It's official. My wife is full of good ideas. For the
record, that was never in doubt.
Bethany's had plenty of good ideas during the course of our marriage.
For example, the tray that sits on the bookshelf in our living room holding our
keys, wallets, and other important items. There was also that time she came up
with the Excel file that we keep track of our bills with. I know that neither
of those seem like groundbreaking ideas on the surface but they actually are
quite good.
I'm sure there are others that are much better. However, I
can't think of any right now as it's 9:02 at night as I'm writing this
sentence. I have saved the best for last though as tonight Bethany brought
forth a great one that I had never thought of. The idea in question?
"Why don't we go back and look at blog posts from when Ellie was
the same age that Ethan is?"
That one is groundbreaking, right? Just think of the things
I could learn about caring for Ethan just by seeing what Ellie was doing at the
same age. In case you want to play along, the month in question would be
November of 2016.
For the most part, blog posts from that time frame revolve
around the idea of sleep training. From what I can glean through the
thinly-veiled sarcasm, I was mildly frustrated at Ellie during the process of
sleep training. On
one day, it looks like I spent forty minutes fighting Ellie trying to get
her to fall asleep for her to only sleep forty-five minutes once it happened.
If that's not the epitome of defeat, I don't know what is.
The good thing about Ethan is that putting him down for a
nap is the exact opposite of how it was with Ellie. In November of 2016, I
pretty much compared it to a prize fight complete with introductions from
Michael Buffer. Ethan on the other hand requires no such pomp and circumstance.
I lay him down in his crib where he will spend the next four minutes crying
before deciding to give up and go to sleep. That's it. It is literally the most
amazing thing! I don't want to say we deserved an easy child after Ellie, but
we kind of deserved an easier child after Ellie.
Of course, there are similarities between now and then. For
example, look no further than my blog
post comparing Ellie to an ankle monitor one wears on house arrest. A quick
glance at it confirms two things. One being that I must have been in the midst
of watching 'White Collar'. The other being that I felt like a prisoner in my
own home since there were places I could and couldn't go. For example, I
couldn't even step foot near the room Ellie was sleeping. If she was in her
swing, I was not allowed anywhere in the vicinity of the family room. If she
was in her bedroom, it meant the third floor of our house was off-limits.
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| Throwback photo alert! |
Once again, the good thing about Ethan is that he will not
wake up until he is good and ready. Even though that's the case, Ethan's naps
are still stressful times for me as I try to keep Ellie moderately quiet in the
meantime. It's not that she's a bad kid and won't listen. It's more that her
default volume can only be compared to the T-Rex from 'Jurassic Park'. It might
even be possible to see ripples in a glass of water from the sound of her
coming just like in the movie!
Even if I don't get any useful information out of rereading
old blog posts in the future, it definitely was fun to see what Ellie was like
in this stage of her development and compare it to Ethan. Although, based upon
things up to this point, I'm wondering if the two ever will be that similar. I
mean, you need look no further than the fact that my presence is actually a
soothing, calming presence upon Ethan.
It was also nice to remember the time I
went to the emergency room with severe headaches. That was in November
2016 too.. Good times, good times. #DaddyWrite
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