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.
Who: Charlie
Seems like I have been leading with Charlie a lot lately. Well he is the star of my parental leave and he is currently in one of the most exciting stages of his life. New teeth, crawling and a lot of new actions and faces. Once he hit the 9-month mark, he exploded in growth. It is a blast to watch and yesterday while trying to plug holes, it was getting a little frustrating. I was trying to build the perfect set up of walls and blockades to not only keep the baby in the living room, but to keep the pets and their hair out. I have baby gates, playpens and other constructions all set up to stop the little guy. So what does he keep doing? Finding flaws. He tried to unplug the computer, pull down a light, eat some cars and make a break for the kitchen. Yes he does know where the food is kept apparently. Each time I would make a slight change, he would prove me wrong in seconds. So clearly the best way to baby proof a room is to just put the baby down and let them point out your weaknesses. We shall see how it goes going forward. I may just have to put up an electric fence. I jest, I jest.
Where: Belcher’s Marsh trail
We had an early dinner last night so we could have some family outside time before the kids went to bed. My wife was going to hit the gym but instead we went for a long walk on the Belcher’s Marsh trail. The boys were kind of like my wife’s team of motivators as she did a brisk walk/jog. I think we slowed her down to be honest. We saw ducks, trees and all kinds of wildlife. We even saw a weird photo shoot going on. Maybe for someone’s Facebook page? We are pretty lucky to have this awesome trail right outside our door. It is about 1 km to walk and has parts where you forget you are in the city.
Why: Reorganized the pantry
This project has been in the works for years. My wife always meant to do it on her maternity leave and I swore I would get to it on my leave. Well it took three months but I got in there. No more old crackers, sauces, snacks, jars or loose pasta. It is clean and organized ready to get messed up again over the next few years. I found baby food in there from when our first son was in diapers. It feels good to clean something out like that. I highly recommend it.
What: Pardon
We are in the process of teaching Harry to say pardon and excuse me instead of saying “what did you say”. It is going okay, but there is some work to do. Of course with young kids, they get a hold of a new word and go crazy. Now Harry will just say excuse me endlessly until you answer him. Generally he is a well-behaved kid but sometimes, he can be very difficult. This mostly happens when he is tired or hungry which makes it easy to fix.
Photo of the Day
Lock down.
From the Internet
Fox 4 News – Waitress gives mother free pizza for breastfeeding
We often hear stories about mothers who are targeted for breastfeeding in public. But this story is very different.
Jackie Johnson-Smith, a nursing mother from the Des Moines area, recently shared her dinner receipt from Fong’s pizza parlor — and it’s gone viral. “I ate at Fongs for the first time tonight. Having a fussy baby I nursed him for awhile in the booth and eventually left the table early as to not disrupt the restaurant. The waitress gave this receipt to my husband,” Johnson-Smith said in a Facebook post, reported by KCCI-TV.
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