Above Average

Is it normal that my 5 month old child just went to sleep in 24 month pajamas and they weren't really that big on him? I can't believe how big this kid is. It is kind of ridiculous and awesome at the same time. Ryan weighs in at about 24 pounds and no longer fits into clothes that are smaller than 12-18 months and that size probably won't last very long. The really crazy part is that most kids do their biggest growing once they start solids and Ryan hasn't come close to starting solids. We have tried to get him to eat rice cereal and oatmeal but he has no interest! He still has the tongue thrust reflex where he pushes the food out of his mouth without giving it any chance of reaching his throat. This is a normal reflex that usually goes away between 4 and 6 months. With Jack it went away early because that boy wanted to eat! Ryan on the other hand seems to be pretty content with just the formula for now. For the first time the other day we saw him getting really interested in food. Caroline was sucking down a yogurt in front of him and he was really interested in what she was doing.

This is what a recent attempt at feeding look like...

He is quite a messy eater.

This is what Jackson looked like not long after he started eating solids!

Needless to say we don't make small boys in the Gray family!

No power....again

I sit down to type this post from my in-laws house in Natick, Massachusetts because we cannot be home without power.  We lose power more often than anyone ever should.  In the three years that we have lived in Newmarket we have lost power over 7 times and twice we have lost it for than a week.  This is ridiculous!  The worst part of losing power is that we have to uprooted our entire family and interrupt the lives of friends and family.  If it were just Annie and I with the older two kids we might have tried to stay but with Ryan we just can't do it.  He can't have a blanket because he is too young and with no heat he would just get too cold. 

A big thank you to Lee, Rocky and Colbs for letting us crash their place last night.  When the Gray's come to spend the night it is quite an event.  With five of us it quickly looks like we are moving everything we own into whatever house we enter.  With the two porta cribs, blankets, pillows, clothes, formula, snacks and car seat we are quite a sight rolling into town. 

Today, upon arrival at the Grandparents house Jack and Caroline turn into a tornado of noise and excitement that cannot be contained.  As they are doing laps around the inside of the house Annie tells me, "oh, my parents are going to read in here." I think she was hoping the kids would quiet down a bit, but I told her that her parents knowingly gave up any hope of peace and quiet when they allowed us to come and stay with them.  Annie's mom quickly agreed and told me how she has told Annie's dad to enjoy the quiet while it lasted this morning!  I call this the calm before the storm! 

Anyone want us to come over and bring the storm?  I am hoping for power by Tuesday, but I won't hold my breath.  Until then the tornado of noise and excitement will remain at the Grandparents house!

Too Smart, Too Soon

Those of you who read my blog are aware that Jack has a bit of a nudist issue. It is only an issue because he wants to be naked ALL the time. Well, today we went into Jackson keeps his clothes on boot camp. What this means is that we are working on keeping Jack's clothes during the day and night. This is a big challenge as he is always trying to get naked. Today, I came home from work to watch Jack and his friend Gavin for a couple hours while Annie took Caroline to the dentist. Not long after I was home Jack went pee in the bath room and came streaking out of the bathroom butt naked. I quickly told him to get his clothes and put them back on. He then went about his business playing with his friend for a while until he had to pee again. This time he comes out of the bathroom butt naked saying, "Pants wet, Daddy. Pants wet, no wear." I again told him to go and get his pants so I could check them. He ran and got his pants but quickly threw them in the hamper. "Pants wet!" Upon inspection I find the pants and underwear bone dry. This little 2 year old dude was running game on me! Is it normal for 2 year olds to be smart enough to run game on their parents? Apparently he tried to do the same thing to Annie yesterday. He is too funny!

On another note, Ryan is so in love with his older sister. Tonight Caroline leaned in to give Ryan a kiss good night and his little face lit up with a huge smile. He does that almost time he sees her. The other day Caroline and I were laying on the floor with Ryan on his belly looking at us. No matter what I did Ryan would not take his eyes off of his sister. It is so awesome to see your kids interacting together and loving each other. Can't wait to watch them grow up together.

