Monday, May 04, 2009

My Baby is Gonna Be Two Next Week

021... and while I haven't been much of a blogger this year, I've spent a lot of time being a dad. And I'm having a fairly typical stay at home parent problem. Which is that I long for adult company. But I can't exactly join a MOPS group, because the M stands for Mothers. I'm not 100% sure what goes on at these meetings, but I'm fairly certain a man would really wreck the group dynamic.

Since being a Stay At Home Dad (SAHD) seems so natural to me, I'm sometimes surprised when I lift my head up and realize that what I do is still pretty unusual in our society. I looked around today and couldn't find any dad's groups in my area. The most common advice for me in this area is "Start One", but starting social groups in not really in my personality type. Anyway, I'll dwell more on this later.

Yes, Katie will be two next week. It's absolutely amazing, as my memories of her clinging to my finger the day she was born are still fresh and vivid in my mind. She's quite a bit bigger, at 3'2" and 38 lbs., and she has consistently amazed me with what she picks up without being explicitly taught. She has a great sense of humor. She's using new words every day, and sometimes I don't even know where she heard the word or phrase. She has a very strong personality, and I have begun instituting time outs for things like climbing the up on the coffee table. But she is so easily self-entertained I wonder how effective they will be.

We are having a Little Einsteins theme for her party. She loves the music and the patting and clapping in that show. I let the TV thing get out of control though, so I am really dialing back on what and when she can watch. She has lots of fun at parks, so we are doing that more often. She likes the swing more the slide, and the dirt/sand/wood chips more than anything. And she still loves looking at books for hours. I am so excited to she what she does in this next year. Hopefully one thing will be sleep in.
And if you know of and SAHD groups in the IE, let me know.

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And now for a diaper change....

Brian
muse.platypionline.com

2 comments:

Aiden Sunrider said...

Mine still aren't sleeping in. I'm thinking junior high age. And if they don't sleep in, they can fix their own breakfast and leave us alone.

Gale said...

Hey Brian...if you can't find a SAHD group maybe just a men's bible-study? When we moved to Waco I was staying at home and feeling very alone and isolated. All the MOPS things were at times I couldn't do without having to get up earlier than the baby was currently getting up (and since I wasn't getting full night sleeps even at that it wasn't an option). So, I joined a woman's Bible study at my Church...turned out I was the ONLY mom in it, but it didn't matter. Actually, it was for the better, because what I really needed was adult conversation and a listening ear (which I got). ...and maybe opened up about some things more than I would have if there had been other mom's in the group. But, likely in most men's bible studies (at least those not aimed at singles) you'll find other dads.