Ok, I'm up, now what do I do?

That sliver of hope about associating 'Da Da' and looking in my direction is looking better all the time. In the past couple of months, baby Z has progressed from a frog crawl to outright speed demo crawling and now has figured out how to pull himself up on stuff.

This is inspiring and jaw-droppingingly cool... and sorta funny as well. He'll pull himself up but hasn't quite figured out what to do once he's there.

At the same time... all that teething-teasing since he was 5 months finally broke through. Our little hero now has two bottom teeth and two uppers... which from time to time cause him no end of crankiness.

I must say... tiny tot swimming lessons can be very entertaining to watch but participating is an entirely different thing. Led by the cheery 14 year old (or so) 'instructor', she has her charges (including the parents) in the shallow pool trying to demonstrate blowing bubbles etc... to 8-10 month olds who have no interest whatsoever. The part she hasn't really clued into is it's all fine for someone who can't walk and is carried around to float in water etc... you take your parent in their mid (ok late) 30s and ask them to keep getting up and getting down in 2 feet of water.. well, I guess she doesn't know the knees of a mid (ok late) 30 year old.

... but getting that semi-interested glance and little smile when you 'jump' into the water is kinda neat.

FYI... Da-Da could also be the garbage can

I have to admit... hearing "Da-da", as Zach is often babbling now, is quite rewarding. I mean, what father doesn't like to hear "dada" or something similar being among the first semi-articulate words coming out of their child's mouth?

News flash... and I think I'd read about this somewhere... is that while 'dada' is a fairly common first sound... it's fairly random and can be used to describe any of mom, dad, hunger, garbage can or perhaps the latest results of the American democratic race.

So, that tempers the excitement a tad but still... there's still that flicker of pride when "Da Da" comes out of his mouth and he's at least looking in my direction.

It's a world of laughter

Taking a 5-month old to Disney World is an interesting experience in a lifetime. Me, I love Disney and always have. Sure I was spoiled as a child and went often when I was a young'un. Even two years ago, Julie and I went for a vacation (winter after the wedding and Italian honeymoon, Florida was the affordable option) and did Disney... and had three very packed fun days there. Now we're traveling with someone who cannot (at this point in time) speak, walk, hold himself up, or be permitted to be out of eyesight.

Needless to say it's a different pace.

Still... I found myself watching him more than whatever ride we happened to take him on. Watching his fascination with the swirling lights or colours, became much more interesting to me than the ride itself.
Stopping for feeding every once and a while... many many rides he cannot yet go on. But still, here I am, now a parent of a child at Disney World. It doesn't mean squat to him right now but it means the world to me. I'm not really sure why... For some reason I waited nearly an hour in line for Zach to have a picture with Winnie the Pooh. Zach has several items of clothing with said Pooh and I thought it would be appropriate. Every 15 minutes or so, the characters would take a break. After nearly an hour, I was the next person in line. No-one was next for a picture but I. The three characters there.. The Pooh, Tigger and some unknown female character named Darby... they take their break. But hey, I'm next, so I'm patient. Tigger and unknown girl return... No Pooh. The 'handler' explains that Winnie had another photoshoot. This mystified me.. of course he does... right here, right now!

I was pretty ticked... maybe it was the almost-hour in line... maybe it was the 'who the hell are you Darby?'... but I was affronted that my little guy wouldn't get his photo opp with Pooh Bear. Did he care? He just ate, all was right with the world and now there's a 6ft tall orange and black cat standing next to him.

What's a dad to do?

Get him a photo opp with the Mouse himself, that's what!

It IS a small world after all...

It's been a while since we caught up here. I formulate posts in my head and then the day just seems to get away from me. Before long, it's two months later... Work has been hectic and busy for months now and every once and a while I start hearing the "cats in the cradle" in my head which means it's time to stop everything and hang out with little Z.

So what's been happening? Well, little Z had his first vacation at the end of January... first trip, first flight, first visit to another country. Zach in Florida was a smashing success.

In talking to many people about flying with a baby, I think we were pretty well prepared. I can't say enough good things about the people at Westjet, they're just amazing. It'd been suggested to us that we don't take the 'pre-board' advantage... which, secretly, I was looking forward to. Next best thing to first class I figured. However, the good advice we got was that if you do the pre-board, you're then sitting there for 20 or so minutes doing nothing while your infant gets antsy. So, in talking to the nice Westjet people, we compromised (since they needed to give us instruction on the plane anyway)... I went on half-way through and got everything settled... handed the ultra-light cool stroller we got, put the carry-0n's in the overhead compartment (with a selection of toys out, blanket etc..) All good.

We learned quickly that the key to infant flying is distraction. Westjet planes are a big help in this, with every seat having it's own personal tv. So, tune it to Treehouse and that buys you 15 minutes or so with the flashing colours... walk up and down the aisle.. and with a cute 5 month old, you feel quite popular. The feeding during ascent and descent worked out fine and Z seemed to enjoy. The arrival in Florida, with grandparents eagerly waiting, went speedy and before you knew it we were on our way...

And the first stop, in keeping with grandma, grampa and Mommy's favourite tastes, Ghirardelli Chocolate at Downtown Disney. But first, to greet the Florida sun, Zach had to make himself more comfortable...





Once settled into the condo, roughly 1.5 miles (yeah, miles, what can you do?)... The Florida adventure was in full sway... and the (continuing the string of firsts) first swim in the first pair of swimming trunks. His first swim, well, he seemed fairly unimpressed. No big smiles, no "My god, this is the coolest thing ever!" But conversely, no freaking out either.

