Baby In A Bar

I spent my morning in a most unexpected place - a pub. Why they chose a pub as the site for free TB tests for school volunteers, I don't really know, but the coffee was hot and good and I'm not complaining (too much.)

Given that I still have one child not in school and no nanny like most of the rest of the moms seem to have, I just packed that big baby into the bar with me. Where am I supposed to put him while I fill out paperwork? On the dirty floor, of course! I'd sit him down at my feet with my entire purse in front of him to choose his toy from (something he would normally go crazy for) but he had no interest in that women's accesory today. He had bigger aspirations - the bar.

I'd just get my papers back in my lap and start writing again, when he'd be off, sprint-crawling, trying to get behind the bar before I could catch him again. I finally sat my chair right down in the way of that path, so he decided under the table full of papers and files and directed by bossy nurses would be a fun place to explore. "Excuse me, bossy boots, I need to get my baby out from under your table."

When that lost its charm for him, he decided to make friends. Every woman in there had her purse at her feet and Jack took that to mean they were set there for him. Plenty of unsuspecting women looked down to find a big, slobbery baby chewing on her expensive purse or digging around in it to find her cell phone and make an embarrassing phone call.

Any attempts at annoyance at this child though disappeared the moment they spoke to him and he looked up and showed them his toothy smile. Yes, those teeth were a hit! I must have had a dozen comments on how cute his teeth are! At least we have moved on from "Wow, he sure has big cheeks!"

Now this process of getting one tiny shot took longer than you can imagine and we ended up spending over an hour at the bar, waiting for my turn. Where were all the other babies and young kids? Like I said, I think a lot of these moms either work outside the home or can just afford it for their own sanity and have nannies who help out so they left the little ones with them. While Jack was definitely a nuisance, he was still a hit with all the moms and even charmed the owner of the bar. Once, he pulled himself up to a standing position, using a woman's legs to help and ended up standing with his head under her skirt! "Excuse me, let me get my baby out from under your skirt."

What an interesting way to spend a morning. I hope this isn't the beginning of a love of bars for him.

Watch Out, World!

This post is a bit out-dated as this major milestone was passed a few weeks ago at about 7 months, but as I have nothing more important to write about today, I dedicate this one to you, Baby Jack!  Your funny bottom wiggling, push-ups, slithering, and rolling has finally all paid off!  All your hard work has produced one of the fastest crawls I have ever seen!  Ben and Mitchell crawled a bit earlier than you, but you have them beat in speed at this age!  

He really is a speedy little guy.  He no longer is content to be left alone in a room, but will crawl with all his might as soon as the action starts moving to another place.  The big boys can no longer just move their game to a slightly different location to escape his babyish pestering.  He moves when they do.  I have honestly never before used a baby gate in any of my houses for either of my other boys, but this guy can move so quickly, I felt it necessary to protect him in this way.  

I sometimes leave the room to get something from another room, and when I turn around to go back, there he is, slap slap slapping the floor, furiously trying to keep up and doing a fairly decent job at it!

Already, he is not satisfied with his new skill.  It is not enough to be mobile.  He thinks he can walk and tries to prove it every time he pulls himself to standing position, then turns around and lets go, crashing down each time.  I guess all that chub makes a pretty good cushion for such instances!

Good work, little guy.  We're all watching you, every step of the way!

Why Boys Don't Wear White

To me, there is nothing cuter on a little baby boy than a white onesie.  It is simple, but babyish, matches any bottoms one should choose, and never distracts from their boyish cuteness.

There is one drawback to a white onesie though - it looks like this at the end of the day (truthfully, it looks like this by mid-day, but I don't always do anything about it, knowing it will just happen all over again.)  A mess like this doesn't just happen all at once - a few hours of being a baby is needed to truly make a masterpiece out of a pure, white shirt.  We need at least one meal, plenty of drool, some mashed up and spit out Cheerios, crawling all over the place, and plenty of brotherly help.  

One example of this "brotherly help" I mentioned:  I put Ben in charge of keeping Jack away from the stairs leading down to my front door.  I just had to close my eyes for a few minutes, and in that exhausted state, I truly thought Ben would make a great babysitter.   Now before you think me a terrible mother and cut me out of your life altogether, know that I was merely dozing, not truly sleeping, and was on the chair, sitting up, not laying down for a nap in my bed.  While I was in this semi-conscious state, I could hear plenty of giggling by both Ben and Jack.  There would be a few seconds of slapping sounds on the floor (Jack crawling) followed by giggles by both boys, repeated over and over again.  It was quite a nice soundtrack to my "meditation."  My curiosity finally overcame my sleepiness and I just had to see what was going on.  Ben would let Jack crawl as far as the top of the steep stairs, then grab him by both ankles and drag him back 5 or 6 feet back to my chair where he would begin it all over again.  They both thought it was the best game ever!  I had a nice little break from chasing Jack around, keeping him out of the dangers a new crawler continually searches for, but I hate to say, this white onesie may not ever be white again.  Being drug on his belly across the floor may have been just too much for bleach to take care of this time!