Baby Talk

My one year old is starting to communicate with us. In more ways than just crying, that is.  Last night I asked her if she was ready to go to bed, and she shook her head “no” and then ran away (she stuck her tongue out too, but I’d like to think that was coincidental).  She’s also giving us all the cute baby talk and saying words here and there.  She’s progressing, getting bigger, maturing.

The Baby, on her first birthday. That's my hand in the foreground.

You would think that I would be used to it by now, but no, I’m not. 

For one, the child before this one (Caroline) didn’t really talk at all until a couple of months after she turned two.  Oh, she made her wants and needs known, though.  No problems there. She would do this thing where she would basically make these “huh”-ing sounds in lieu of actual words.  Let me see, how can I explain it…

Have you ever played any of the Lego video games (not the recent Lord of the Rings ones, but the older ones, like Harry Potter or Star Wars)?  The characters would say things, not words, just sounds, but the inflections and expression made you understand everything.  Well, that’s kind of how it was.  It was also sort of like how the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoons would speak.

It was so funny sometimes. Like when she would tattle on her sisters, it was so clear what she was trying to say. Or if she was passionate about something, she was as serious doing her little “Caroline talk” as if she were saying the actual words.

Caroline, two years ago, at the height of her non-talking stage.

We debated doing speech therapy, but it was obvious she understood everything that was going on and was communicating (in a way), so we just decided to wait until she turned two to see what would happen. 

Well, we waited, and sure enough, a few weeks after she turned two, the words started pouring out of her.  It was like they had always been there, but she couldn’t let them out.  But when she did… well, let’s just say that she hasn’t stopped progressing.

My wife has this theory (she read about it somewhere) that if a kid is developing in one aspect very rapidly, other skills may be delayed. In Caroline’s case, she grew physically very, very fast.  She started walking (and practically running) at 10 months, and her motor skills were amazing. She started putting duplo Legos together by 16 months (the other girls were older than two before they started doing that).  So, we kind of figured that eventually her speech would catch up, and it has.

Three years old now, talking like crazy!

So, back to the one-year old… She’s doing the normal thing now, and it’s so cool. It’s amazing how each of our kids is so different and yet they all come from the same gene pool.

Although, here they seem like they are of the same mind...

A friend once told me that each stage of a kid’s life is better than the last, and I agree.  And I think it’s because you are seeing a person emerge, and it’s fascinating. 

I Was In A College Band...Once.

I was in a band once, in college.

It was an alternative rock band. We did some covers, I wrote the songs, and played at various places. I miss it sometimes - the performing, yes, but also the practicing. Working on songs with other musicians, working out the arrangements, creative brainstorming with like-minded people - these were the most rewarding aspects of having a band, in my opinion. 

Our name was Trapping Daniel for a time before we changed to Godcent (or was it Godsent?) (or Godscent?) To be honest, I don't remember, but I do remember that we were mentioned (very briefly - the name of our band) in some U.S. News & World Reports article on how our college attracts high school students (even had some senior girls who wanted to meet me! I thought it was cool at the time.)  

I tried to pursue getting a record contract and all that, but it was difficult for band members to commit the time needed to do it. Most wanted to be, as I saw it, boring, and do boring things. Unfortunately, one or two committed band members isn't usually enough. Everyone's got to be all in.

So, just like with many things in life, that dream fizzled out. Which is okay. I love writing stories even more than writing songs, and if I had been even moderately successful in the music business, I may not have figured that out. And frankly, my whole life would have probably been on a different trajectory. (But would I have ended up in the same place anyway? Did anyone see that film Sliding Doors? I didn't love it... or see it, but I read the back cover. It's kind of interesting to think about.) 

Anyway.  

I still like to write songs and play and sing, and occasionally I bring out the old guitar when the mood strikes, but it's not the same as back in the day. 

Unfortunately, this is where she spends most of her time - in a corner

Then, my wife's sometimes bugging me to try to start another band, or even learn to play old hymns so that we can teach them to the kids (okay, this one is more do-able and important and I should probably get on that). 

But there's just too many things to do, really. And she, of all people should know this. 

The first week we started dating, she missed me singing at a talent show while I was in law school because she had this little thing to go to at the theatre (okay, it was opening night and she was the stage manager. Whatever). 

So, life gets in the way of creative pursuits (heck, even other creative pursuits get in the way of creative pursuits). You have to choose what you do sometimes, especially if you have four kids. 

Attachment Parenting (Reluctantly)

Before we had children, I had a sleep disorder of sorts... as in I actually took sleep medicine for it (not Ambien, although I did take that once, but I stopped it after I had a conversation with a Frenchman while I was in the shower while under its "spell"). But, if I didn't take my sleep medicine, it was very difficult for me to go to sleep (my mind just won't quit sometimes).

Well, since our foray into parenthood, I haven't had to take my sleep medicine at all to go to sleep. It's a blessing, but I think it shows you what true exhaustion is like. It also is a testament to our children's inability to sleep well.

Ever heard of attachment parenting? Well, my wife knows more about this than I do, but it's kind of this idea that your baby is always attached to you... like, you "wear" your baby in a sling, there's something called "breastfeeding on demand" involved, and, <insert huge groan here> "co-sleeping."

Back when our first baby was born, we had already decided to keep the baby in the room with us (in a pack-n-play, I think), but she was a horrible sleeper and even though she would begin her evening of sleeping in her space, somehow she always managed to end up in ours. She would not transfer to her back to her little crib either - it was an immediate wake-up. We would even put a heating pad in her bed before we tried to put her back in it so that it would sort of fake her out, but she didn't buy it! So, we reluctantly became co-sleeping parents (I would end up just moving to the couch most nights). And there was a time that I actually set up a blow up bed in the living room knowing I would be out there at some point. But you know how it is, you are so sleep-deprived, you do anything and everything to get the baby to sleep so that you can too.

There's two out of the four hogging the bed.

Fast-forward a few more children and with the exception of our second-born (who gets the prize for best sleeper!) it's sort of been the same with the other ones. The last two have been even more difficult than the first, and so my wife has become a pro at nursing them in bed and sort of half-sleeping (she's probably chronically sleep-deprived, I'm sure).

So, that's fine and all, I guess, but now we have a problem. All of them want to sleep in our bed all of the time. We put a limit on it, definitely, but inevitably, we wake up to kids in our bed almost every single night. Then, we just take them back to their beds, and go back to sleep ourselves. One time, and I kid you not, they were ALL in our bed one early morning. They had wedged themselves all around and my wife and I were just hovering on the very edge of each side. I’ve been forced on many occasions to sleep in my daughter’s bottom bunk because my bed is so full (this actually has turned into a luxury – a bed to myself.)

The middle has never left.

There really isn't much of a point to this post, except to shake my fist in the air and then start the Donation Bucket for us to get a queen-sized bed. Yes, that's right, folks, we currently have a full-sized one, and that is not going to be big enough, since these kids will probably still be crawling into bed with us when they are teenagers.