With the vacation underway... and Disney eagerly looming, Grampa made his pronouncement. "When we're at Disney, I am taking him on 'It's a Small World' and he will sit on my lap!"

Who can argue with that?

A Year in Review - 2007

I've been reflecting on my year... the year 2007 that is. Did much happen?

I've learned about:

• Swaddling and my complete inability to master it
• How, for the first three or so months of a person's life, getting up at midnight, 3am and 5am oddly becomes expected. However, despite what anyone says, it's never pleasant. You adjust, you adapt... you gain more and more appreciation for your wife who takes all this in stride.
• How, when in pre-natal classes and the teacher informs you that you will at some point have a urge to shake your baby and you think that seems harsh, you understand with full clarity at 4am
• The first time your baby grips your finger, it's the coolest thing
• You're often tired and can't remember not being tired... and this is with your wife doing yeoman's work during weekdays so you can sleep and be somewhat alert for work
• Babies come with stuff, lots of stuff... you go somewhere, you've got a lot of stuff to bring/carry
• My job is to carry stuff
• Thinking of yourself as a parent takes a while... it's fun to say in the abstract but it takes a really long time to really think of yourself as one.

This was going to be a lot longer post but it took me roughly 2 months. I'm working on doing this better... blogs and parenting!

The first Zachary Christmas

The first Christmas. I've been told a lot that the first Christmas with your child is cherishable beyond belief. Well, aside from family craziness, the little Z's first Christmas was very enjoyable indeed. He got rather spoiled from various sources, but not overboard... we were careful about that. I've seen kids with tons of toys and all manner of things. We want Zach to value his toys and possessions, not to just throw toys at him to keep him occupied. I'm amazed at the abilities of some toys today... wheels that will teach him the alphabet, balls that will teach colours, little houses that teach 20 different actions in 4 different languages. It'll be interesting to see how these types of toys affect this generation.

But I digress...

I think the most humbling moment for me, as a parent, was when I was wrapping gifts the other day and when it came to "To" I'd put Zach, or some cute moniker, and then I got to the "From" and wrote down "Daddy"... and it struck me that it was the first time I'd done that in the "from" area. Gotta admit, that was pretty cool.

Our little friend is only 4.5 months old for his first Christmas. This has a couple of bonuses.

First, we don't need to wait until he's asleep to wrap gifts. Second, he doesn't really care what he gets. I was told often, and it's quite true, he'll be quite content with tissue paper or a box. As true as that might be, how many parents, new or otherwise want to be the parent that only gets their kid a tissue or a box for Christmas?

Many a picture was taken... he got to be with both sets of grandparents who absolutely delighted in shopping for him and being with him on his first Christmas. Stories will be written of the first Christmas and we'll tease him about how he was sooooo cute in all his "Baby's first Christmas" clothes, hats, and bibs.

He had a good day... by which I mean in a generally good mood all day long. Enjoyed his book that made a crinkle sound and the teething (4 at once at current count) didn't distress him too much. Him having a good day made our day great.

The first of many Christmas's to come... the insanity of family gatherings, the wonder in a child's eye. Hark the herald indeed.

Be Cool

At the time, I didn't remember being part of the 'cool' crowd. Back in high school or junior high that is... The high school I went to, the cool kids were the money kids. The affluent, the 'already-got-a-car', the expensive clothes and all that. At the time, it seemed that being cool was the only driving force in life for most. I was never particularly impressed or losing sleep that I wasn't in that crowd. Looking back now, it seems so obvious that people were crying out for validation, for acceptance, for people to be interested in them.

I remember my junior high and high school days relatively fondly. I wasn't 'popular' as I remember it... although when I think about it, I had really good friends, I was known in the school for various activities, my teachers (well, most of them) liked me. I learned early on that I had a knack for saying something in such a way that would either make someone laugh or at least smile. Did I desperately want to be accepted? Yeah, probably. Did I grow out of it? Well, I do prefer that people like me than not like me. It just seems more obvious now when people are vainly trying to get validated. Take your MySpace, Bebo, even Facebook. People trying to get validation in a high-school mentality. I think that's why a growing population of people over the age of 30 are engaging more in the social networking stuff. They're trying to get people to like them all over again. MySpace, Facebook... same thing. Get people to be your 'friend', rate your friends' "hotness" level, throw a sheep at someone, list your favourite tv characters and hey, I like them too, let's be best friends!

Don't get me wrong, I like social networking, it's changing the culture in such a rapid fashion and replacing technology at an amazing rate. I have a Facebook page, I think it's fun. Do I engage in all the little things that people do? No. I poke from time to time, I buy 'friends' as 'pets', I play Scrabulous. I had a MySpace page for a while which is even more high-school than the others.

The point is... you spend so much of your youth and childhood feeling pressure to feel that people should like you, that you need constant affection and if you aren't getting that validation that you're a loveable person, then there must be something wrong with you. True esteem comes from within... you can't get it from another person. Not through compliments, not through how much money you've got or how many friends you have, not through sex. You do the best you feel humanely are able to and believe in yourself. That's where the real validation comes from, when you look at yourself in the mirror and say "you know what? I treat people with respect, I like myself, people seem to enjoy my company".

I'd hate to be a teenager again. How will I manage Smidget and any siblings he may or may not have down the road? Just encourage him to be decent to people, to rise above anything that he's not comfortable with, and to like himself. If he's anything then like he is now, he's awfully cute. As long as he remembers that with some humility, all will be good.