Crawling and other stuff...

The dude is crawling. You should have seen it. We were at my parents’ house when I was alerted that he'd taken a step. In a panic, I ran inside (yes, technically I missed the first inkling of a crawl), grabbing my camera on the way.  And with the tape rolling--or digital gigabytes doing whatever, it happened. He crawled, maybe four or five little paw-to-knee paces, right there in front of two sets of grandparents.  We all got so excited; there was a gasp, an Oh My God! Anyone listening would have thought we were witnessing a Mars landing. Nope, just a crawling baby. But it was one giant leap for this baby.  

Crawling. A major milestone in my young son’s life. But is it to blame for our other new development? The no sleeping development. Our once sleeping baby now will not, repeat, not sleep in his crib anymore. Just won’t do it. He pulls himself up, he flails and bounces, he rocks on all fours, screaming and wailing the whole time. My wife said she read something about sleep regression. Seriously, this is a thing? 

Otherwise he’s still a happy guy, although now we have to stay right there on top of him every second. Those days of turning away to check on something (no not facebook!) are way gone. He’s got places to go and dogs to pester. What else is new? Oh yes, the banging. Our little drummer boy is banging every and anything into submission. Toys, bottles, cars, trucks, planes, monkeys, that box of razor blades, books, everything. (Okay not razor blades, I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention).

Things are heating up at my house and I have a feeling the party is only the beginning. The screaming, the banging, the crawling, the not sleeping, yeah, I’d say we’re officially parents now. The other night I was taking out the trash and I could hear my son banging away and shrieking at the top of his lungs. The dogs were barking and a pot or something crashed in the kitchen. From the street, the house was lit up like a carnival and sounded like a zoo.  I thought about my decisions in life and how they led me to the chaos that stood before me. How one pet led to another pet, and then came a kid who is wide the freak open and uses the loudest possible pitch in his voice to communicate. A little rascal who has just added crawling to his already impressive list of talents that include the fist clamp hair pull and producing miles of hanging slobber.  My moment of introspection passed, and I shook these thoughts and trotted towards the house. After all, that's my carnival in there and I don't want to miss it!