Daddy Diary 6 - Month 2 (Feb 2009)

Well here we are already in February and I still haven't gotten used to writing 2009 as the year yet. Hope you all are doing well.

As for my continued intensive parental training, I've officially crossed some huge milestones. The other week I was finally christened by K. one early morning. Yes, what most parents deal with when they have very little ones, I got to experience with my not so little one. Picture it: St-Laurent, 5 in the morning. A weary father stumbles out of bed shuffling to the bedroom of the little one whose cries awoke him. He struggles to put an arm through a sweater as he climbs the stairs. Once in the child's room, he kneels down to hug and console the little crier. The little one rests his head on dad's shoulder, sighs and then, blort! vomits all over dad's shoulder. Thank god for the sweater, the dad thinks. (and also, ewwww!) And though once upon a time being vomited on was reserved for those unlucK. roller coaster rides (Picture it, La Ronde, June 1992, a hot summer day on theMonster...) I actually surprised myself by not gagging.  (so now I'm officially a parent) Of course the vomiting was just a prelude to what was to come. Little K. ended up coming down with a major cold and again, he was happy to share. So I got to experience another parental milestone - the clinic!!! (duh-duh-duh!!) As it is impossible to find a pediatrician (and daycare space for that matter) for either love or money, we ended up going to the Tiny Tots clinic in Pointe-Claire. We wouldn't have needed to go, but K. decided to start pulling on his ear one night and after earning my vomiting parent-scout badge, I was not up for also earning the ear-infection badge in the same week. Luckily we live in the age of the internet, and I was able to get an appointment on-line for the next morning. As we got to the clinic, I couldn't get over how full the parking lot was. It was like boxing day at Fairview, only the parking lot was full of whiny sick kids (and many unhappy parents). Then as I stepped into the door. I got a vision of an old Soviet Bread line, parents were lined up around the corner holding their little ones under arm waiting with a desperate (and somewhat hostile) gleam in their eyes. Meanwhile, daddy Marc with his internet appointment was seen on time, and was in and out within 10 minutes. (Bwa-ha-ha!). Turns out K. was just on the brink of developing an ear infection, but 2 days of advil did the trick. But through dealing with K.'s cold, I have uncovered the secret as to why my mom's purses were always filled with used kleenex. My jean pockets, my pyjama pockets and even my hoodie-sweater pockets were filled with kleenex new and used for that week. I'm sure the next few times I do laundry I'll be picking off kleenex lint from everything.

Aside from that, today I thought it would be fun to try out an activity with K.. I saw an ad for a kids' gym (called le petit gym) and went to a free introductory class. We were the only guys there (asusual) and we spent 45 minutes bouncing on an air mattress, doing summersaults (kind of), doing the wheelbarrow walk (kind of) and dodging tantrums (mostly other kids' tantrums). K. had a fun time crawling all over things, but when we learned the price of membership- $400 for 20 weeks!!!!!! we were out of there. Of course, I should have known it would be out of our price range when all the moms came in with their Starbuck's lattes, their girls were dressed in lululemon tights and they had their Philipino nannies in tow. heh. I can get by bouncing K. on our bed and tossing him into a snowbank is still free.lol!

And in terms of K.'s vocabulary. He has now added bread machine to his inter-species communication. As the machine starts up and kneads the bread, K. spins his finger around and makes the whirring noise. So no new words yet, but he is fluent in Kitchen Appliance. (He converses with the coffee machine, dishwasher, oven and now this). However, he also now roars like a tiger and barks with Phoebe when she gets fed.

As for tantrums, K. is getting much better. He's no longer in exorcist mode, and is crying like any average baby would. So Daddy and Papa are much more relaxed now that we aren't walking through the major tantrum mine-field. I think K. is too. But he still keeps us on our toes. Over the last week, he decided that getting his diaper changed was now grounds for kicking and crying. After a few days of this, daddy went on-line and learned about the very special diaper toy that keeps babies occupied. It's a $2.99 flashlight from canadian tire. Not even a fancy one, just an ugly yellow thing. Now when the diaper drawer is opened, there is no more kicking and crying, just K. on his back making designs on the ceiling and occasionally blinding his father.

But all in all, it's a joy to keep discovering each moment and feeling the role of parent become more and more comfortable. In fact I impressed the nannies at the gym today when they learned I've been a dad for only about 2 months. Yup, I look like I've been doing it all these 20 months (must be the circles under my eyes). :-)

Well, that's it for now. All the best to you all!