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Daddy Day Care, pt 2

Day 2 our Father/Daughter weekend actually started on Day 1. Lydia’s entering the phase of mid-night wake-ups; she woke at 11:30 and again at 4:30, and each time dad ended up being mean and making her go back to bed. This didn’t work too well for me, since I was up til sometime between the hours mentioned afore mentioned associating w/ some friends via the internet. Fortunately it was Saturday and those are made for cartoons; and cartoons for Lydia translate to naps for Dad and I was able to eek out another hour or so of sleep.

I’ve been trying for a couple weeks to get a haircut at a particular place because they did a great job last time, so Lydia and I set out again to get dad a mop chop. In order to assure myself of one, we were out the door before 10, but even with showing up 15 minutes after they opened there wasn’t room for us until the afternoon. So, being in the haircut mood, we went and got Lydia a haircut.

The ladies at the haircut place said I was bold getting Lydia her first haircut while Mom was out of town. I didn’t think so, but maybe I was. We’ll find out when she gets back. Anyway, it wasn’t that big of a deal and Lydia did a good job once she was given a Dum-Dum. We even got a certificate commemorating the occasion and some of her hair in a little bag. Lydia convinced me that this weekend was a rare occurrence and we should make the most of it by doing some shopping. So we hit up the store and Lydia became the proud new owner of a shirt, a pink, black and white Adidas soccer ball, an accessory for her bedroom and a Disney princess playhouse – evidently she’s very persuasive.

I then convinced her to branch out and enjoy some new kind of food, so we hit up the Philly Connection for a cheese steak. She was particularly fond of the French fries…actually she was fond of the ketchup. It turns out the fries were nothing more than a utensil and once they were gone she finished up with her fingers.

Following some nap time for everyone, we had to return to the store to pickup a gift en route to a birthday party. It was a pretty big gamble, having Dad pickup an item of clothing for a one year old girl, but I managed to hit it out of the park. I seriously misjudged the amount of time it would take us to go buy the gift and get to our destination, so we had an hour to kill. Luckily, the newly acquired soccer ball was still in the car, so we found a park; Lydia’s Hispanic origins shown through as she demonstrated some mad skills dribbling the futbol around the field. We worked up a nice sweat and then hit up the party.

Lydia enjoyed the ‘glamour room’ at the Sorensen’s, leaving with a makeover and some purple fingernails before all was said and done. I’ve learned a thing or two from watching Paula run this ship and I had brought a change of pajamas, so by the time we hit the road for home, Lydia was ready for bed and she was zonked out by the time we hit Sugarloaf Parkway.

It was a really good day – no crying, yelling or temper tantrums, even with a broken night of sleep – and I was proud of the way Lydia behaved, too.

Daddy Day Care

Paula and Camille left this morning for four days of fun in the sun in San Juan, Puueerrto Rrrrico (that’s me saying it w/ an exotic Hispanic accent), creating a bit daddy-daughter weekend. So, if anyone still checks this blog, I’m going to provide a day-by-day breakdown of our time together.

This morning when the vacationers left, Lydia sent them off in tears. Nothing a little bit of ‘Blue Dress’ couldn’t fix – so we sat together for 76 minutes as Cinderella overcame the obstacles of a wicked step-mother and two short-bus riding step-sisters, Lydia in her very own blue dress (courtesy of Grandma Kilgore) and me in my seminary garb. By the time Cinderella was putting on an ill-fitting yellow shirt on Gus-Gus, Lydia had calmed down and it was business as usual.

Besides leaving the house in pristine condition, Paula also left a list – both part of her M.O. – so the next point of order was a little trip to the grocery store, which I coupled with stop at The Home Depot for some odds and ends. At the store, Lydia’s good behavior earned her a purple Hot Wheels car from the 10 for $10 bin. She loved it. It gives me a certain sense of satisfaction to have my little girl like playing with cars, even when it ends up under shelves of Venetian blinds and dad spends five minutes moving said blinds from shelving to aisle, then taking out the planking, finding the car and returning everything to its proper place. These heroics did earn me a squeal of delight and a hug – totally worth it.

