Photogenic Week

So more happened over the past week than I could fit into a Tuesday with Cleo post, so I thought I would just include the photos here for you all.

H and Cleo left me alone for a whole weekend and went to my mom's place.

My mom's dog Seven was extremely nervous about Cleo. He understands cats. He understands people. The concept of tiny people completely blows his mind. Here he is trying to connect with Cleo.

I just love this picture of her for some reason.

And she got to meet our friends in Bremerton (The suppliers of the Wonder Woman onesie that I often put her in when I go out.)

After that, Cleo and H rode the ferry for the first time.

My new favorite picture of H and C courtesy of our friend in Seattle.

After H and Cleo got home, Cleo and I hung out inside a lot last week due to the rain and fussiness from the shots. Here she is playing with my hair.

She got a kick out of licking my face when I got out of the shower one day. Looks like she's kissing me but it's more about the water on my face!

We did eventually venture out despite the rain though.

I took Cleo to work where she had an exisistential time playing with a co-worker's Crisis Unicorn.

Cleo was particularly fussy for one day after her shots and would scream if put down, so for his own sanity, dad decided to take a video game  in the midst of this episode.

We started baby led weaning, so Cleo is getting limited portions of what we eat for her to play with and, occasionally, put in her mouth.

H and Cleo went to another group gathering of parents for boardgames and babies

And since H and I hate having to tend to finances, H had a recommendation for a new money manager that seems to enjoy working with money.

Shots

As an evolved, semi stay-at-home-dad, I like to think that I'm equally up for the challenges of care taking for Cleo as H is. However, I somehow always feel like I'm playing a game of catch up. I don't know if it's genetics or gender roles, but some things just seem to come much more naturally for one parent than the other parent. (Though I'd be interested to know if same sex couples raising kids fall into the same dynamic.)

Bowel movements = N + 1

The doctor's office is a great example. Since birth, Cleo has seen doctors with H numerous times. Sometimes I am there but a lot of times I'm not. The pediatrician's office so far has been the domain of the ladies. I mean, even all of the doctors, nurses, and receptionists are all female. They are all really welcoming, pleasant, and supportive of the dad being there, but let's face it, the place is only a pedicure and a seaweed wrap from being completely foreign territory to the Y chromosomes.

So last week, when it was time for Cleo's 6 month appointment, we were all set up for H to take some time off of work to be there. Something (I can't remember what) came up, though, and H asked me over the phone if I could take Cleo in by myself. I did my best to sound confident, but underneath the surface, I was completely freaking out! What if THEY asked ME questions! How often has she been feeding? How often has she not been feeding? What if they ask me about bowel movements? I don't keep track of how many bowel movements she has per week! WHY HASN'T APPLE DESIGNED SIRI TO TRACK THIS!

I'm just gonna... show this to the Doc...

As always, though, I gritted my teeth and went forward despite my anxiety because it's the best thing for Cleo and, as usual, the situation was much more tame than the persecuted scenario my neurotic self talk had constructed for me. H left a fantastically complicated white board message to help with this, I got some praise for being a well bonded dad, and aside from needing to order some extra precautionary kidney tests, Cleo is fine. To be honest, taking a kid to the doctor at this age really has a lot more in common with taking a pet to the vet. They can't communicate yet, they get subjected to a lot of stuff they have no hope of understanding, and they look slightly betrayed the entire time.

Especially when they get the shots.

In some ways, I wish Cleo DID already enjoy things like ice cream or balloons because I would completely shower her with them after something like shots to apologize to her frowning, screaming red face afterwards. She is still too little though, and all I can do is hold her and rock her while she gets over the experience. To top it all off, the process is exhausting for the kiddo, and the parent gets this special treat of a 3-4 hour baby nap when you get home which you feel as undeserving of as a Clint Dempsey goal on England.


That said, I still played video games for three hours. I mean, Dempsey still celebrated that goal, didn't he?

