When we found out I was pregnant, we were surprised (already!?)....panicked...excited....afraid and full of questions.
How would we ever be capable of taking care of this little being?
How would we know when to feed "it"?
What if "it" gets hurt?
How would we know why "it" was crying?
How would we know when to feed "it" solid food?
How would we keep "it" clean without drowning "it"?
What if he/she doesn't like us?
What if he/she gets sick?
What if he's not a Yankee fan?
...or, worse...what if he's not a Seminole fan?!
What if Lucky rolls on top of him/her?
What if we forget him at home one day?
What if we aren't good parents?
After Jack arrived, it took us only a few days to figure out that we had help. We have parents, friends and siblings who have children. We have a host of doctors and nurses that helped us. And? We have The Google. There is NOTHING that you can not google and find information about.
But this post isn't about the google...it's about the progression of "comfort" -- and knowing that no matter what happens with this child, we will figure it out and he will thrive. No matter what.
See?
Not only have we NOT killed him....he smiles constantly. Usually, I'm suspect of people that smile this much, but he's too damn cute to think anything other than he's just the happiest baby on the block!
When he's not smiling - he's giggling:
On "figuring it out" -- We've learned that we can formulate our own opinions about things like "acceptable care" and what is ok for us and what is NOT ok for us. After he continued to be bitten at daycare, we let them know that there would be changes made or we would take Jack elsewhere. There are too many options in childcare to continue to let this type of thing happen to your child.
And to be clear - if/when Jack starts to bite other children, we will work with his daycare and pediatrician to figure out why and address that. There's no sense in simply NOT addressing it - which was the case for this particular family at daycare.
We've also figured out that he's going to fall down. He's going to bump his head. He's going to get stepped on by Lucky. He's going to get tackled by his buddy, Liam. As it turns out, he's also going to live.
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| How funny are these two?! |
Luckily, Jack got to hang with Liam a few different times this month. They hung out together at the aquarium:
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| Jack and Liam admiring the snake! |
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| Jack is smiling at Liam standing next to him. He thinks Liam is one cool little dude! |
They spent the afternoon together playing....and working on a lifelong friendship:
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| Best Friends! |
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| Liam is using the "stare down" method on Jack while Jack's going with nothing but brute force. |
They had dinner together and compared notes on their favorite foods and episodes of Sesame Street. |
| Just two men out having some dinner with family and friends. |
There's comfort in knowing that he will be able to make friends.
There's comfort in knowing that he will walk someday soon, since I've assumed that I would carry him around for his entire life. I had previously decided that I was ok with that. Would it be weird to carry him to his college classes? I plan to embarrass him WAY more than that....so, we'll see how it goes.
He's definitely mobile these days....he's recently turned into the best army crawler around. It's just another thing we worried about unnecessarily - "what if he doesn't crawl" - Well, first off: Who cares. Not all babies crawl. And, he's not great at it yet, but he moves to get what he wants....and he does it with his belly dragging.
There's comfort in knowing that he will have a job one day. He's destined to be a politician or a salesman. With that smile, optimism and overall demeanor - how could he be anything else?
He also may be a chef with his immense love of food. He'll even eat it while sitting on the kitchen floor with his "drum set" (aka, the pan and the wooden spoon)
Although, if he's going to be a chef, he'll need some teeth to taste that food -- still no teeth yet for this fella, but damn - he sure does "teethe" a lot!!
He's told he likes FSU, but honestly? How can you deny that he LOVES those Noles after pics like these?? He went to his first FSU game and loved it....all the way until the 4th quarter at 11:30 pm.
There's comfort in knowing that a) he's a Seminole and b) he will be juuuuuuust fine in college.
Party Animal.
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| Pre-Game with Meme! |
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| My favorite person in my favorite place. |
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| Partying all the way until the 4th - and then some! |
We've even figured out that sand won't kill him....
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| Jack's Aunt Teen showed him how to enjoy the Jersey Shore |
We've also figured out how to keep a hat on him....without pissing him off.
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| Crazy Hat Day at Daycare! |
In fact, that's what I mean. We know this baby...and there was A LOT of doubt (on our parts - and maybe yours) that we'd figure it out. Don't get me wrong - there is MUCH to learn and experience, but I know now - We've got this.
We know how to calm him down. We know how to get him to go to sleep. We know which cry is "there's a doody in my pants" vs the grunt, grunt, grunt telling us "I'm hungry." We know that he's going to get hurt - and hurt other children. We know that if he wants water out of your water bottle or cup - he will take it. We know that he lay in his crib and "play" until we come and get him in the morning.
Luckily, he knows us too. He's figured out that he's #1, that he's in charge...and his every happiness is our priority.
This is good news/bad news.
He has no idea how I used to feel about being in control. He has no idea that I'd like to run his life, schedule, needs, etc with a spreadsheet....like I did his diaper and nursing needs.
There are no more spreadsheets, just two parents who are comfortable in their own shoes.
Until next month,
Keep Calm and Smile On.
