I know I've written these exact words before but I kind of
feel like there aren't a ton of firsts left for me to experience with Ellie as a
stay-at-home dad. That statement is obviously incorrect but it's still easy to
feel that way at times. After all, in whatever you do in life, it's easy to get
into a groove or pattern of doing the same thing, day after day. It's certainly
a continuous struggle to find the new in each day.
That's probably part of the reason why it has become a
little more difficult to find something to write about each day from Ellie's
life. Don't fear; I have no intentions of stopping #DaddyWrite anytime soon.
There are just going to be days here and there without a story. However, that
is certainly not the case for today.
I've learned quickly as a stay-at-home dad that there are
many other stay-at-home parents at there.
Obvious statement, I know. Of course, part of being a stay-at-home
parent is the occasional pawning off of your kids on other stay-at-home parents.
I've been guilty of doing so before but I'd never actually taken my turn until
today.
With our friend, Malachi, working a contracting job near St.
Joseph for the next few days, it left his daughter, Cassie, without a place to
stay. Therefore, I was more than willing to step up and take a turn as Malachi
and his wife, Tabi, have watched Ellie for us plenty of times. One challenge in
doing so is that Cassie is still only a month old and it's been a long time
since I've been responsible for an infant. Also, I had never been responsible
for both an infant and a toddler at the same time.
Cassie arrived this morning around 8:30 with a few
instructions from Malachi. Namely feed her when she's hungry, there are plenty
of diapers in the bag, and don't use chloroform on the baby. Actually, he
didn't say that last one; I just thought I'd add it in to make him seem more
thorough. As soon as Cassie arrived, Ellie was immediately enamored by our
guest. After spending some time just staring at Cassie and patting her
affectionately, Ellie took it upon herself to take inventory of everything in
Cassie's diaper bag before turning her attention to playing on her own.
Around 9:00, Cassie began crying pretty hard. Normally, that
would be no problem for a seasoned child rearer such as myself. However, in all
of my foolishness, I had kind of forgotten a couple of things about babies. One
of those being that babies tend to cry. Second being if you don't do a good job
diagnosing the cry, it makes them cry worse.
At this point, I started running through a laundry list of
everything I could do to soothe poor Cassie as Ellie nervously looked on. First
was the obvious stuff like offering her a bottle and checking the diaper. Not
the issue. Second, I tried gently bouncing Cassie in my arms hoping the steady
motion would rock away all of her concerns. That didn't work either.
At that point, creativity kicked in. First I found myself
scampering to Ellie's room to dig her old jungle-themed playmat out of storage.
I hoped that the bright colors and things hanging overhead would distract
Cassie from her sadness. When that didn't work, then it was time to pull out
the big guns. I briskly headed downstairs to retrieve Ellie's baby swing from
storage. That little piece of machinery had been the savior of my sanity on
many an occasion. It only made sense to me that it could do so again.
Unfortunately for me, Cassie and Ellie have different things that they find
relaxing.
Finally, it was time for my last ditch gambit: Ellie's old
bouncy seat. Normally I would have led with the bouncy seat. However, I took it
apart when Ellie had outgrown it, storing it in its box. Therefore, some
assembly was required before Cassie could use it. By the time it was assembled
and Cassie was in it, I was starting to feel pretty bad about my childcare
abilities. Those feelings intensified as Cassie kept on crying.
Finally, thinking back to Ellie's babyhood, I remembered one
last thing I could try: swaddling. Ellie had always hated being constricted in
a blanket and I had been warned that Cassie felt the same way. However, at this
point, I wasn't sure what else to try. I spread the blanket out on the floor
before placing Cassie on it and wrapping her up tightly. I picked her up and
held her in my arms, gently putting my hand on her chest, and listened. What
did I hear you may ask? Silence, deafening silence.
From that point on, the rest of the day was relatively easy.
You can't say totally easy as I was dealing with two dependents. However, Ellie
certainly did her part to make my life easier. With a simple ask, she would run
wherever to get whatever I needed for Cassie. It didn't matter if it was a
bottle of milk, a blanket, a diaper, or a pacifier. My little golden retriever
of a daughter did it all and had a perfect attitude to boot. She even volunteered to take a nap today at the same
time Cassie took hers. Yes, that's right; I had about 45 of blissful silence
and relaxation time to myself today, all thanks to Ellie.
In the future when it's my turn to watch another child again,
it'll be interesting to see if Ellie's still feeling helpful or if it will be
old hat by that point. For my sake/sanity, let's hope she still wants to be
helpful. #DaddyWrite
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