When Mommy is Away...

A couple of Saturdays ago, I woke up feeling particularly motivated (meaning I must have gotten more than 4 hours of sleep) so I decided to hit up the gym. Before I left I made sure Greyden was fed and happy and told Kevin to keep an eye on him for his sleeping cues because he was going to be ready for a nap soon. Then off I went.  

I came home about an hour and a half later to find Kevin all alone in the kitchen washing up bottles. As I opened the back door, he turned around and put his finger to his lips to indicate that Tater was napping. I looked toward the living room where he usually naps in his swing, and saw this:

Yes, that is Greyden, in his swing and out like a light. And yes, that is Greyden, approximately 4 feet in front of the TV, watching the fishing channel. Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to let a baby watch television in the first place. However I have to concede that Kevin's apparent tactic to bore the poor kid to sleep seemed to work because he slept for about 90 minutes straight. Of course if you were to stick me in front of the fishing channel for any length of time you'd most likely get the same effect.

Besides this slight deviation in Kevin's normally stellar parenting skills, he does pretty well with Grey. Or at least I was under the impression that he did. When I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with my girlfriends, I had no problem leaving Junior in the care of Daddy for the entire day. When I called and checked in I found everything to be under control, save for a slight mishap with a leaking bottle, which led me to believe that they had a great day together and everything went swimmingly. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I overheard Kevin describing that fateful day to a friend as "absolutely terrifying" that I realized otherwise. I also realized that Kevin is a wuss. What does he think happens when he up and leaves us to go on his little business trips? The Child Care Fairy appears to take care of Junior and I head off to the spa? Riiiiight. Nope we go about our days as usual. Now that Junior is a little person and is fun to play with, it's not bad being the sole parent. Back when he was still in his "bump on a log" phase (i.e. - the first two months) he would just look at you like you had two heads when you dangled a toy in front of his face. Now it doesn't matter what you dangle in front of his face, toy or not, it's going in his mouth. And you can bet that if it's any kind of food (especially french fries, beer, and cheetos), his go-go gadget arms will reach it.

Speaking of food, before Greyden was born we were given a high chair by our friend's mom, who happens to own a resale shop. SCORE! Anything we didn't have to buy, we happily hoarded accepted. Unfortunately things never seem to go as you expect them to. Case in point, this is a picture of him at 5 months old in said high chair.   



Can you see the problem here? Yeah, we could too. But instead of accepting that it was just too big for him, we did the next best thing and relegated the tray to a closet and just used the chair alone. The problem with this technique is that a baby and his feet are inseparable. After yet another 30 minute session of playing with his feet feeding session for a mere 3 ounces of food, I decided to give the tray another shot, fully expecting a much better result. After all it had been 2 full months since the last try. And this is what I got:

Okay fine. That's the same picture. But to be honest, he looked exactly the same as before and could still barely see over the tray so I saw no need to take another one. I couldn't imagine another 5 months of battling his feet for his attention, when his feet would clearly continue to win each time (maybe he isn't a Shagene after all?) so I got online and found another option. This is what we're working with now:

And let me tell you, he LOVES it. As soon as you put that tray on, he's banging on it with his fists. (Yes, he's still fighting the sign for "more" and doing it his way. I hate to say it, but it works for him. The kid is obviously not starving, although you'd never know that when he's screaming for the boob at 3 o'clock in the morning.)


The nice part about this chair is that it's portable, which will come in very handy when we head for Michigan on Wednesday. We're already dragging along a pack and play, a jumparoo, and an exersaucer, the last thing we need to do is cram a high chair in too, right? Wish us luck because I have a feeling we'll need it. Or should I say, I'll need it. 20+ hours of entertaining an 8 month old? Bring it on.