Our Kids

Well… I’m already learning from the girls. Mainly do’s and don’t's, which aren’t really what I was thinking about when I wrote about learning about life.

But, since I’m learning, I thought I’d share.

First off… when Piper’s hungry, don’t dilly-dally. Feed her fast! Wow that girl’s got some lungs, and quite the temper! It reminds me of when I was a kid… I had a horrible temper and would fly off the handle at the craziest things. Lucklily, I had an awesome brother who saw that. He’d have fun just prodding me, working me into a fit of anger… pretty much just messing with me. Even through high school he was doing that… we’d be playing doubles tennis for the team and I swear he’d double-fault on purpose if I started getting too mad at the game.

Ahh… the memories. Anyhow, by the time I got into college, I was done with my temper. After all those years, he had taught me a bit of patience. I’m sure he was having fun in the process, but thanks to him I can just smile when Piper’s so mad that the bottle just isn’t going fast enough, her little hands clenched into fists by her face as she screams while on the bottle. Maybe she needs her Uncle JJ to visit for a while.

Lesson number two, this one from Lela. When that little girl is hungry don’t get anything near her face that isn’t a nipple of some sort, otherwise it’ll be going into her mouth. Now, she’s a bit different than Piper… at some point she’ll let out some cries if you’re not feeding her fast enough, but unlike Piper who skipped this phase, she’ll spend some time with her eyes wide open, moving her head from side to side looking for the magical nipple that appears out of thin air. During this phase, even a kiss on the cheek is a dangerous thing, but sometimes she’s so cute I can’t resist.

Lesson number three, this one from Mystique. I need to set my alarm and/or figure out a way for Rupert to wake me up when he hears crying since Mystique’s pretty sneaky and didn’t wake me up again for any of the feedings after 1:30am. Apparently I can sleep through a lot, which is good to know, but not the best quality in a new dad.

And finally, a bonus lesson from both Lela and Piper… lots of motion, such as swinging the child when getting up from a chair, or moving them too quickly from the changing table to the crib, after a feeding invokes projectile spitup. That one seems obvious but everyone now and then I need a hands-on example to remind me of that. Thanks, girls…

Mystique took some cute pictures yesterday, I’ll add them to Flickr sometime today.

jason