Don't We Have a Say Too

My friend, Erin, sparked something in me that she had no intention of sparking in her blog, A Day in the Life, when she asked "already mommies" for advice on parenting stuff. Those two words or one's similar to them get me inappropriately angry. Why you may ask? When I see those statements that ask only for other women's advice on parenting I see that as saying that we dad's are useless or at best second class parenting citizens. Who died and made women the only one's who know how to parent? I get it that there are a lot of men out there that stink at being dad's and prefer for their wives to make all of the decisions and to deal with all of the parenting, but that isn't all of us. I am a completely involved Dad and I know more about parenting than many people want to give us men credit for. I may forget to give my kid his medicine from time to time. I may let my kids stay up later than Mommy would. I may let Jack pee off the deck once in a while. I may encourage them to do dumb things from time to time. I may try to sit on the couch as long as possible and hope that Annie will change a diaper, clean up the toys, get the kids their baths, vacuum the house and whatever she does. But, when it comes to the nitty gritty stuff of parenting I am there and I am involved every step of the way.

I actually have heard a few women say, "Well I pushed him out so I get the final say!" Um, no you don't. I give women all the credit in the world for being able to give birth to enormous things and I respect that it is an experience that can't truly be understood by us dudes. However, that does not give the mom a special veto in all parenting decisions. My own wife tried to play this card when we were debating what to name Ryan. She didn't win that argument, but she did try! Ryan will thank me one day for fighting the good fight on this one as his mother wanted to name Elijah...not a bad name...for someone else's kid! Anyway, the point here is this...we men want to have a say in the lives of our children and if you ladies would listen to us once in a while I bet you would be pleasantly surprised by what we have to say. Rant concluded!

Bedtime Shenanigans

Don't these two little kids look so cute? Well they are cute until one of them refuses to go to sleep. Jack has been doing so great at sleeping lately and has been sleeping in and through the night. Over the past several weeks he has been giving us a run for our money when it comes to actually falling asleep. Tonight Annie put him up to bed a little before 8 and he was quiet and as we thought asleep by 8:30. Right now we are putting Jack to bed before Caroline because he can't handle her being in there with him as he tries to fall asleep. If they are awake in their room together Jack will without a doubt get Caroline to start playing with him and madness will ensue. In just minutes the two of them can turn a nice clean room into a war zone of stuffed animals, books and trampolines. It seems that Jack has learned a new trick recently. When Annie and I think Jack is asleep we go in to check and make sure he is actually asleep. In the past when he wasn't asleep he would poke his head up and smile or laugh at you. Well, now he is being diabolical and pretends to be asleep. Thinking Jack is asleep we bring Caroline in so she can go to bed. Not too long after Annie or I leaves the room Jack can be heard goading Caroline into playing with him.

If this kid wasn't mine this would be so much funnier! Tonight Jack decided that he didn't want to go to bed so we moved him out of the room to allow Caroline to sleep. I put him into an extra large portable crib in my room and told him to go right to bed. He says, "Otay Daddy!"

A few minutes later as I am sitting down watching TV I hear loud thumping noise repeatedly. Jack decided that it was time to jump in his gigantic portable crib making so much noise that I thought for sure he was going to come through the floor into the living room. I decide to move him back to his bed as Caroline was now asleep and he does sleep better there. Once I get back downstairs Jack starts yelling, "Mommy, Pee. Pee, Mommy! Mommy...peeeeee!" This kid is awesome and ridiculous all at the same time. Finally asleep sometime after 10pm.

Just a reminder to some of you who may not have seen it...this is how I found Jack the other night after he had fallen asleep. His diaper and Pj's were on the floor next to his bed and he was in his birthday suit. "No need diaper, Daddy!" Yes, need diaper Jackson!

Sleeping, cursing and nudity

I am going to try to come back to this Daddy Blog thing. It has been a long time since I have posted on this blog and lots has happened since my last my post which I don't even remember! Since my last post Annie and I welcomed Ryan Paul into our house. There was a time there where I was thinking of sending him back because he was interrupting my sleep on a regular basis and I was not down with that. Well, in the last few days all of that has changed. Annie and I decided that it was time for Ryan to learn how to put himself to sleep on his own. We did this same thing with our older two and it was probably the greatest parenting decision I have ever made. Both of our older kids took less than three nights to learn how to go to sleep without throwing major fits. Caroline was a dream sleep and was sleeping through the night before she was even 4 months old. Jack on the other hand didn't start sleeping through the night until he was almost a year and a half, but he could go down on his own.


