Carpe Datum

Baby Update

I'm in the process of giving my 2nd exam to my students, so it's a perfect time to blog. Daniel has been an absolute angel. I swear that kid cries maybe a grand total of 10 minutes a day, and that's only when he's getting bathed or changed or gets hungry.

Now if *I* were the one doing the bulk of the changing and so on, I imagine my clumsy hands would make the crying go on quite a bit longer. I will get better as I learn more. For now, Daniel and I are both thankful that we have a professional mom in the house who showers that lucky baby with all the TLC he can handle. Those two are so sweet to watch together.

The last two nights, Daniel has only been up once during the night (though several times, he needs a pacifier from mom to quiet down for another half hour as we try to extend his sleeping time at night). So we get to sleep around midnight, get up for a feeding at 4am, and then Daniel is up again by about 8am. Michelle is doing the wee hours work for now, but she is starting to sneak in more than just a few hours of sleep per night.

I'm trying to help by mixing formula up. It's scary. I mean, I'm at the stage right now where I am carefully leveling off the measuring cup and shaking the formula very thoroughly and pouring it into the bottles right up to the exact 4 oz mark and all that. I'm sure I'll look back and think I was being pretty stupid, but crap, if you don't measure the formula right, the poor kid will either starve or get indigestion. It's a trivial yet scary responsibility.

I'm also trying to keep the other kids occupied. I'm keeping Justin and Cody working on their math and writing assignments as they continue their long summer of working off those broken windows. We also give them chores occasionally. I find that manually watering the yard for about 45 minutes is a good one. Gets them outside, and they prefer that to writing or math. They're keeping up with everything (which is pretty good for Cody), and their privileges are slowly expanding. I hope it all works in the long run. So far, I think it is.

I got Sarah started on her "Cluefinders" software, which is basically an educational game we bought from the school back in the Spring. Cody has one, too, and they both play it occasionally (Cody not as much obviously, because he has to earn what little computer time he gets). I'm not sure how much fun it is. We'll see if it has the staying power of Animal Crossing or Super Smash Bros. Sarah is also earning money so she can buy her own copy of "The Country Bears", which is one of the worst pieces of schlock I've seen in a long time (but it makes her super excited and happy).

Oh well, to sum it up, things are wonderfully busy. I honestly couldn't be happier about the whole experience so far, and that includes the whole nearly two years of life with Michelle and the kids. It just keeps getting better, and I count my blessings every day.

Posted by Observer at July 22, 2003 10:38 AM