Sleep

Sleep.
Do not take sleep for granted.

If you are recently married, with no kids or single you are not going to relate to what I have to say. This is going to sound like whining and it probably is. Last night, Thomas the Angel started fussing around 1:00 am the fussing did not stop. Nursing helps while he is on the boob, but once he gets off, fussing. Rock him in the rocking chair, the fussing stops. Stop rocking, the fussing begins. Think he has fallen asleep and you are in the clear. Nope the fussing starts again.

Thomas is our third child. They are all under the age of four. Heidi and I have had maybe three good nights of sleep since we started this adventure called Parenting.

When Heidi was pregnant with Merry we started to hear the rumblings, "sleep now", "your life is going to change" and so on. We thought we were prepared. You can not be prepared!

In the beginning the shock of the responsibility is so great that the lack of sleep goes under the radar. 4 or 5 weeks in you start to wonder "what is going on?" "am I ever going to sleep thru the night again?" The answer is NO.

Heidi and I have become so conditioned to being awoken during the night that even if, by the Grace of God, they all remain quiet throughout the long night, I wake up any way and use the time to lie in bed worrying about stuff, business, the mortgage, the dogs, whatever.

My parents inform me that it doesn't get any better. There may be a lull between the ages of 5 and 15, then the real worry begins.

How do you function? In the beginning it is very hard. You feel sorry for yourself and want to take a nap all the time. Eventually you get used to it. Operating on 3 or 4 hours of sleep becomes commonplace. Like a Navy Seal.

So if you don't have any kids, congratulations on your full nights sleep. If you do have kids I know who you are by the bags under your eyes.

Boogers

When did it become common place for me to grab another person by the nose and squeeze the snot out of it? I will tell you when, June, 2002. Meredith my oldest child was about 3 months old and had her first head cold. The sight of her sitting there with boogers running down her face was enough for me to overcome all of my inhibitions and just reach in and take care of the situation.

I did not become completely callus until David was born. For the first 18 months of his life I referred to him as "Snots" The little devils nose ran constantly. It was painful. Eventually he grew out of it. However at 2 years and some months the kid still can't blow his nose and every once and awhile I find myself without a tissue going in for another handful.

This week has been Thomas' coming out party as far as Boogers go. Big yellow, sticky boogers that clog his nose shut by morning. What do you do with them when you are caught with out a tissue? I don't know what you do, but I wipe them on the kids leg, or his sock. It all comes out in the wash.

My single friends are absolutely disgusted with everything this conversation entails. The people with kids know what I am talking about. How do you feel about it? Do you employ the bulb sucker they gave you at the Hospital? How does it work for you?
While I have your attention go to The Tutu Boutique.

Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning. Just got done typing a nice long message and David crawled under the desk and unplugged the computer. So here we go again.

Spent a lot of time last night thinking about the direction to take this thing and I came up with, well, I am not sure what I came up with. Each day during the week, I will pick a part of being a Dad that I find challenging, rewarding, insufferable or down right fun and just take it from there.

Mom is taking a morning for herself today. This has not happened in a while. Merry is working on a Birthday Card for her friend John, whose party we will attend this afternoon. David is out from under the desk, doing what exactly, I don't know and Thomas is in his exersaucer watching me type.

I guess Merry is done with her card because the cries for TV have commenced. TV is a good subject for this. To much TV will turn your brain into mush. That is what I was taught. I did watch a lot of TV. The shows that I remember are "Sesame Street", the"Electric Company", "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood", "Zoom" and "Day's of Our Lives".

When I was 10 my Parents would let me stay up on Friday nights to watch "The Dukes of Hazard". My younger brothers and sister would have to go to bed and I would stay up. It made me feel special. Not Mushy.

The main problem with TV is the commercials. They are like poison. Their job is to convince a five year old that they need some piece of garbage. Sell it to the Kid and let the Kid sell it to the Parents. It is gross. We get around this at my house with digital cable. You have the ability avoid the commercials and deliver only content. This is how I justify letting the Kids sit in front of the TV for an hour or two everyday. It is easy now, when they get older we shall see. What do you think about television?

I think tomorrow or Monday I am going to write about a very big part of my life as a Dad. Boogers

Me and the Kids

A Place for Parents

Here we go, this is my first blog, the purpose of this blog is to give parents like myself an arena where we can pose questions and maybe get some answers. I am the father of three beautiful children, we all say that, Meredith, who is my princess ballerina, David her faithful squire and tormentor and Thomas, the baby. Their ages are 3 years 9 months, 2 years 4 months and 6 months. Needless to say my wife Heidi has her hands full.
Heidi, runs our online business from home as well, that business is The Tutu Boutique we sell Tutus, Leotards, Ballet Slippers and the like. We started the business back in August and it has been quite an experience. Working with dress up clothes and Moms has given Heidi and interesting perspective on some of the issues we face as Parents. I hope to link this blog to our site and give the people who purchase from us a Forum to ask questions and get answers from other like minded Parents.
I will bring some specific issues to the table tommorrow.