Diary of a Third Time Dad

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WEEK 56 - MARCH 2003

Sorry, Girl Scouts of America.

Ok, what child doesn't like girl scout cookies? Our child doesn't. We stock up on cases of Thin Mints to last us the year, and Cheryl wasted one on the baby. He mushed it up, crumbled it up, took a tiny taste, and dropped it over the side of his high chair. He wasted no time in grabbing a handful of Cheerios and stuffing his mouth full. Cool, more for us.

Jedi training.

The kids have started Joshua out early at the Jedi Academy. Great promise, this young one has. Strong in the force, he is.

If the Jedi Masters find out he's still breastfeeding, they'll probably ship him out on the next transport.

Officially a dad.

The little guy has a cold, and decided to wake up at 5 AM all stuffy and coughing. After Cheryl and I both laid in bed for a half hour pretending to be asleep, hoping each other would get up with the baby, I finally volunteered. I took him into the bathroom and steamed him for a while. Not my first choice of things to be doing at 5 AM. He, of course, slept through it all. The coughing stopped, but I knew the second I tried to lay him back down again, he'd wake up and start snuffing and coughing again.

I had a choice. Bring him back to bed, and let Cheryl try to nurse him back to sleep (which I knew wouldn't work), or just stay up with him. I decided I actually wasn't that tired after all, so I just stayed up with him, holding him in my arms for the next two hours until it was finally time to get everyone up.

Cheryl woke up, stretched contently, and said, "Wow, that was the nicest thing you have ever done. You're officially a real dad now - you actually got up with your child during the night."

Major point score. I gotta try this getting-up-with-the-baby-during-the-night thing more often. I could really use the extra points.

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