Fatherhood

Patrick had fun last night ... he was laughing and playing from the time he got home. Jumping around and playing with a spray bottle, he was a bundle of energy unlike I've ever seen. At one point, he tried one of my popsicles and I got the bright idea of placing it into one of his smaller cups. He loved it ... and we loved the fact that there was little mess. Dancing with the Stars was on and he spent almost the entire two hours dancing with his mother. While this was going on, I was remembering the night before when he fell asleep while getting his bath for the night ... simply sitting and playing, then asleep ... so cute! Last night, however, he was moving with a determined energy ... falling all over the place, obviously exhausted, but not willing to give up the fight. Eventually, he crashed and we placed him in his crib. I got a quick shock as he jumped and scrambled ... until his head hit the edge of the crib, then the snoring started up again. I'm not sur...

We all had a rough night last night.  Apparently, when Patrick has teeth coming in, his rear end gets sore ... I don't know why, but once Jen and I made the correlation, my parents told me that's the way it was with me ... way, way, way back. He's got another tooth coming in ... and, both ends are in pain (getting better now ... rough last night). Trying to get him to sleep was challenging to say the least. I had to pat his lower back firmly while bouncing hard enough to make my calves sore in mere moments ... I wasn't given the option of just bouncing him with my arms (he could tell the difference).  Anything else resulted in screaming. As I finally got him to sleep, I was able to stop the patting and bouncing and sat down to let him get into a deeper sleep.  After about an hour, I put him into the crib ... Then, as Jen and I finally laid down, his little head popped up over the edge of the crib and another scream of pain was let out.  Again, I picked him ...

... in the Car When I was little (much closer to Patrick's age and size ... and yes, I realize that was quite  a while ago) my parent would to put me in the car and drive around to get me to sleep.  It was apparently effective enough for them to mention it to us when we brought Patrick home. This trick works ... Patrick falls into such a deep peaceful sleep, I really hate to turn the engine off some days. ... in the House There are times when I wonder if the car wouldn't be a better option.  We get him to sleep on our shoulder ... then make any attempt to place him in the crib and he is instantly awake.  We get him to sleep between us ... and again, any attempt to lift him to carry him to the crib and he's awake. This is not "sleepy eyes, smiling at me" awake ... this is I'm irritated and I need as many people to know as I can manage.  For an amazingly pleasant child, he can crank out the decibels when he wants to. We've tried letting him...