And now on to Ryan's experience. A few nights ago we decided to send Ryan to sleeping boot camp and Annie put him down to bed while he was awake. He cried for less than 20 minutes and the greatest thing happened after that...he slept through the night! He went from 8:30-6:30am! And the next night he went down and cried for less than 10 minutes and by night 3 three he wasn't crying at all. This was the first time I had slept through the night for two nights in a row since Ryan was born! And Annie certainly had it way worse than I did since I was a bit of an idiot from time to time and refused to help! I am a good person, but interrupt my sleep and I get downright nasty. I wouldn't even begin to share some of the words that came tumbling out of my too tired mouth in the middle of the night. Thank goodness Annie was the only one who ever heard that side of my vocabulary. I think some people would be shocked!


Getting back on track here...we are now into night 5 of Ryan putting himself to sleep and it is awesome. He sleeps through the night. He takes better naps and has a more regular schedule of awake and sleep time. I haven't cursed at anyone or anything in 5 days and I feel all the better for it!


On another note, at some point we are going to have to deal with our little nudist named Jackson. As soon as Jack wakes up he gets naked. When he comes home he gets naked. Sometimes he is outside and he gets naked. At what age can you be charged with indecent exposure? Related to this is Jackson great pleasure in peeing every where but the toilet. He is potty trained (he wears a diaper during nap and nighttime) but he loves to pee in all kinds of places. He gets naked, goes out on the back deck, leans back and then starts peeing in a high arc. Today I had him downtown fishing in the river behind the church and when I turned around I found him with his pants around his ankles while he was peeing in the water. He was so excited. "Daddy, pee water! Daddy, PEE WATER!!" There is a nudist camp down the street. Maybe someday he can move in over there, but until then we may need to work on him keeping his pants on a little more.


I have lots more to add, but I think I better stop for now. Sleeping, cursing and nudity is enough for tonight! Hope you enjoyed!

A Day In The Life

Here is an update on what the past 24 hours have been like in my house. Last night we were awoken by the sound of a barking seal in our house and I think to myself, "I don't remember bringing a new pet home!" What could that be I wondered? Turns out it was Jack and not a seal. Jack was just doing a spot on impersonation thanks to his croup! Being the ever dotting dad that I am I ran in and scooped him up, tried to make him feel better for several minutes (it was actually probably several seconds) and then woke Annie up. She snapped into action, grabbed the boy, brought him into the bathroom and threw the steam on. Jack was much better in there, but when you took him out it was back to the honking seal. Annie says, "I'm taking him to the ER!" I say, "I'm going back to bed." No sooner does my head hit the pillow I hear Caroline start to cough and cry. Awesome. Since there is extra room in the bed with Annie at the ER I brought Caroline into bed and went back to sleep. Being the great dad that I am I woke up and 6am with Jack and had no idea where Caroline was and what had happened at the ER. I am so connected and with it sometimes I even surprise myself.
Jack and I survived the day. There was some fussiness and the afternoon hours were less than fun, but we survived. Annie couldn't get home from work soon enough! The evening went great! I was helping Jack and Caroline do somersaults and teaching Jack how not to get off the bed. (He justs walks off like he is on flat ground still. If it wasn't so scary it would be funny.) And then it was bedtime. Bedtime is when it gets fun again!
Jack is coughing. Caroline starts crying. Annie runs up to see what is the matter and then I get the call. "Come up here now! Caroline is throwing up!" Yippee. I run upstairs to find Caroline donating her dinner to the toilet. I say what do you need me to do? Caroline starts vomiting again and I stand at a safe distance and watch. I don't want that stuff on me! Annie says, "Will you help!?! I move closer, but do nothing. Annie, "Hold her hands so she doesn't get it all over her!" "Get me some towels!" I start moving, but not fast enough. "Hold her hands!" "Get me some towels!" I am torn, so I do nothing. More watching! I am good at watching the vomiting. Finally, I get the towels and then clean up the mess. We get Caroline back in bed...she is much better and still sleeping.
It continues. Sit down and start watching TV...finally. And then, Jack starts screaming. Annie goes to take care of him and I get sent on a mission to find generic ibuprofen, which in NH means a 15 minute drive to CVS.
That is my day. I am home now and everyone is sleeping but me. Good times in Newmarket! Best news for me is that I am at an all day conference tomorrow very far from my house! I may just sit in my car somewhere and sleep! Don't tell Annie