The Small Family   

Week 44: Happy Boy!

Well, what a week this has been in terms of having a fun, happy little baby! Chris and I took Theo out a few places yesterday, and I can’t tell you how many people walked by or stopped and said, “What a happy little baby you have!” Young Mr. Theo, now recovered from his cold, was attempting to stand in his stroller and smiling his toothless, gummy smile at everyone who passed. And that’s been pretty par for the course this week...he has just been a sweet, happy little delight. Which makes Chris and I rather sweet and happy ourselves—ha!

I have to say, it’s a relief to know that Chris and I were right about something. We kept saying, “We can’t wait for Theo to crawl! We think he’ll be much happier when he’s mobile.” And people would literally say, “Are you crazy? It’s so easy now—wait until he starts crawling and getting into everything! It gets so much harder!” And we would think, “Yes, probably if you have a calm, content baby, but we have Theo. He has prepared us for hard already. It probably can’t get much harder than those first few months.” Nevertheless, we figured we’d wait and see. And it turns out, we were right: For us, it’s much easier now that Theo is mobile. Yes, he’s into everything, and yes, there are new challenges (such as keeping him from gumming the toilet—ugh!!). But he’s also much, much happier! He spends part of every day just crawling around, exploring, playing by himself with his toys, babbling happily...it’s bliss! Heaven! And yes, I spend part of every day cleaning up messes from whatever he has gotten into, but I’ll take that over having a baby who starts crying every five or ten minutes because he’s bored or frustrated or uncomfortable any day. For me, life is much easier with a happy baby...even though he’s an active one! I have no doubt that for some people it’s harder when their baby starts crawling, but for us, that is not the case. And what a relief!!

Grandma Diane babysat for a few hours on Monday while I went to photography class and while Chris was still at work, and Theo got a glowing review. Apparently he had a wonderful time going on a walk and playing with Grandma, and he was quite the little charmer. (Of course, Grandma Diane is of the opinion that her grandson is darn near perfect, so we think she MIGHT be a wee bit biased! But still, we’re glad he got a good report.) Hopefully he will be good this week as well. I am really enjoying my photography class. I passed my first test this past week (it was pretty easy, but still...always nice to pass!), and this coming week we get our first shooting assignment: shooting motion! This is perfect for me, since I have two very good always-in-motion subjects: Luna and Theo. I’m curious what the actual assignment will entail. I have already learned a lot in the class, and I’ve only been in it for two weeks!

Now that Theo and I are both much healthier, I took him up to the nursing home to visit Great-Grandma Ruth this week, and he was a little angel then, too. Usually we can only stay for a short time because he gets antsy and fussy, and there’s nowhere for me to put him down and let him crawl around. (It’s a tile floor, and he still topples over now and then, so I don’t want him smashing his head on that.) But this week, he was quite happy and content to chatter at Grandma Ruth, and she seemed very happy to see him. We were able to deliver some cookies and stay and chat for the better part of 45 minutes, which was really nice.

Chris and Theo had Daddy-son day on Friday so I could get a full day of work in, and they had fun puttering around

Roseville doing this and that. Now that Theo is more content and happy to be out and about, I think Chris really enjoys his days with him. Not that he didn’t before, but it was more of a challenge when Theo was unpredictable and prone to bursting into wailing fits at the drop of a hat.

After a full day of mind-numbing copy editing on Friday, I was ready for...PIZZA! So Chris, Theo, and I had a “date night” at BJs, where we enjoyed some excellent pizza and Theo flirted with the waitress...and the waiter for the next table. The poor, unsuspecting guy was taking the order of the people next to us, when Theo suddenly leaned back in his high chair, reached out, and patted the guy’s bottom! The waiter turned around with a look of utter shock, until he realized it was a 10-month-old baby who had goosed him. Naturally, we got quite a good laugh out of that. Our son is evidently an equal-opportunity flirt.

