The 36 hour preview of what life is like as a parent: Part II

Previously – Part I

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No…we didn’t fondue the baby.

We turned on the TV for some cartoons to entertain the little one while Kristen and I continued to catch up. Only 90 minutes had passed before Lily decided she wanted to sleep for a little bit longer. Kristen took this opportunity to catch up on more sleep as well.

While they were sleeping in the bedroom, it was the prime opportunity for me to catch up on some blogs and perhaps even work on a couple drafts of my own. This plan was halted when my dog realized he finally had a playmate, and the 60 lb. shepherd mix began chasing the not-so 60 lb. pug around my living room.

I don’t know if it was for the concern for the two bodies sleeping in the other room, or for the furniture, but I ended up taking the two of them to the park in hopes they’d run themselves exhausted.

Lesson Learned #2: It is not necessarily easy to walk two dogs at the same time. *mad respect for professional dog walkers*

When we returned I tried to hush the dogs so they wouldn’t wake up the baby. Not even a minute from walking in the door I heard Kristen say my name in the form of a question. They were awake. She had been texting with another friend who lives in town trying to iron out plans for brunch.

I won’t bore you with the details from that morning/afternoon. Brunch, good. Food, good. Pancakes, always good. By the time we were finished eating there were 2 1/2 bodies ready to lapse into a food coma. Lily had fallen asleep during the drive back to the apartment.

Lesson Learned #3: When in doubt, and trying to get a baby to fall asleep, put them in a car and go for a drive. Odds are you’ll get lucky.

She didn’t wake up as we carried her into the apartment, and with the both of us still running off of an incredible small amount of sleep already it wasn’t too difficult to agree that a nap was in order.

Lesson Learned #4: When baby sleeps, you sleep.

After another 90 minutes of napping the rest of the afternoon consisted of more cartoons and playing with the baby.

If you had met me 4 years ago you would have never seen me playing with a baby. Not because I’m some cold-hearted jerk who has a secret vendetta against those that are age-challenged.

Nope.

Part of it was because I just didn’t know how to act around them. Another part was I didn’t trust myself to hold them. That all changed when my niece was born. Well, it changed with the playing part. I didn’t hold her for the first time until she was 5 months. To this day I still won’t hold a new-born child. That’s a lot of responsibility…and I can sometimes be accident prone.

We had dinner reservations that night at The Melting Pot. This has turned into somewhat of a tradition for Kristen and I. The last time she had come to Kansas City we ate there. The last time she was in Kansas City was also the last time I had dined at The Melting Pot. Allow me to fast forward to the end of out dining experience to tell you that both times eating there we’ve had our server (and other on shift that night) we were not only their favorite table of the night but that we were the type of people who needed to come in there more often.

The fun type.

I can confirm this is probably very factual since a party of six, seated near us, spent most of their evening enthralled in a rather stimulating conversation about grocery shopping.

Though we received similar compliments two years ago, we garnered more attention because of the Lily.

Lesson Learned #5: Babies really do have an ability similar to a magnet, or tractor beam; no aiming necessary.

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To be concluded…

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