Stroggling

Cleo is officially six months old! Happy half birthday Estrellita! It really seems so weird that she is finally to this point. My life before her is slowly becoming less clear and more difficult to understand; kind of like trying to remember what your life was like in college after working a real job for a few years: fuzzy, murky  and with a vague feeling of contempt for the younger you who did so little with so much free time!

Ready to roll

One of the perks for me is that she is FINALLY old enough to take out jogging with the BOB converted into jogging stroller mode. Over the last 6 months, though, I've definitely allowed myself to get out of shape, so it's going to be a process. I've heard a variety of terms for the activity of "Stroller Jogging", but I'm going to refer to it as the contracted term "Stroggling" because I'm pretty sure that's what I look like when I do it.

Random Kid: "Mommy, what is that man doing?"
Kid's Mom: "He's stroggling, sweetie."
Random Kid: "He's having trouble breathing. Is he in pain?"
Kid's Mom: "Yes, I imagine so."
Random Kid: "He's stopping now. Does he have to do this because he was bad?"
Kid's Mom: "Well, if you consider eating too many corndogs bad, then yes. He was very bad."
Random Kid: "He's crying on the ground now. Should... should we call a doctor?"
Kid's Mom: "No sweetie. It's all part of the process."
Random Kid: "I'm gonna go poke him with a stick."
Kid's Mom: "Have fun. Let mommy know if he starts twitching."

Unfortunately, what normally happens when I start jogging is that I push myself too much, injure myself, and then spend a month or two getting back out of shape. Thankfully, H is joining in on the process. She's never been a runner, so we HAVE to go slow, which is good for me.

How to keep the brakes on then? Well, we're trying out the Zombies, Run! Couch to 5k app. I've followed this since its Kickstarter days and it's nice to finally be trying it out. It uses GPS to track your progress, occasionally sending zombies out to "chase" you. So far I've only encountered one, but it gives an added edge of excitement to your run.

The crux upon which all of this was balanced, however, was Cleo herself. How would she handle a run? This is a child who does not like the BOB. A walk is one thing, but a run? Potentially 30-40 minutes of her screaming? It would be tough to keep working out if she did that and I could easily see my enthusiasm waning.

The problem I encountered, though, was quite the opposite.

At first Cleo was fussy in the stroller. The program starts for the first week with 15 second bursts of running then about 1 minute of walking. After the first few intervals, Cleo quieted down, which was reassuring, but I didn't feel I was in the clear. About halfway in, though, I realized she wasn't doing much of anything. So I peaked around the BOB and... she was asleep.

"Huh," I thought to myself. "She must have been really tired."

However, upon my next workout, same pattern. Fuss, run, sleep. She's done that on three of my runs. The only one where she hasn't done that was a run with both H and I where H was pushing, so it must be something about MY cadence that knocks her out.

This is both good and bad. It's nice not to have to tote a screaming kid around on my jog. However, I would prefer that naptime occurred during a time where I can RELAX. Nothing like getting back from a nice, exhausting run, covered in sweat, to be greeted by a little baby yawn and smile, rested and ready for action.

Well, we reached 6 months so at least I can run. Now how long until I can make her run too?

Zoo Two

I've been really into this game called Star Command on the iPad. It's kind of like an unofficial Sim Star Trek, right down to science in blue uniforms, engineering in yellow, and security in red. It's a little too combat focused but it's a fun little game. It has difficulty levels, but honestly, I've never been one to redo a game just so I can play on a higher difficulty, feeling that done is done, move on. The only time I redo on a higher difficulty is if there is a different ending you can get by doing it (Final Fantasy games are notorious for giving out special Easter eggs if you do the super hard stuff). However, Star Command uses a classic Star Trek trope to launch you back into playing the game on hard mode and I was surprised that I got sucked into it again.

Unaceptable!

That said, I'm still not a fan of doing things over on Hard Mode. Unfortunately, being a male primary caretaker means having to redo activities that were more simple with Cleo's mom around.

Last Tuesday was beautiful and sunny, so my friend Mike and I decided to take kids and meet up at the zoo. I've already written about the Zoo once, but this was different. This was without the milk makers. True, as Cleo gets older the playing field has leveled a bit. Breasts are no longer a cheat code that unlocks invincible mode, but they are still like one of the cheat codes that gives you 1000 hp, 1000 xp, and 1000 gold.

