Week 40 - Precious moments

Week 40 Picture

You guys ready for your weekly "how is Jay sleeping" update? Spoiler alert. Bad. He's a wonderful little boy but I'm not sure if it's possible to have a baby much worse at than sleeping than ours. The reason for his sleep woes this time are particularly unusual. He's developed in his crawling so quickly that he's started practicing while he's sleeping. Specifically, in the middle of the night he's started sitting up in his sleep and waking himself up in the process. He then starts crying until Kimbre goes back in his room and lays him back down.

It's exhausting. It's been a long time since either Kimbre or I got a full nights sleep. Living day to day life is hard enough without getting any sleep. Fortunately, during the day, he's so much fun to be around that it makes it worth it. Being a parent has been the only thing in my life that has continuously gotten better every week. I just love my little boy so much.

Some moments are particularly special. I got home from work yesterday, opened the front door, and guess who was there to greet me? My little boy. As soon as he heard me come in, his face lit up and he crawled as fast as his stubby little chunk legs could take him, pulled himself up on my leg, and threw his arms up to be picked up with a big goofy smile on his face. Let me tell you, my heart just melted. That feeling is something I hope to never forget.

Week 39 - Crawling?

Week 39 Picture

Jay's been in my life so long, I can hardly remember what life was like before I was his dad. It hasn't always been easy, but it's definitely been worth it. My life is so much richer for him being in it. One of the most rewarding things about being a new dad is seeing your little boy continually reach milestone after milestone in his development. 

https://youtu.be/_MzbS3y6pSA

Most of these, he hits right when he was supposed to, if not a little bit early. However, one exception to this is crawling. We've been waiting for several weeks now for him to start crawling, but he never seemed to show much interest. Weirdly enough, a big reason for this delay is how extremely active he is compared to most kids his age. Because he wants to be everywhere at once, he learned pretty early on that he could navigate the world by "scooching" across the floor like in the video above. As a result, anytime he wants to get going, he just rolls over onto his back and goes for it rather than going through the trouble of learning to crawl. This is fine and all, but because scooching is harder to navigate around objects than is crawling, he expects us to respond quickly when he scooches too far and gets stuck.

https://youtu.be/5sOvCH2VKIQ

Fortunately, over the last week or so he seems like he's starting to figure it out. As you can see in the video above, the insatiable curiosity that constantly drives our little boy has led him to start experimenting with other methods of travel. This impending change, as are most new parent experiences, is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. Crawling means a gradual transition away from our current 24/7 "hold me" baby to a child who can, at least on occasion, entertain himself. However, that possibility opens up a host of new challenges and considerations we have not yet had to navigate. At least there's not much time to get bored!

Week 38 - Reunited

Week 38 Picture

Life moves on, one week at a time. Today can be called my "official" first day at Oregon State as a full assistant professor. I spent it in a college wide meeting, which was only interesting in that it was the first time that I, and many of my colleagues, got to meet the new dean and hear and hear her vision for the future of the college. Change is always a scary thing, but the things she discussed today weren't as extreme as others I've talked to anticipated. This is good news in that it means I don't have to worry as much about meeting required standards to secure the level of security I desire for me and my family.

Tonight is also the night Kimbre and Jay get back into town after their week in Colorado. I'm ready for them to be home. They are my family. There's not a whole lot that you can do to replace family when they're not there. I'm not going to lie, it's been nice being able to sleep in an extra hour on the weekends. Still, I would gladly give that up for the opportunity to give my pretty wife a kiss and know my sweet little boy is safe and sound in his own bed at night. When you boil it down to the essentials, there's not much in life greater than that.

Week 37 - Home alone

Week 37 Picture

It's officially wedding season. Which means I am, once again, separated from Kimbre and my little boy. I dropped Kimbre off in Portland this morning for another week back in Colorado to attend the wedding of her good friend. However, with the official start of the quarter just around the corner, this time, I couldn't go.

They've only been gone about half a day, and I already miss them. It's lonely being in this big empty house by myself. I count myself extremely blessed to have Kimbre and Jay in my life. There's nothing quite like being away from them to show me how unhappy I would be without them, even with all the other great things in my life.

Week 36 - Up in the air

Week 36 Picture

Jay took the first flight of his short life this past week. It turns out that traveling with an infant is just as tricky as it looks. There are just so many moving parts you have to consider. Checking a car seat. Managing the baby as you head through security. Keeping him happy and entertained for three hours in confined spaces. Nothing is as straight forward as it was flying alone. That being said, it wasn't as bad as I expected. We were fortunate enough to have an empty seat between Kimbre and I on both the flight to Denver as well as the flight back. Jay was all over the place but stayed in a good mood the whole flight.

In the end, the struggle was worth it. It was great seeing friends and family. Something I've come to realize as I get older is that there is little in this world more important than maintaining the relationships with those most important to you. It's important that Jay gets to spend as much time around his Denver family as he can as well. It's important that we got to meet our new niece Jaina. Enduring the struggles of taking a baby on a plane is just the price of admission for that privilege.