A Change In The Force Is Coming

charlie-nap
He sure does not look like a happy morning napper eh?

Charlie, I am your father. Please, don’t stop napping in the morning just yet. Stay on the dark side (meaning your room).

Yes, there’s change coming for this dad on parental leave. Slowly and surely, our baby boy, is starting to not enjoy or want his morning nap.

That has me cowering in the corner, daydreaming about having quiet breakfasts and having some time to myself each morning.

Charlie has never been as good a sleeper as our first boy. Hell, Harry still has a solid two hour nap each day and he is almost four. Yes, he loves and needs sleep.

Charlie, well he seems to enjoy being up a lot more.

Over the last few weeks, the morning nap, which is usually around two hours, has been becoming shorter and shorter. He does not go to sleep easy and fights it with all his might. Finally he crashes and sleeps for 45 minutes.

My wife has opened my eyes to the realization that his morning naps may be coming to an end.

Nooooooooooooooo.

Day 75: Fortifying The Home Base

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Yesterday was an adventure and I hardly left the house. Why? We have a crawler! It was only a few days ago where it was okay to plop the baby down wherever and take care of something. Now, you can’t look away for more than a few seconds before he is wrapped up in cables. We don’t remember our first son being this active this soon and we are slowly getting back into the mind-set of having a crawler. The first step, fortifying the home base, or in our case, the living room.

Never a dull moment on the PL, here is Day 73.

Day 73: Crawling, Teething, Excusing And Mowing

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Wow, where do I begin? With our family vacation last week, it has been some time since I did a daily wrap up. So much has happened with the kids and their growth over the last 10 days, I will do my best to catch up. I will also be doing other posts on the vacation highlights. It is nice to be home and back to the normal challenges of parental leave. Although a few things have changed which will make my days a lot more fun and busy going forward. Manners are a hot topic in our house as we are teaching Harrison to say “excuse me” or “pardon me”, instead of “what did you say”?

So please excuse me as I slowly get back into the swing of things. It is great to be back and telling you all about Day 73 on the PL.

Day 65: Halifax Bringing The Heat

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Well that was a hot day. Halifax welcomed summer yesterday after what seemed like a week of dismal rain. The temp in the house read in the high 20’s all day yesterday and that made for some uncomfortable moments. Now, my wife and I grew up in Southern Ontario, so  we know that yesterday’s weather was not that hot. Nova Scotia for the most part offers a breeze. In Toronto or most of SW Ontario, the air just sits there and feels thick and it gets into the low 40’s.

But our Maritime born kids were feeling the heat for sure. Harrison came home from school looking like he just had a shower. Our 9-month old slept like a blob of pudding as he tried to keep cool. But hey, that is summer right? I like the heat and for the most part NS is the perfect mix of hot days and cool nights.

Day 65 of parental leave must have been boring if all I have to talk about is the weather. Well, there was more.

Where Did The Last 9 Months Go?

Today, our little boy is 9-months old.

9months

Holy crap, where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing the smiley-faced guy home from the hospital.

Yep, today is the mark in his life where he has been out as long as he was in. Way to go bud.

Congrats to mom and dad as well, who like many others before us, has survived the first 9 months of our baby’s life.

Day 63: No Morning Nap Makes For Good Times

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Hard to believe I have gone past the half way point on my parental leave. Where did the time go? Only three months to go before I have to go back to normal work. The long weekend was a good one and clearly it took a toll on my because today I had a case of tired parent brain. I can’t even remember how many dumb things I did today. A few examples would be forgetting Charlie’s bottle before dinner and going to take a leak and completely missing the toilet to start. Yes I did clean up. I also forget to get dressed until much later in the day. Why was it such a mess? Well the usual routine was thrown off my Mr. Charlie. Ah Day 63, you were a little messy, but good times none the less.

Day 61: Back It Up Partner

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Day 61. Where has the time gone? With June coming to a close, that will mark the half way point on this parental leave. Wow. Well I better keep enjoying the time I have with the boys.

Today was pretty quiet with the weather being dull, but that did not mean there was no action in the house. Charlie is entering a stage where a lot is going to happen fast, so it is important to help him along and watch for the big changes. Next week, he is 9 months old. Big time!

I also wanted to get a post in because I am not sure how much blogging there will be over the next few days. It is the annual birthday/Canada Day weekend here. I am very excited to see what we get up to. Make sure you check out the Instagrams and Vines over the long weekend.

Day 61, you were a good one.

Day 58: The Perfect Summer Day

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Summer started last Friday officially but today for me felt like the first day of summer. It was almost perfect. Short of my wife being home and not at work, it was one of those ideal days. The reason why? I got to go to the beach with my boys and have a great time. Not only did we hit the beach, we washed the car, went on a nature walk, relaxed in the basement and played in the backyard as the sun slowly went down. It could not have been scripted better. As I am almost half way into my 6-month leave from work, this was the day where I was like, oh yeah, this is what parental leave is all about.

Day 58, here is the rewind.