This is not an Update

By

As the title says, this isn’t an update.

I’m in a zone where I am not focused on writing posts about fatherhood. Sure, I’m still taking video and pictures, but I’m also not getting around to posting them.

Everything is going pretty well.

That is all.

Follow me on twitter (@bayerjeff) if you feel like it.

Perhaps the nine-day odyssey Dylan and I are about to take without my wife will rekindle this blog. Perhaps not.

- Jeff Bayer

Reasons My 6.5-Month-Old Son is Amazing

By

Three months ago I wrote “Reasons My 3.5-Month-Old Son Sucks.” At that time, I said I would also write about what is good about my kid. It’s about time I give him some credit.

  • If another parent hangs out with him for longer than 30 minutes, they say, “You have such a calm baby.”
  • My old Pioneer trucker hat is his favorite toy.
  • He’s only had one cold.
  • He’s not an ugly baby. I don’t care about cute, but I’m pretty sure he’s not one of those babies that you compliment and then immediately when they are gone talk about how you wonder if the parents know they have an ugly baby.
  • His diaper rash has been gone for 4.5 months.
  • He doesn’t care about pacifiers.
  • If you remove the moments just before and after naps, he cries maybe once or twice in a typical week.
  • If I want, I can get him to laugh every single time he’s on the changing table.
  • He has started to notice, grab, and pull our dog Austin (who allows it to happen).
  • He’s eaten everything accept for one thing (avocado).
  • He sleeps like a champ. Typically getting 11.5 hours (7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.), and three 45-minute naps.
  • When I read to him, sometimes he’ll spend the whole time looking at the book, then smiling at me, then looking at the book, then smiling at me.
  • His favorite book is “Trains Go,” and I like it too. FYI, if you didn’t know, the mountain trains go trip trap, fuff puff.
  • He smiles huge almost every time my wife gets home from work.
  • While I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job raising him so far, I am well-aware we’ve been very lucky with how happy and healthy he’s been. I give my wife’s DNA, Dylan, and luck all of the credit.

 

Playing WITH Dylan

By

It happened. We played together. I’m not talking about me handing him a toy, or him reaching for something. I’m talking about honest to goodness playing.

Here’s the complete progression …
At about 4.5 months I introduced “Hello, Goodbye.” Yes, it’s simply peek-a-boo, but I decided I wouldn’t say peek-a-boo, because it serves no real purpose in our society. Yup, I’m serious. I know even in typing this how crazy I sound.

I say, “Goodbye, Dylan” and put something over his face. I remove it and say, “Hello.”

Weeks go by, and he starts removing the object covering his face.

Weeks go by, and after a bath he kind of covers his face a little with the towel, in an attempt to play.

Then this happened. I started recording after about 30 seconds of him doing this. Sorry you have to listen to my annoying voice. This moment is the happiest I have been as a parent. Getting a tooth, turning over, eating solids … they are absolutely nothing compared to Dylan seeing me, and wanting to play with me. Some of you might watch this video and think, “That kid is just moving his head up and down, he has no clue that he’s playing with his dad.” Trust me. I am next to him for 95% of his life. I’ve seen the evolution. We’re playing with each other.

3 Baby Things I Wished I Owned (From the Beginning)

By

I thought I had the complete list of everything you needed/wanted to raise an infant. Review for yourself — The Checklist: Everything You Need to Own to Raise a 0 to 3 Month Old Infant. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. I was slightly wrong.

The Best Baby Carrier

Screen Shot 2013-04-09 at 12.14.22 PMI tried the Ergobaby and Baby K’tan and they do not compare to the BabyBjorn Active Baby Carrier. It feels absolutely more secure than the Baby K’tan and is much quicker to get your baby in and out of. The Baby K’tan may give you the option of distributing the weight better on your shoulders, but not enough to make a purchasing difference. Definitely go for the “Active” BabyBjorn because it does a superior job than the original on removing some of the weight on your shoulders, and putting it on your back. The Ergobaby has a side hold option that is nearly pointless, because it oddly puts the majority of the weight on your neck/shoulder. It also doesn’t allow for a front-facing hold. I’m keeping our Ergobaby around because it will evevntually serve useful in it’s baby backpack mode, which can hold your infant until they are 35 pounds. The BabyBjorn tops out at 26 pounds. Without a doubt, BabyBjorn Active Baby Carrier is the best I have tried.

Baby Back Seat Mirror

You can’t see your kid’s face when you are driving, and he is rear-facing. It’s just weird. I want to know if he is happy, sad, sleeping, or in desperate need to be cleaned up because he just spit up an ounce of milk. Get a back seat mirror. We went with Britax Back Seat Mirror because it’s bigger than most, but anything will do.

Bottle Warmer

We don’t have one. Instead, every time I take a bottle out, I run it under hot water, or let it sit in a coffee cup of hot water, and then I assume I’ve done it for long enough. We your baby is hungry, he is potentially hungry. You don’t want to think, you don’t want to wait, you don’t want to do anything except silence the screams by providing him with a bottle at the correct temperature. We are months away from being done with bottles, and for some reason I am not pulling the trigger on $30 Tommee Tippee Bottle Warmer (others are cheaper). My wife doesn’t think we need one. We are fools for not getting one. Thinking less, and crying less should ALLOWS be the goal with baby purchases.

Practically the Same: Babies and Zombies

By

When Dylan first came into the world, I was on night duty and the third season of “Walking Dead” was on. It made perfect sense to hold him, face turned away from the TV, while I watched Rick and the others avoid the walkers. It was also inevitable for me to notice many similarities between my little guy and the walking dead.

Babies and Zombies are the Same

  • They both have a drooling problem.
  • They stick everything in their mouths to see if it is food.
  • You’ve never smelled anything like them before.
  • If they are able to walk, they do it very slow, looking drunk the whole time.
  • They moan even when they don’t mean to.
  • They don’t care what they look like.
  • Smart people want to avoid them for as long as possible.
  • They have a pretty lousy sense of humor.
  • If they don’t have teeth, you don’t have to worry about sticking a finger in their mouth.
  • They are both in desperate need of brains.
Practically the Same

Practically the Same