OMG I'm A Daddy!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It's Nursery Time!

The past few weekends it has felt like Laura and I had been doing nothing, but searching for the perfect crib for our newborn, well, unborn child. It feels like we have been to every baby furniture store in the Atlanta area! We had been to Babies-R-Us, and Target, USA Baby and Georgia Baby & Kids, etc… Why the city-wide search you ask? Well, we have a piece of reddish-cherry antique furniture that we are trying to match and the only place that matched it, perfectly, was Georgia Baby & Kids! Although, the name of the color we got was “papirika!” Go figure…

Carol & Bill, Laura’s mom and dad, wanted to come out to see the furniture we picked out before making the final decision. So, last Saturday we finally worked out all our schedules so that we could meet at GBK’s. (Please note that I will be using these initials due to the fact that retyping GA Baby & Kids seems like a daunting task). We had picked out the crib, but at the last minute changed our mind to a different one, same color, different style. (Oh, I know how this sounds so exciting and I will probably elaborate and tell this very story at different social events throughout the season, so stay tuned!) Then, unbeknownst to us, we were asked by the sales clerk…

“What about a mattress?”

“What about a mattress?” I said. “Do we need a mattress you mean?”

“Yes!” the clerk said in a surprised voice, which is a pretty stupid question if you ask me, but I guess I could assume that he thought we might already have one… blah blah blah, but we told him this was our first time buying baby furniture! Oh well…

“Yes” Laura and I replied, in unison. “I think we need a mattress.”

He strolled over to the area where about five different mattress, all wrapped up in their zipped-up glory, laying propped up on various beds and cribs.

“Now this one…” he began… “is great!”

I quickly interjected, and jokingly asked “Do they have a temperpedic baby mattress?”

“Well,” he said, “they do have something that has memory foam, sorta like a temperpedic!”

Laura looked at me with eyes of “I cannot believe you just asked him that!”

I can usually read both Laura’s tone and look… and this time it was the look of “please don’t say something crazy…”
Because I am known to ask crazy questions… but I will get to that at a later time.

“This mattress is water resistant and can…” I pretty much lost him at this point and had already chosen this mattress in my head… so the rest of what he said was all said in a Charlie Brown teacher voice…”Whaaa whaa whaaa whaa whaa wha…”

You get the idea.

So, we picked out a crib, changing table and a mattress… is there more to it? Yes, but, for some reason I wasn’t aware of it!
Laura went on to ask for all the gadgets and rails that you need on down-the-road for when the crib converts into a big person bed. Yes, this crib converts… I never can picture the bed turning into a real bed until I see pictures of it. My imagination just won’t work that way, I guess. But, as soon as I saw the picture I thought…

“Oh, okay, that is what it will look like, great!” also in the back of my mind thinking… “I dread that day because 1. the instructions will be no where to be found as well as all the nuts, bolts, etc… and me, put stuff together…” I laugh, laugh, I do!
Do you hear me laughing? Picture the count from Seasame Street! “Ah Ah ah!”

Anyway, we go to the front, the papers are signed and we have purchased Baby Furniture! Wha la!

Now, having it delivered is a different story… they are suppose to come in and assemble it. Yes, we will see…
Let’s hope it isn’t like “Rooms-to-go” assembles things…

“Here you go!” said the fat, sweaty delivery man.

“Thank you, but wait! Where are you going?”

“That’s it”

“But, the table is in the box! Aren’t you going to put it together?”

“We don’t do that, Sir.”

Until next time!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A Frisky Parental Pair

I thought it might be fun to see how Laura and I come out when you plug in our astrological signs...

Eric = Aries / Laura = Gemini

Here is what http://www.babycenter.com/ thinks...

*Please note* This is for entertainment & superficial reasons only... please do not take any of the following very seriously*

Togethe

r you two make a dynamic and energetic parenting team, but you may struggle to provide the regularity and stability your family needs, since these aren't qualities that come easily to either of you. Your dedication and devotion isn't in question, and you share a youthfulness that your children will enjoy. But keeping to a regular meal or bedtime schedule, for instance, could prove a challenge.

