Diary of a Third Time Dad

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WEEK TWENTY-FOUR - AUGUST 2002

Attack of the Thumbs.

I must have told thousands of my patients how to get their toddlers to stop sucking their thumbs. Neither of my first two boys picked up this habit, but Joshua has decided to be special. Today he found his thumb, and there's no way I could stop him cuz it was just way too cute.

Hopefully I won't regret this two years from now.

Discovering arm hair.

The little guy has discovered the world of daddy's arm hair. He is fascinated, and loves to take his little pincers and try to pull out as much as he can.

Now being the awesome dad that I am, I willingly sacrifice my arm hair (and a little skin to go with it) all in the name of promoting Joshua's fine motor development. I just wish I had a less painful body part he could "develop" himself on.

Stop and smell the roses.

Every so often something truly amazing happens with Joshua that I know will stay with me the rest of my life. The three of us were laying in bed one night, just hanging out. The baby wasn't that tired, so we were playing with him. I started to rub his face, and he immediately quieted down. I continued to run my fingers up one cheek, across his forehead, and down the other cheek, back and forth. He laid there with a slight smile on his face and didn't move. After a minute, his eyes closed and his smile slowly relaxed. He had fallen asleep.

This had never happened before, and will probably never happen again. You can't imagine the closeness I felt to him. But it's not like I was crying or anything. Ha! Not me! Being male, and a doctor and all. Not even! No tears here! I think this is one example of what can happen when you're not in such a hurry to get your baby to sleep at night, and you just stop and enjoy a little quiet time as a family.

Mobility is upon us.

If you've ever been to our house you know we are a "pile" family. We like to keep our mail and bills and important papers stacked in several piles in our family room. This has worked well for us over the years, but now we realize that a new system is needed.

Joshua is mobile. Between rolling, squirming, and stretching, he can manage to traverse the family room in less than a minute. So far he has managed to eat one birthday card, two letters, and a Citibank Visa bill. I hope the nice people at Citibank don't mind a little drool.

Our two older boys are going to have to be careful not to leave any homework lying around.

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