Saturday dawned with a major milestone. Theo is now a front-facing car rider! Yes, yes, I know...technically we’re breaking a rule here. Babies are supposed to be 1 year old and 20 pounds before you turn them around in the car. Theo is almost 23 pounds at latest weighing, but obviously he is still a couple months shy of being a year old. However, both our cars are quite small, so Theo is getting too tall to fit well in them backward. Add to that the fact that our little monkey has decided it’s great fun to straighten out his body and press his feet against the back of the seat so that we are unable to get him into the car seat, and you can see where we were running into a problem. We basically had to resort to tickling him until his body turned into jelly and slid into the car seat in order to get him in, and that got rather tedious after a while. So, he is now facing forward like a big boy, which he seems to quite enjoy...and we are having an easier time getting him safely buckled into his seat. Ah, were the economy not so lousy, it’d be nice to be able to afford a slightly bigger vehicle! But, that’s not in the future right now, so we make do.

Saturday was the annual Free Museum Day in Sacramento...something like 20 museums and other venues offer free admission all day. So, we bundled up and headed down to the Sacramento Zoo, where we met our friend from grad school, Roxann, and her 7-month-old son, Tico. What a cute, mellow little fellow Mr. Tico is! I think next time we get together, he and Theo will have fun playing with each other. As it was, both boys seemed to enjoy being out at the zoo, though both are too young to really notice much of the animals yet. But both boys enjoy being out among people, so it was a good adventure for them.

Chris and I continued our babyproofing adventures by stopping at RC Willey to look for an end table with some storage in it...and one a bit less wobbly than the old one we had. Lucky for us, there was a perfect table in the clearance center for just $120! So Chris drove Theo and I the few blocks home, grabbed some rope to tie down the hatchback of the car, and turned right back around to go get the table. It was all of half an hour...but when he got back to RC Willey, our perfect table was bought right out from under him! However, the salesperson took pity on Chris and offered him an extra 10% discount off another table in the clearance center, so Chris bought that one instead. It doesn’t have as much storage space, but it’s still a more kid-friendly table than what we had.

Sunday was my Dad’s birthday...he would have been 68. Because my Mom and I like to celebrate my Dad’s birthday as a way of remembering him, we decided to go out to a Turkish restaurant we love for dinner, along with Theo and Chris. Chris says I have to mention that I ordered fried anchovies, which came complete with heads still intact. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was tasty nonetheless. And I had a lot of fun making jokes about the pile of severed anchovy heads on my plate at the end of the meal! If only that was the grossest part of the meal, but no.... Chris and I gave Theo a little bit of banana today, thinking that surely by now, he could handle such a seemingly mild food. About two hours later, he spit up all over the table at the restaurant. Ewwwwww.... Ah well, babies...what can ya do? Not give him any more bananas, that’s for sure. Good thing he was among company who adore him, so none of us batted an eye.

Because it’s my Dad’s birthday, I’m going to take a minute to reflect on something. Many of you may know that my Dad and I didn’t have the closest relationship. It wasn’t troubled, but it just wasn’t overly close for a long time...we were very different people with different views on things. But before he died, we had patched up differences and seemed (to me) to be on the road to getting closer. And I’ve always been happy that was the case—things were definitely on a good note between us when he passed away. And there have been a few times since my Dad died that I have really felt his loss. One was when I knew that Chris was going to be part of my life forever. I just know my Dad would’ve really, really liked Chris. For one thing, who doesn’t like Chris? But for two, Chris is my Dad’s kind of man...quiet, dedicated, loyal, honest, and with a good work ethic. And another thing that has really made me feel the loss of my Dad is Theo. Because I think my Dad would’ve gotten a real kick out of him. My Dad was definitely of the “kids ought to behave” school of thought...he didn’t care for bad behavior. But, at the same time, he admired spunk. And Theo has that in spades! I think my Dad would get a huge kick out of our crafty little son, who manages to outwit his parents quite frequently. I think my Dad would’ve gotten a large charge out of seeing how his grandson gives his Mom and Dad a run for their money.

So, anyway, I dedicate this week’s post to my Dad. I hope that somewhere, he is looking down and seeing this all and enjoying it. I am a completely different person than I was at 22, when my Dad died, and I think that if my Dad were here now, he and I would get along well. I think he’d be happy with what my life has become, and I think he’d very much like his son-in-law and his grandson. So, here’s to you, Dad...happy birthday!