There are a lot of great things about social media. For one,
it enables us to stay in contact with friends and acquaintances we might have
otherwise drifted away from. For another, it gives us an endless amount of
useless stuff to fill our minds when we could be doing literally anything else.
If you dispute that point, allow me to remind you of that meme about cats
and/or dogs and/or babies you shared last week.
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| Exhibit A, your honor... |
One of my favorite things about social media has to be that
it can help provide me with topics for what to write about when I otherwise
wouldn't know. For those that can't read between the lines, that's exactly what
is about to happen courtesy of our friend, Sara. And I quote, "Here's the
truth: I really love when the boys take a nap at the same time..hello
productivity or nap for mama!! But I also really love when only one is napping
and I get one-on-one time with the other."
That quote got me thinking a little bit. Sure, there are
things that need to be corrected if I'm applying it to me. For example, the
productivity thing is never applicable. Also, I will never refer to myself as
"mama". "Daddy", "Dad", "Dada", or
"Batman" will do just fine. However, the rest of it is fairly
applicable to my current life.
I've taken great pride in my ability to successfully put
both kids down for a nap at the same time each day. It was great because I was
guaranteed to have a couple of hours to myself in what is an otherwise busy
day. Notice how I used past tense in that sentence; that's very important.
Recently, Ethan has decided that unlike his morning nap,
he's perfectly content with only napping for an hour to an hour and a half. In
other words, my couple of hours to myself has diminished in time. At first, if
I'm being completely honest, I saw this as a personal attack and massive inconvenience.
Doesn't he know that I'd rather be napping instead of playing right now?
Thinking back, the first time this occurred, I begrudgingly
marched up to Ethan's room, sprung him from his crib, and raced back downstairs
to our family room. There I sat Ethan on the floor to play while I casted the
newest episode of NFL Live to our television. After all, I had Chiefs
highlights and fantasy-relevant news to watch.
It didn't take me long to realize that my priorities were
very askew. Without Ellie's constant intervention, that time provided me with a
great opportunity for one-on-one play that we don't otherwise receive. In fact,
that short window of time has quickly become my favorite time of each day.
With our body pillow barricading the stairs, Ethan isn't tempted to start climbing.
Instead, we spend time wrestling and playing with toys. It also provides Ethan
with time to practice cruising along furniture to his little heart's content.
If I'm being completely honest, I also think this time is one of Ethan's
favorite parts of the day. I see more smiles and laughs from my little dude in
that time frame than in the rest of the day combined.
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| I'm not good about taking pictures during our bro-down time so this will have to do. |
For the record, NFL Live is still going in the background
almost every day. I'm proud to stay that the amount of time I spend paying
attention to it is very minimal. After all, I've got a baby to play with!
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to post this to social
media. Good way to bring things full circle, right? #DaddyWrite
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