During nap time, I switched our car insurance to Progressive, killed some weeds and ate what Lydia had left of the Gummy Bears for lunch.

Post-nap, we went to the park. It was pretty awesome. During this outing, I realized that one kid is no problem after you’ve spent time with two. It’s sort of like how after two-a-day football practices make normal practice seem like a vacation. We chased some geese, threw some rocks in a pond, hit up the playground per usual, and ran fearfully away from large (and tiny) dogs. Dad ended up carrying the tricycle after the first hour, as well as the coat and juice while Lydia stalled as best she could from heading back to the car.

In true dad mode, we had some a well balanced meal for dinner – dad grilled some burgers and Lydia feasted on Kroger Frosted Fruit circles – followed w/ an after dinner show of Beast. There were plenty of tickling intermissions, usually initiated as follows:

DAD: Lydia! Are you sucking your thumb?

LYDIA: (Incoherent response since voice is muffled by thumb in mouth)

DAD: I’m gonna get that thumb!

LYDIA: NOOO!!! (Run out of living room)

Beast ended up w/ Beauty, Lydia ended up in bed. We finished the night w/ Mucky Moose; Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; A-B-C and some minimal resistance to bed time. In all, it was a great day. The house isn’t messy, but it isn’t spotless and I’m going to stay up way too late playing Xbox…but what do you expect when mom’s away?

The pics

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Camille Roberts.
She was born at 9:01AM. Paula pushed for a grand total of 10 minutes, so she came really fast once we started working on her. While she was descending, we knew she'd be long because her feet were still kicking Paula in the ribs! Wild, wild stuff.
You can compare Lydia to Camille by clicking here.

Here she is in all her newborn glory.

Look at that weight! The nurse asked if I wanted to guess the dimensions. I said 8 1/2 lbs and 21 inches. I was guessing large, but 8lbs 10oz was really surprising to both Paula and I. 11oz and 2 inches bigger than her big sister!

Mother and daughter shortly after Camille's bath - about an hour after she was born. Both are doing very well.

This one eye open is about the most we've seen of her big brown eyes. She's a sleeper, very much the opposite of Lydia who was very, very alert for the first few hours.

Another sleeping shot from this afternoon. She's been sleeping so soundly that we have to lean our ears down every once in a while to make sure she's breathing! It's wild.

Look at all that hair! No wonder Paula had heartburn day in and out. Camille's hair is darker and thicker than Lydia's; her back, shoulders and thighs are covered with it - our little Hobbit!

Here we go...

I was sleeping comfortably on the couch in the bonus room a few hours ago. I've been sleeping there recently due to Paula's pregnancy, as she is up and down and uncomfortable all during the night. She's very sensitive to my needs and stresses out about waking me up, so this seemed logical. (Just wanted to lay that out so no rumors of domestic issues arose)
Anyway, I'm sleeping when at 1:44 AM I am awoken by my laboring wife. She'd been having sharp contractions for about 45 minutes and was wondering what we should do. I had no idea. But, we winged it. I did my best to be supportive, encouraging and upbeat for the next half hour. We timed contractions and breathed and all that jazz.
I was instructed to call the doctor at 2:15. I knew it was serious because she wasn't laughing at my jokes and I'm a very funny guy. The doctor told us to come in. I gave Bridgette a call and she was all sorts of giddy to come over and sleep at our house w/ Lydia as we went to the hospital.
We arrived at 3:15, checked into Labor and Delivery #3, and found that Paula was at a 5. This was big news as just Monday at noon she was at a 2, which was the same as her Friday appointment. Also it was a first for us because Lydia was forced to come into this world 9 days late and Paula was at a 1. An hour later Paula advanced to a 7 and was 90+ effaced.
So, here we are, at almost 6am on Tuesday, November 24, 2009, awaiting the arrival of daughter number 2. Paula is resting comfortably, I am sitting here looking out the window at the lights of cars driving by. There's a lot that is going to happen in the world today and very few people out there will know that a little girl is being born - another little girl will soon be a big sister, and a dad will once more wonder how it is possible to fall so instantly in love with another human being.
It's so little - the birth of one child - but it is everything, if only to us.