Rock Throwing on Lake Superior

One of the things that amazes me about kids is how easily they are transfixed on things their parents want them to avoid. Take rock throwing for example. While on our annual trip to Cornucopia, Wisconsin to visit my family's boat (and my family), my son became enamored with throwing rocks.

Throwing things in general isn't that bad of an habit. However, when surrounded by a myriad of boats, throwing things such as rocks can get expensive. As my father will attest, boat parts are generally overpriced.

Fortunately, there was a beach near by where throwing habits could be practiced. And so it was many an hour my son and I sat throwing rocks into Lake Superior. Far away from the $300,000 cruiser sitting next to our boat.

Swimming Lessons

Tuesday night my son finished his first session of swimming lessons. He graduated from Sea Lion to, well, Sea Lion. His father, a former swimming lesson flunky, couldn’t have been prouder.

The issue is, he’s not a very good listener or follower of instructions. I know this as I too often struggle with similar issues. Just ask my wife.

Attending another round of Sea Lion won’t be bad. It gives us more father-son time, even though I think he’d rather take instruction from the young female teacher, rather than his old fat father. Suffering through this won’t hurt him though.

Water park

This past weekend my wife, son and I went to a Holiday Inn water park near Elk River. From what I can tell, these new water parks are designed so that parents can drink copious amounts of beer while kids play by sliding down water sides and scream around a lazy river. There were a number of life guards on duty which I'm assuming makes parents feel more comfortable to drink more. At least it did for me.

Whenever my job sucks, I'm going to be thankful that I don't work for a hotel water park. I can't think of a more miserable job. You get paid peanuts, work weekends, spend your eight hours listening to sugar-filled kids yell and scream, and worst of all, see fat parents in swim suites. Could there be anything worse?

While my son was a bit too small for the park, we all had a good time. The only thing that upset me was the pool bar didn't have Summit or Surly on tap. In fact, they didn't have any Minnesota beer on tap or in a bottle (plastic). I'm of the belief that all bars should have a local brew available for those of us, like me, who have a local pallet. And if they don't, then at least have some palatable imports. I ended up settling for Mich Golden and Sam Adams.

Why do they get up early?

Does anyone have insight to why kids wake up late on weekdays, but get up early on weekends? It's simply amazing how they have developed a type of intelligence that tells them "hey, let's see if we can wake up mom and dad on the one day they can sleep in."

I suppose this could be payback for all the times I performed a similar act for my parents. Maybe that's it? Maybe when we send the little guy down to grandpa and grandma (as we are today) they are training him to get up early on weekends? If this is true, it's brilliant. I plan on doing the same thing when it's my turn.

Pictures are in

So I don't lose the link, here is a picture of my son. This picture was taken during the afternoon my wife dragged me out of work to get our pictures taken professionally. Fortunately, the photographer didn't post one of Cam's parents.

He's the second one down.

Three Poops

My son decided to take three poops tonight. That wouldn't be so odd if it didn't happen within an hour of giving him his nighttime bath.

There is nothing more frustrating than cleaning something like a butt, only to have it dirtied so soon afterwords. It's similar to scrubbing wooden floors on your hands and knees, only to have your wife walk in with muddy shoes and a new pink coat she purchased on credit.

The other thing about the three poops is that it also happened right after my wife went out shopping for the night. Why can't kids poop when moms are around to help? Kids have to know that dads are close to being helpless when it comes to holding their legs in the air and cleansing their dirty bottom.

I guess this is probably the payback I deserve for golfing last weekend. Since I shot a 90 at a pretty difficult course, I'll accept my punishment.

Home sick today

My son is sick today so I'm at home. Odd as it may sound, I actually wish I was at work. It's hard work taking care of a child all day, nonetheless one that is sick and teething.

The "sick child day" pretty much screws people who don't have kids. And I'm sure it pisses them off as they have to make up for those of use who are out. In reality though, most of us don't want to be at home. It's really not that much fun.

Anyway, I hear the little monster stirring in this bed so I'd better run up and check on him. He hasn’t puked on me since 11AM so I'm about due for a good splashing.

Sleeping through the night

My son just started sleeping through the night. I still have to "nook" him on occasion, but for the most part he'll fall back to sleep and give mom and dad some needed rest.

I'm not sure what is average, but it took him about five months. With solids in his stomach, he stays full from about 8PM to 6AM. As a side note, his diaper stays pretty full as well. It's like taking off a five pound mass of wet paper in the morning. Fortunately that's mom's duty.

This morning around 4:30AM he needed one of those "nooks". He has a propensity to toss his nook. Usually the crib's side rails will knock it down so it lands either below or above him. However, on occasion he'll heave it over the side.

When looking for the nook this morning I figured he must have heaved it. I felt around his crib and found nothing. Then I started searching the floor. Now remember it's 4:30AM.

The floor was bare. At this point the little monster is getting obdurate. He wants that damn nook. Common sense aside, I decided to turn on the light. Not the small table lamp in the corner, the monster light by his bed.

Once we had light, I started to search the room's corners and such. Using the "Little Engine that Could" book I fished under his crib and got a hit. There it was, at the nexus of the crib's real-estate. Again using the "Little Engine that Could" book, I was able to bat the nook over to a location where I could reach.