One thing that became clear early on is that these kids are definitely developing personalities. For example, Mike's youngest is such a chill little guy! He was content to be rolled around in the stroller, taking long naps, and was all smiles when brought out for feeding. (Maybe we caught him on an exceptionally good day, but I think that the kid is quite the laid back little dude.)

Compare this to Little C. About 15 minutes into being at the zoo, she was done with the stroller. The fact that there were things happening around her that she couldn't see from her stroller was unacceptable and she needed to be carried, dammit!  If I'm being honest, I suppose that I brought her there to see all of the cool stuff, I just... really didn't think that she would be determined to see ALL of the cool stuff. So for the next 2 hours I carried her around, her wide eyes taking in the sights and the animals, showing no signs of wanting to take a nap. Even after her feeding at lunchtime, the stroller was anathema, and she spent the rest of the day in the Moby wrap where she had a good view.

The best thing about this trip? I HAVE LEVELED UP! The stuff I used to think was really hard has gradually gotten easier. I suppose that does mean that I should be doing stuff on hard mode. I still don't like the concept, though.

The Shrieking Seal

This last week, Cleo found a new thing to play with: her voice. Looking at it from a purely experiential point of view, voices are awesome. There's weird vibrations going on, interesting sensations as you go from low to high and loud to soft, and not to mention the new sounds and echos that are going on! Having a voice is pretty cool!

That is the objective point of view. MY point of view as a parent is: PLEASE! Why can't some benevolent/vengeful god strike me DEAF! 

H has taken to referring to her as the Shrieking Seal, and even though I later corrected her that it's supposed to be the Shrieking Eels... the name has stuck.

Throw in the fact that she is teething AGAIN and it pretty much never stops. I have, however, complied a rough interpretation of her various cries and screeches.

Cry #1: aaaaHHHAAAHHHHAAAaaahha! = Cleo is happy. Probably.

Cry #2: AAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! = Cleo is teething. Possibly. She may also be happy.

Cry #3: WAAAAAAAAGHHHH! = She is wet. Or tired. Or hungry. Or teething. Or happy.

Cry #4: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH! = GREAT LORD YOD SODDOTH WHO DWELLS BETWEEN WORLDS! I HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST STEPS OF THE PROPHECY TO AWAKEN SLEEPING CTHULU!  ... or she's teething/happy.

Is this... food?

Thankfully, H was able to get a day off during the week for all of us to hang out together. Due to the way we've set up childcare, H and I rarely get a full, 16 hour day off together, so this was pretty freaking cool for us, and frankly, if there ever was a week for H to have an extra day off, this was it.

We started off with a foray to story time at Green Bean Books, a cute little local kids bookstore. We are, perhaps, a bit ambitious with trying to expose Cleo to books. Her favorite activity during storytime at home is to attempt to grab and eat the book, so I assume that she views bookstores as a variation of a supermarket and that they should come with free samples. The best part about this trip, though? Cleo had her expertly timed, I-know-I-haven't-crapped-in-18-hours-and-we-just-left-the-house-10-minutes-ago-but-here-it-is bowel movement that is the hallmark of an adventure with Cleo... and I didn't have to change it!

A sight to bring tears of joy to a father.

The rest of the day was just so genuinely pleasant. We went out to lunch at a family friendly place close by that we were meaning to try out and had a great time. We went for a long walk in the area where we are trying to get a new apartment and the weather stayed calm. Even when we did something mundane like shopping, it was still fun and pleasant. It was a wonderful realization for me of how taking something as taxing as the constantly crying baby and splitting up the workload between the two of us didn't make the job seem half as hard, but it made it feel like a quarter of the job or even less!

Life hasn't dealt us a hand right now that allows us to spend more than a handful of hours at a time together as a family, but it's nice to know that when we have the opportunity, we all play along like a well rehearsed family band...featuring the Shrieking Seal on lead vocals.