Mike
here while Mama G takes a well-deserved evening to pamper herself a little bit. Carina and many of your little ones are at an age
when they no longer sleep/wake in really regular cycles, but are now powered by
nuclear reactors that go from full-blown fission to dead cold a few times a
day, and not always predictably. It’s a
lot of work to adjust the new ups, downs, all-arounds, and
‘how-the-hell/where-the-hell did you do/get/destroy/learn-to-say that’s.’
With Mama G now 32 weeks along
baking little princess number 2 and it being the heat of the summer, I do most
of the active playing on weekends and evenings when I’m home from the lab. It’s lots of fun, and you learn on the fly
how to/how not to get your kid out and around.
Keeping the little ones active and getting them to want to be is really important to me – I love a good TV show as much
as anyone, but I also like to try and be active and was all the time as a
little guy. So with this intro in mind,
here are a few things I’ve done to get Carina up and going so we can focus that
little ball of energy and get her having some fun. I titled this ‘by the seat of your pants’
because like anything else that’s new in life, you mess up sometimes – see
below for the juicy, smelly, and sometimes a little painful details.
Daddy Monster
We start this one with, “Mommy, what
do you see here?”
“I see a tasty baby” says Mama
G.
I then transmorgrify into the Daddy
Monster and say (in a voice a whole lot like Trekkie Monster from Avenue Q, God
help me when/if Carina ever realizes that someday), “DO YOU KNOOOOOW WHAT DADDY
MONSTERS DO TO TASTY BABIES?!!!! WE EAT THEM! HAM-HOCKS! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM
NOM” And then proceed to raspberry and chomp the peanut’s little legs, hands,
tummy, and cheeks. She goes wild,
giggles, belly laughs, and I melt, thus transmorgrifying back into my sappy
self and end with a big hug. A wonderful
moment everytime…
…except
when her diaper fails to contain pee, and then it’s vile beyond words.
Get Daddy
This one’s pretty simple. I say “Carina, can you get Daddy?” And then
run away as if my 20 lb, two-and-a-half foot tall peanut is Godzilla – this is
a fair comparison in reality. She
charges across the room, ‘tackles’ me, and then jumps up and down on my tummy
and face until she’s tired out. Great
one before naptime.
Also
a very easy way to get covered in dookie if you forget to check the LO’s diaper
before playing. Last Saturday morning
was a disaster.
Get Carina
The reverse of before. I chase her all over the house, she slams
doors to try and get away, and we end with belly laughing and a baby over my
shoulders as I run up and down the block outside. The judgemental look on my bitter-beer-faced
neighbor lady who was walking her yap dog was the best . Lady, yes I am nuts, and yes I run all over
the house with my little one. I will do
so for as long as she doesn’t realize what a big dork I am. And then I think I’ll be pretty sad, until I
get to embarrass boys she brings home by reliving her childhood in theatrical
fashion in my boxer shorts.
A good old-fashioned sword fight
This one is a worthwhile how could
you teach your child that rant parent-teacher conference. It’s no secret I love a good sci-fi or
fantasy yarn. At trip to the Connecticut
Renaissance Fair earlier this summer, Mama G bought a wooden sword for our
little lady. I, naturally, already had a
plastic pirate sword from one of several previous Halloween costumes that take
advantage of my genetically superior chest hair. The only reasonable course of action was to
give my little lady her sword, wield mine, hold it over my head, and charge across
the room. She raised hers, chopped my
legs, and left me sprawled out on the ground.
What happened next in my epic battle with “The Sword Maiden of the
Middlewest” is best explained in the video below:
Alright
folks, I hope this brightened up your week. Get your kids up, active, and doing
things they love, and try and open them up to some of the things you love –
this last bit will, I think, be the subject of my next post, so stay tuned, and
have fun romping with your tots!
