I squirted the tylenol in there and it made me laugh. I wish I could've gotten a picture of it. ************************************************************ I think that covers things up to this point. Sure, there are other things, but I think I've mentioned them already and since this post has become quite lengthy I will leave it at that. There will definitely be more to come.