Thursday, September 12, 2013

At The Park

So all my daughter ever talks about is going to the park and sliding on the slides.  We have a park about a mile from the house I like to take her to.  It is a very kid friendly park and not much traffic.  So I told her after she took a nap we would go to the park, which she didn't understand she had to nap first.  So she woke up and here we are after a quick stop for ice cream we are playing at the park.  It is a good day to be our here not too hot with some cloud cover makes for a nice day.  Charity's favorite thing to do is to climb up the steps and slide down the slide over and over again.  I don't know that she can ever get tired of the slide.  Over and over she goes up and then back down, it is so much fun watching her.

I'm glad my daughter loves being outside instead of being in front of the tv like I was.  It makes me happy to know I have an active daughter l.  I do wish I had a nicer yard so I could build her some play things in our yard, then she could play outside almost everyday.  The energy she has at 21 months is incredible, she is such a busy body.  There she goes again back down the slide lol. She keeps hollering "hey dadda hey dadda" as she sneaks up behind me to see what I'm doing.

What is it about kids and rocks.  Even at her young age Charity loves to pick up and throw rocks.  Rock throwing must be imbedded into kids DNA since I never tougher her to throw rocks and she is rarely around other kids so it must be a second nature for them.  She keeps putting them on the slide and telling me to go down it lol.  Eventually she decides to slide down through the rock infested slide instead. Well here I go I think I'll show her how it's done.

Well I'm going to get going so I can play with my daughter.  I will do more blogging later on.  I hope y'all are enjoying these posts hope to hear from someone soon.

The "N" Words

There are two words that start with the letter N that come into play with small kids.  One you don't want your kid to learn the other your kid doesn't want you to use.  Those words are NO and NAP.  Kids learn to say no too young these days and it's not something we can prevent.  They can pick it up from almost anywhere and it's a word we as parents dread.  When a kid learns no lookout there is trouble ahead.  My daughter goes to a babysitters when both me and my wife work.  Our sitter is an elderly couple who won't spank, which is fine my and my wife should be the only ones to discipline with an occasional spanking.  So the way our sitter gets on to our daughter is by pointing her index finger and shaking it at our daughter while saying no no no.  Now my daughter runs around the house saying no no no and waving that finger around.  Really what have you thought her to do.  Now my daughter usually does it playing around and never does it out of disrespect, but that's because she isn't even two yet.  So far we have been lucky that she doesn't fuss at us too much unless she is tired which brings us too the other "N" word, nap.

Nap is the word that our kids don't want to hear us say.  For some nap time is easy, for others it can be a nightmare.  For me it goes either way depending on my daughters mood.  It's funny but when my wife is at home my daughter will take two naps for her, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  When I'm at home with her it's like world war three breaking out trying to get her to nap.  I lay her down and her bed and a few minutes later I'll hear a boom, she isn't napping but ripping her room apart.  Which I don't mind her playing in her room if that means she goes to sleep eventually but she sure does make a big mess.  I guess making a mess is normal for her age.  Sometimes she is so exhausted that she will just lay down and go to sleep.

My daughter has to have something to snuggle with while she sleeps.  It used to be a singing bunny but recently she has started sleeping with a baby doll.  If I don't give her either of those she will not go to sleep.  Its funny to watch her reactions when she lays down though.  She is a sweet heart, but I miss the days when she would take good naps.

So these two words are the most dreaded words you and your kids don't want to hear.  Hopefully you'll get lucky and not have to deal with no as early as I am.

Bedtime

Bed time used to be so much easier when my daughter was a baby.  We would feed her a bottle and rock her to sleep.  So sweet and innocent at that age, oh how I miss those days.  Once they get bigger going to bed can be a hassle, especially if they get a late nap or if they are sick.  We finally got my daughter out of her crib and into a small toddler bed which she loves.  Unfortunately she only wants to sleep in it for naptime.  When it comes to going to bed she wants to fight and do everything she can to stay awake.  She gets giggly when it's bed time, and even though she is cute when she is tired, I don't like staying up real late trying to unwind her.  I get up too early for that.  

So my wife has started to try something new with her.  She will put her in our bed to get her to go to sleep.  If that doesn't work she will bounce her or go into the bathroom and hold her while the shower runs.  I guess my daughter likes the sound of running water, it helps sooth her. Only there is an issue is when I get to bed they are both sound a sleep.  I don't want to wake my daughter trying to move her because she is not a sound sleeper, so I leave her there for a while.  Eventually I also fall a sleep and she sleeps in our bed all night.  Now I can't get her to sleep in her room and now I can't sleep.

Whoever thinks putting your toddler in bed with you is a good idea, watch out they won't go back to their own bed.  They get too comfortable sleeping with mom and dad that they don't want to be alone.  My daughter is restless and is wild while she sleeps which makes my sleep awful.  I will say my daughter is sweet when she wakes up.  She wakes me up with an I love you or hey daddy as she puts her face right in mine.  Not a bad way to wake up in the morning, but I have to get her used to sleeping back in her own bed.  Somehow, some way, and some time soon.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Being A Sports Fan And A Father

I always dreamed of having kids who would be as big of sports fans as I am.  You see me wife despises sports, for the most part.  Aside form the occasional Braves game we attend or televised college hoops game she doesn't understand why I love sports so much.  For all of you guys who have wives who love sports lucky you lol  Anyways I figured hey if she won't  watch sports with me I will get my kids to watch them with me.  I get tired of rooting for my favorite sports team by myself, as my wife sits back and laughs as I get fired up when my team is doing good, or poorly.

