Diary of a Third Time Dad

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WEEK 42 - DECEMBER 2002

The dropping game.

It seems that Cheryl is always the first one to get wise to any new thing that Joshua starts to do.

We were in church the other day, and Joshua dropped a toy. I dutifully picked it up to hand back to him. What well-meaning good father wouldn't?

Cheryl whispers, "No, don't give it back" a second too late. Joshua looks at me, smiles, drops the toy again, and then squeals in delight now that he found a playmate for his new game. Now, a toy crashing to the carpet never seems to make that much noise at home, but in church it is thunderous.

It appears that I was completely unaware of Joshua's new favorite pastime, the Dropping Game.

My ignorance earned me "the look" from Cheryl as she left with our now very talkative baby.

Up late, again.

Some nights the baby goes to bed at a decent hour, but some nights he stays up late with us. One night I was a bit frustrated over this fact, but as we three laid in bed together, wondering when the little turkey would finally tire out, Cheryl reminded me of one VERY important thing that I think many parents, including me, tend to forget. "He's only young for a short time. And just look how cute he is."

She's right. Anytime the baby is REALLY getting annoying, I just need to remind myself of this truth.

So this morning Cheryl tells me that she was rudely woken last night by Joshua sitting next to her and hitting her on the face, and it wasn't very fun.

I told her, "But I bet he was just so adorable, and he's growing up so fast."

I don't think this helped.

Kissy boy.

One way I can tell Joshua is getting tired is that he starts kissing everything in sight. And he doesn't just kiss. He opens his mouth and licks. I love this, and I try to get in on the action whenever he starts to wind down in the evening. The kids, on the other hand, do NOT enjoy these kisses. But I want Joshua to learn to be affectionate with them, so I just tell them to deal with all the slobber. And they're pretty good sports about it.

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