But, I wasn't finished with that daddy...

“What do you wanna do today?” My wife says while our little boy sits so playfully in between us in our bed on a cold Saturday morning.

“Eric?” she obviously was talking to me and not our son, Mauldin.

“Oh, I thought you were talking to him,” I reply as I glance down at our little boy who is half way through his early-morning apple juice. He likes to drink his juice and watch Playhouse Disney. He is a multitasker, that’s just how he rolls.

“Well, I guess I kinda was talking to you both, but the only thing he can say is Da-da…” my wife says with a hint of sarcasm and glee.

As I think about the fun retort I just stop myself because our son may be only 10 months, going on 11, but he is pretty sharp and one day soon he will start repeating what we say… and my dirty thoughts weren’t something I want coming out of his toothless chops. As I reach down to grab his empty juice cup he looks at me with the saddest face and a frown that could melt the heart of The Heat Miser.

I'm sure I know what was going through Mauldin's mind - "But, I wasn't finished with that daddy!" The truth is he was done, he was sucking air... but I guess he likes chewing on the spout. Just as I start to laugh at this face I see a hint of white on his lower gum. Please understand our son, Mauldin is 10 months old and has yet to cut a tooth, but has been teething since, well birth. New parents please understand… even if your child is drooling a lot it doesn’t necessarily mean he/she is teething.

It is and has been for a long time a huge, huge and very large pet peeve for anyone to put their fingers in my child’s mouth. I understand when the doctor does it, or my wife or myself… but other people who have germy hands it is just something I cringe just thinking about. However, for this day it was something that had to be done and I took the opportunity to “feel around for evidence of some baby teeth.”

“So, do you feel anything…” my wife quickly asks.

“Well, I think, I think… I think I can feel something…” I replied.

“Let me check,” said Laura.

She picked up our little boy, still in mid-frown from the sippy cup being taken away and now one of his favorite shows, Charlie & Lola, is on and we are taking him away from it… I know, we are terrible parents.

“Oh my… goodness…” said Laura. “Our baby has cut his first tooth.”

I immediately went to turn on all the lamps in our room so I could get a good look at this so-called tooth.

“Do you not believe me?” said Laura.

“Yes, my dear,” I replied “but can I just look at it? I wanna see it too!”

I sat there and looked as I asked our little man to open wide, as if he actually knew what I was asking him to do.

“Can daddy check to see your tooth?” And, just like that I saw the little white rectangle sticking out of his lower gum as if it were there hiding all along and just waiting for us to discover it!

“Well, hello there my little friend… how long have you been there?”

So, there it is, like I said… the whole tooth and nothing, but the tooth. More to come, I’m sure!

Where has the time gone?

Our little boy is growing up at an accelerated rate, so it seems.

“Mauldin no!” I say… constantly.

Where has the time gone? I feel like someone has taken a remote and pushed fast forward.

“Mauldin, what did we say?” I continue as he stops in his tracks on his way to the dog bed… as soon as I look away he turns his little butt around and heads right back to his previous direction of naughtiness. Our son has a weird fascination with our pets... he loves them. As soon as he heads their way our little Westie, Andy, runs in fear of being pummelled by a 18lb 10 month old!

I feel as if every day he accomplishes something new. Thankfully I have been around to see each one surface. I was there when Mauldin said “Da-da” as his first word, which I might add is one of the only things he says with a repeating vengeance.

“Mauldin,” I repeat and head over to pick him up and replace him away from the dog bowls full of water. “I said no to the dog bowls.” He loves getting into their bowls. I came home today and my wife informed me...

"Go say hello to your son and don't even ask me why he is wet!"

"What?" I retorted.

"I looked away for a second and he was "in" Andy's bowl," Laura explained.

The kid can officially climb the stairs with no assistance, he is cruising like nobody’s business, the child is eating solid foods and feeding himself, holding his bottle on his own and clapping! The boy claps, patty cake is a fun game he likes to play.

Not only is Mauldin about to have a birthday, his first birthday mind you, but we will soon be another plus one to the Skates family unit.
We are now coming up on the 20 week mark for our little girl… Elle will be here before we know it and we are so unprepared. It seems as if with Mauldin we had tons of diapers, wipes, clothes, etc… we have a couple of bags of clothes for our little princess, but her nursery is still a guest room, no bedding has been purchased, what is going on? We are usually so far ahead, we are planners, this is so out of our character, but the urgency just isn’t … I don’t know, around as much as it was the first time. We are so much more laid back with this pregnancy!

I guess the freakout with happen after we come home with our shiny, brand new, bouncing baby girl.

It still hasn’t totally hit me yet. I assume when it does you may find me on the floor.

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone.

"Mauldin what did I say about the dog beds?"