By this time his eyes had adjusted to the light. He was wide awake. Doing what any good parent would do, I turned out the light, stuffed in the nook and headed back to bed. Eventually he did fall back asleep, but awoke again at 5:45AM. His nook was placed conveniently next to his right hand. By this time though it was time to feed so I marched downstairs and mixed a six ounce bottle of sow. We both enjoyed it.

Shots and Percentiles

We brought our five-month-old son in for his four-month-old checkup. Oddly enough, this sounded kosher to people, so I didn't bring up the nuance.

Bringing kids to the doctor is never fun. Fortunately when their young they don't know the difference between grandma's house and the doctor's office. When kids get older, I'm guessing they recognize a lab coat and will give their opinion on being there.

Being our son is five-months-old he had a big smile on his face. That was until he got the first of four vaccinations. As a caring parent it breaks your heart to see your child smile up at you before the nurse inflicts them with the needle. This time was better than last, for all three of us that is.

Anyway, during a checkup they also take weight, height and head circumference. Our son is in the 90% percentile for weight, 92% for height and 100% for head size. in subtle terms, the doctor explained that if 100 kids lined up, our son would have the biggest head. He then looked and me and said "we can blame dad for that." I actually took it as a compliment.

The doctor then went on to say that these measurements really mean nothing when the kids are so young. He said their parents are better indicators of size than anything. So here you go son; look forward to being six foot one inch, just a shade overweight at 220 pounds, and a seven and three fourths cap size. Enjoy!

Busy

Do you ever get to work, run around with your head cut off, then look at the clock figuring it was time for lunch but realize you're late for 5PM daycare pick up? I do, and just did.

Vacation Time

Well I'm on vacation. No more meetings or fake smiles in the hallways at work. And think of it, I get to spend six days in a row with my wife and son. This is the longest we've been together since I took two weeks off for his birth. Here's what we've been up to.

As of today, the squirrel that was hanging out in our fire place is removed. Thanks to Matt from Wildlife Management Services for that. I strongly recommend them.

The highchair that my wife bought months ago is finally up. And functional I might add. Also, the battery sucking bouncy chairs are recharged. And I did assemble (if you want to call it that) some kind of entertainment system for my son's crib. It has fake fish and annoying sounds buzzing out it now. He seems to like it.

I also got three computers, one monitor, an answering machine and a old sub-woofer recycled. Only cost us $30. Actually it cost us $56 as after dropping off the goods, we went out for lunch. My son started crying right when the food arrived. Perfect timing as usual.

To top it off, I cut down the bushes in the front of the house. I'm only a month late on that.

Well that's about it. We've got a number of things to take care of the next few days, but I'll save sharing that until another time. Happy Thanksgiving!

Your best day(s) of your life

While looking over my son's baby book tonight I asked my wife, what day was better: our wedding day, or birth of our first child?

Our wedding day turned out fantastic. She didn't leave me at the alter and I got to marry a wonderful woman. And, if you're keeping score at home, I did get to party with my friends and family all night, which was pretty cool. The weather was 75 degrees and sunny. The church was at the University of St. Thomas. My brother's had the after wedding beer ice cold. All perfect in my mind.

My son's birthday was a bit different. It started at 5AM in the morning when my wife went into labor. 19 hours and what they called a major surgery (i.e. c-section) later, we had our first born. A wonderful, healthy, cone-headed baby boy.

So which day was better? To be honest, I don't think you can compare them. Our wedding day was a celebration of two families and two people coming together. The birth of our son was what I would call, "the most amazing event anyone can ever witness." They are equal in my mind as the two best days of my life.

Why parents hate daylight savings

Parents hate daylight savings time. My son was up this morning at 1AM and 5AM, which was 2AM and 6AM his time. At only three months, he's yet to adjust to the time change.

I'm a morning person, but not a 5AM morning person. 6AM works better for me and until Sunday, we had him somewhat trained to hang loose until 6AM. Now it's all wrecked. For the next two weeks we'll be spending the time between 5AM and 6AM trying to sooth the little monster.

I had a frank talk with him this morning, but his response was only a smile. So at 5AM, we decided to pretend it was 6AM, and enjoyed our bottle feed together.

When beer isn't worth it anymore

My wife and I liked to go out for dinner once a week before kids. Nothing fancy, just casual dinning. We stayed away from the places like Perkins that didn't offer a before dinner drink, as both of us liked to enjoy a quick happy hour before eating. This has all changed.

Last night we drove around town to find most of our favorite dinning spots busy. 30 minute wait was the average. With a three month old - or at least our three month old - that is too long. We ended up having pizza at Davanni's in Burnsville. Very good I might add.

While you can order beer there, I opted for a coke. This got me thinking, is having a beer really worth it anymore? I argue no. Here are my reasons.

Before kids, I could sleep the entire night and get up refreshed. Now I'm up at 2AM and 5AM, with an occasional in between soothing. Getting up is hard enough, but throw in a cocktail or two and it makes your night (early morning) miserable. I've come to the conclusion, that until this little monster starts sleeping through the night, a beer before dinner is not worth it. The nighttime feedings are hard enough without a slight buzz/hangover.