It's All Good
Day 7 - A tiring day. It's 2 hours ahead of my 1st week's bedtime of midnight, and I'm ready for bed.
Even though today was exhausting due to last night's lack of sleep, and Michelle and I both longed to take a nap all day long (she took a short one in between afternoon feedings - I ran some errands), we were still blessed with a little bit of magic parent dust. Today, Lian gave her first hint of learning how to suck her fingers. Now that may sound very simple and unimportant to you, but to us, the implications of that were that she now has an alternative to sucking on one of our fingers in order to calm herself down. You don't know how good that makes us feel ....one step closer to baby independence.
Her little fingers, by the way, are fascinating to watch. For those of you who have had kids, this is old hat to you, but for those of you, like us, who haven't experienced this yourselves, your baby's fingers are like the tentacles of a drugged octopus. Sometimes the pinky will stick out, sometimes the thumb will be tucked under the index finger, sometimes all 5 will be splayed out and slap across her face. So when she attempted today to put her fingers in her mouth it was an exercise in timing more than anything - could she actually time it so that when her fingers hit her lips (of course they don't go right in her mouth) they would be straight enough so that she could slide them over to her opened mouth? Collectively, we saw her succeed twice, and try at least four times. Must be frustrating being so close and yet so far.
In my ongoing struggle to remain in ... who am I kidding, I mean regain ... control, I decided to wash the car today. What a relief. I'm back on top again - the drink stains are gone, and the spilled raisins and dried cranberries are all cleaned up. Our shiny silver VW is a testament to the ocean of calm this newborn daddy is working hard to project to the outside world, though even more, to himself. The kitchen sink is another story.
But speaking about the kitchen sink, I can tell you that I'm becoming an expert dinner planner already. Michelle and I (yes, I'm a lucky man since she decided to help me tonight) whipped together a salad, dressing bread, cheese, fruit salad, wine (what a treat) and fried pig's liver that her mom prepared for us, in all of 7 minutes flat.
This was all-the-more an accomplishment for us since Lian was bawling the entire time - I had her in our vibrating chair on the dryer (I had it running in the hopes that the heat and noise might calm her down - fat chance), and rushed over to her every minute to shake the chair a little and add to the battery-powered vibrations it was generating. All I can say is, battery manufacturers must be one of the biggest opponents to family planning. I went to Radio Shack today and spent $32 on the ubiquitous Size D battery. For those of you, like me, whose home and office gizmo's relied on A's and AA's, you'll learn that those tiny little Alkalines don't power anything that you'll use when you have a baby.
A Small Selection of Size D Energy Suckers: the Vibrating Chair (3), the Swinging Fish on the Vibrating Chair (3 - yes, it's its own Energizer Eater), the Baby Swing (4), the Baby Mobile (2). But let me tell you, I have absolutely no regrets over that battery purchase whatsoever. If ever our Baby Swing were to break, I would be one hapless father, so however many Energizers it eats, I will gladly feed it - anytime of the day or night.
Even though today was exhausting due to last night's lack of sleep, and Michelle and I both longed to take a nap all day long (she took a short one in between afternoon feedings - I ran some errands), we were still blessed with a little bit of magic parent dust. Today, Lian gave her first hint of learning how to suck her fingers. Now that may sound very simple and unimportant to you, but to us, the implications of that were that she now has an alternative to sucking on one of our fingers in order to calm herself down. You don't know how good that makes us feel ....one step closer to baby independence.
Her little fingers, by the way, are fascinating to watch. For those of you who have had kids, this is old hat to you, but for those of you, like us, who haven't experienced this yourselves, your baby's fingers are like the tentacles of a drugged octopus. Sometimes the pinky will stick out, sometimes the thumb will be tucked under the index finger, sometimes all 5 will be splayed out and slap across her face. So when she attempted today to put her fingers in her mouth it was an exercise in timing more than anything - could she actually time it so that when her fingers hit her lips (of course they don't go right in her mouth) they would be straight enough so that she could slide them over to her opened mouth? Collectively, we saw her succeed twice, and try at least four times. Must be frustrating being so close and yet so far.
In my ongoing struggle to remain in ... who am I kidding, I mean regain ... control, I decided to wash the car today. What a relief. I'm back on top again - the drink stains are gone, and the spilled raisins and dried cranberries are all cleaned up. Our shiny silver VW is a testament to the ocean of calm this newborn daddy is working hard to project to the outside world, though even more, to himself. The kitchen sink is another story.
But speaking about the kitchen sink, I can tell you that I'm becoming an expert dinner planner already. Michelle and I (yes, I'm a lucky man since she decided to help me tonight) whipped together a salad, dressing bread, cheese, fruit salad, wine (what a treat) and fried pig's liver that her mom prepared for us, in all of 7 minutes flat.
This was all-the-more an accomplishment for us since Lian was bawling the entire time - I had her in our vibrating chair on the dryer (I had it running in the hopes that the heat and noise might calm her down - fat chance), and rushed over to her every minute to shake the chair a little and add to the battery-powered vibrations it was generating. All I can say is, battery manufacturers must be one of the biggest opponents to family planning. I went to Radio Shack today and spent $32 on the ubiquitous Size D battery. For those of you, like me, whose home and office gizmo's relied on A's and AA's, you'll learn that those tiny little Alkalines don't power anything that you'll use when you have a baby.
A Small Selection of Size D Energy Suckers: the Vibrating Chair (3), the Swinging Fish on the Vibrating Chair (3 - yes, it's its own Energizer Eater), the Baby Swing (4), the Baby Mobile (2). But let me tell you, I have absolutely no regrets over that battery purchase whatsoever. If ever our Baby Swing were to break, I would be one hapless father, so however many Energizers it eats, I will gladly feed it - anytime of the day or night.
posted by Note Buyer at 9:55 PM
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