The Aries parent is more forceful and dynamic -- the natural leader of the family. The Gemini mom or dad is playful and communicative, with a curiosity and love of learning your chil

dren will naturally want to emulate. You both need a certain amount of freedom, so give each other room for your individual activities. Then you'll both be more available to meet the needs of your children and each other.

Found at http://www.babycenter.com/

Poop, don't pee!

Not a whole lot has transpired since my lastest blog entry, so basically that is why I haven’t posted until now.

I wanted to tell you all about what happened this past weekend on Saturday. Let me set the story up for you: My sister, Mandy and my hardworking-never-put-down-the-phone mom came down to Kennesaw for the day to do some shopping and we had agreed, on Friday, if they brought Everett we would be happy to watch him while they frolicked around the town buying this and that… Laura and I were certainly happy to oblige because Everett is a fun-loving little boy who is easy to take care of. This was the first day for me to take a little boy to the bathroom in a public place. Quite a fun run-through for what is about to come. We were in a store called “USA Baby,” which is basically a condensed and more personal version of Babies-R-Us. Laura and I were walking around looking at the various things we may want to register for and after looking at bottles, bibs, strollers & diaper bags Mandy asked Everett the dun-dun-dun question.

“Do you need to go potty?”

“No.” Everett replied with a coy smile.

“Why doesn’t uncle Eric take you to pee pee?”

Everett continues to smile and shake his head no, which means in child talk, “I do need to go but I don’t wanna go right now.”

I am learning more and more I hang out with kids the in’s and out’s, although I think I am pretty far from father-to-be of the year.

So, I proceeded to pick Everett up and strut back toward the bathroom.

“I want mommy, I want mommy to do it,” Everett says in a ever-so sad and whining voice.

I thought to myself, “Do I risk a child yelling for his mommy from the bathroom in a public place or should I just take him back and hope for the best?”

I went ahead and took him back and he did his thing and everything was hunky dory, this time.

Fast forward, a few hours, Laura and I take Everett home to play with Andy and Logan, and while there Annagrace and Jenn came over for a quick and pleasantly surprised play-date, complete with bubbles! We all went outside and sat on the deck to watch the kids play with the dogs and their bubbles and that is when it was suggested to take Everett inside to "use the potty." Now, please understand we do not have one of those "little baby potties" so when I took him into the downstairs bathroom I had to hold him on the seat so he would not fall in!

"Okay Everett, time to poop," I said to him.

He just looked at me with a deteremined look on his face and low and behold he starts to............ pee!!!! No, not poop, pee! Pee went all over me, him, the floor and potty!

"No!!! Everett No! Laura, Laura help!" I couldn't help, but laugh at the situation because I knew if I looked upset it would make Everett upset and I did not want him to cry! Thankfully, Laura came running the rescue with some wips, Jenn, so conveniently, had in Annagrace's diaper bag, and some clean clothes, minus new socks let me add. Everett has a thing about wearing shoes sans socks. But, this time it was okay. (Thank God!)

"I'm sorry, Everett, but you're okay, right?"

""Yah, I'm okay," he said..."but your floor is dirty! Why don't you clean?!"

"I'm not sure, Everett, I will work on that okay?"

"Okay," he said.

With Everett all clean after the shower of pee, I asked him if he was done and he immediatly said...

"Yes, I wanna go outside!"

We went outside and the crisis of the "I wanna go home call" was averted, yet again!!!

So, moral of the story... Always have a little boy stand up and pee before he tries to poop and have some extra clothes and clean socks, just in case!

All has been permanetly burned into my subcranium... What is my next lesson? Don't know, but lets hope it is a little more sanitary!

This week has just started and I am all ready to begin the weekend… Until next time!