Friday, February 25, 2011

A Kid Losing a Tooth......Ugh




Teeth…..gotta have them, but at some point when you are a kid, you’ve gotta lose them too!


It seems like it was so easy when I was a kid. Of course I didn’t mind twisting them and bleeding a bit. If I think about that now it makes me cringe. Those damn kids in my classroom that come up to me bleeding or watching them not pay attention to me, all while they are being their own “dentist” in the back of the room……..a little distracting to me. Seriously……..can’t you wait kiddo? Do I have to watch you turn your gums into hamburger? Come on!

However, the anxiety that is running through the veins of my daughter right now makes me want to play “dentist” myself. If I try to come near her though, she runs away…..seriously. Her first tooth, hanging by a thread, mocks me. Damn you tooth! How many times are you going to be in the way of my daughters eating? You cause her to lose sleep, worrying about you hurting as you come out. The Tooth Fairy is coming my dear sir……….the Tooth Fairy is coming. If I can actually get my hands on you, you will be mine….ha ha ha ha!


I haven’t been the best father though. I admit, I have become frustrated enough to use some scare tactics. “Sadie….you could choke on your tooth in the middle of the night”. “You could swallow your tooth and not see it again”. “Your tooth will rot in your mouth”.  Hint to parents using scare tactics with a kiddo that has anxiety issues already…….you might not want to do that. It’s kind of like adding a lot of fuel to the fire. Oh…..educating myself and learning the hard way, the life of a parent. 

I’m hoping this whole thing ends well. Hopefully, she isn’t scarred for life and will actually not be worse for the next tooth. The deal between all of us? As long as she eats her food without complaining we won’t talk about pulling it out. We’ll see how long this lasts. Please tooth…..just be kind and surrender. Let me find you on her pillow as she wakes up in the morning. Please don’t make me come get you, or else our world will come crashing down for the most minute second it takes me to reach in and pull you.

Only one almost down…..how many to go? Ugh.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

This Thing Called Sleep



For those of you couples without kids reading this may be a natural form of birth control, especially if you like your sleep.

Thinking back to having my first child, I didn't have a clue how much I took sleep for granted. Little did we know though that our first child (or both for that matter) wouldn't even sleep through the night until 9 months old. Those night coming home from the bar (thanks grandma!) and getting up to feed the child in the middle of the night was Hell on Earth. Oh the number of times I crashed on the recliner in the middle of the night (see above), many times a blur.

Then the baby was no longer a baby. We didn't have to feed them in the middle of the night. Sweet right?! Oh wait......then came potty training. "Daddy!........I have to go potty!". Nothing like a kid yelling and waking your lazy butt up in the middle of the night, sometimes almost literally scaring the shit out of me.

Seriously......would we ever get to sleep? Naps became a regular occurrence for us (this still holds true for wife....she loves her naps). Timing was everything. If you didn't time it right, no nap for you. Timing two kids' naps was a form of art. Parents with kids.....sound familiar?

The weird thing is after all of this.......even when I have a chance to sleep now, I decide to stay up instead. Maybe it's because us parents lose so much time for ourselves and we need that "me" time. I love sleep, don't get me wrong. However, I also love to have some sort of a life outside of kiddos too. Sometimes it helps me keep my sanity after listening to arguing and whining for the several hours previously.

The most frustrating thing is going on a vacation without children. When you try to sleep in, you end up waking up at the same freaking time when you do have kids. That damn natural clock just laughing at you. Seriously?!

Here we are, over 6 years later. Wife and I still make deals of who gets up on which weekend morning, or who will get up the morning after some shin-dig. At least our kids sleep a little longer now. The routine......getting up, making breakfast, putting on a movie and then trying to release a few more z's until they want something else, every weekend. We have to drag them out of bed on school days, but they wake our butts up on the weekend. We've even gone to the extent of lying a few times telling them it was going to be a school day so they would actually sleep in. Haven't done that? Liars!

Don't get me wrong married couples without kids........I wouldn't trade it for the world. My girls are everything.....more than sleep. However, this thing called sleep is very precious. Enjoy it when you get it!

To my sister and brother in law............you have a few more months of bliss, soak it up!