When my daughter was born it was in December of 2011, towards the end of football season and the beginning of college basketball.  I am a huge Kansas Jayhawks fan when it comes to college hoops, so I thought her birth was perfect timing.  Finally I had someone to lay there and watch the games with me.  Everything was going the way I planned, my daughter would lay in my arms and either sleep or drink a bottle as we watched the games.  I even tried to teach her the Jayhawk chant.  I was in sports and fatherly heaven all at once, my little sports buddy.

After basketball  season ended my daughter was getting to the age where she started to crawl and get into things.  Since there really aren't much going on in sports until later in the summer when baseball season is heading towards the playoffs, we didn't keep up with watching sports.  At the time I figured no big deal right, boy was I wrong.  When football season came back around she was walking.  When a child starts walking forget getting them to sit still for more than five minutes, they would rather be running getting into everything instead of watching a game with daddy.  I found out my child is a busy body and refuses to sit still.  I did get her to watch some basketball games with me though i  which she made me proud by doing the Jayhawk chant last year.

This year however things will be different, she will be two and she loves to run around.  Sigh I think most of the games will be spent chasing her around, instead of watching the game, but maybe I can get her to sit for a few minutes.  Who am I kidding that is not a reality. Lol the things we give up for our kids.  Hey I love my little girl and she is worth giving up the occasional sports game to play.  Maybe before long I can turn her around into a lean, mean, sports watching machine lol.  If not I will have another little one to hold and feed during basketball season this year.  Hopefully my son will watch sports with me instead, that's what boys are supposed to do anyways, right?

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

First Born

Growing up there were things that I wanted to do when I was out of school.  I wanted to be a football player, rock star, I even dreamed of being a n accountant, yes an accountant.  You see I am great at basic math and since people needed their taxes done I figured that would be a secure job.  It wasn't until college that I started to desire getting married and having kids.  Something inside me told me that father hood would be fun.  I really had no idea what I was wanting at the time.

Well the only dream that has come true is that I did get married to my beautiful wife and had my first child in December of 2011.  It took two long years for us to get pregnant, and when we did I was so overjoyed.  I really wanted to have a baby girl and do the whole daddy's girl thing, even though I didn't know much about little girls.  I grew up with two brothers and although my family adopted two girls I was older and didn't pay much attention to how they acted.  So even with very little girl experience I still wanted that cute daddy's girl.

I prayed, hoped, and prayed some more that my baby was a girl.  We already had a name picked out if it was a girl, which would make things easier.  I remember the day that we went for our first ultrasound, I feared up when I saw my child for the first time, although I would have to wait a while before I knew the sex of the baby.  To hear my child's heartbeat and a basic figure of what it looked like was life changing.  It suddenly became real that I was in fact becoming a father, sooner than later at that.  I could not wait until that 3-D ultrasound to see what my baby was.

When that day came I could hardly wait I was so excited.  We went into the doctor where Imwas a bit nervous waiting on the pictures.  When they called us back I felt a relief, finally I was going to find out if it was a girl or a boy. Fingers crossed as we sat down and the tech started to rub the gel on my wife's belly.  Then the tech showed us the money shot, and I almost started crying for joy as the tech announced what I already knew, it was a girl.  I was very excited to be the father of a baby girl.  We decided on the name Charity Elizabeth, well my wife decided on that name, but I really liked it anyways.

The rest of the nine months dragged by as I watched my child grow inside my wife.  The sickness was something I hoped would stop, I hated seeing my wife that way, but that is a part of having kids unfortunately.  My wife started having minor complications and was put on bed rest for the last two weeks, however the doc said that of Charity didn't come soon she would induce my wife due to the issues.  So a couple of weeks later we headed to the hospital knowing that we would meet our baby girl for the first time in the next 24 hours.  That night was a long one as the medication was not helping my wife into labor.  Finally after receiving an epidural things started moving fast.  As I watched the birth of my daughter in amazement I couldn't believe that we with the help of Fod created such a beautiful child.  She was a good size at 8.2 pounds and she screamed as she came out.  She was perfect.

As I held Charity in my arms for the first time I knew that my life would forever be changed.  The joy and love I felt for that child was beyond anything I had ever felt in my life.  I felt good about my future as a husband and a father.  I just prayed that she would grow up to be a sweet child for I was a bit of a mean spirited kid, luckily my wife was a good child growing up so we had a fifty fifty chance on that outcome. Either way I was going to love her and give her my all no matter who she becomes. Even though it hasn't been a full two years yet I still look back to the day I first found out I was going to be a daddy.

We recently found out we are expecting a baby boy in November so that will be fun as well I can't wait.

Check out my other blog Sports Fan and A Father : http://beingadaddyisajoy.blogspot.com/2013/09/being-sports-fan-and-father.html