A Physics Lesson

There’s a law in physics that talks about every action having an equal and opposite reaction. I think. Now, I know I could Google this information pretty quickly, but I don’t want to do that. First of all, if I’m wrong, then the concept of this post won’t work. Secondly, I prefer to remember all of the limited physics knowledge I have coming from the school of Mike Cannon of Las Vegas – one of the greatest TV shows ever. Don’t underestimate Mike Cannon; he went to MIT, people!


Anyway, I’m off on a tangent (and I DO know what that means, thank you minor in math). What I want to talk about is how parenting is a lot like physics. Parenting involves a ton of anticipation; from the moment you pull the pregnancy test out of its foil wrapper, you’ve opened yourself up to the greatest sort of anticipation in the world. Boy or girl? Who will the baby look like? Shy or outgoing? Blue eyes or brown? The list is endless.

I’m learning, though, that for all of that anticipation, there’s an equal amount of regret involved. Maybe regret isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s something more like “what in the world was I thinking????”

For example, we watched Dylan for days when he was on the verge of crawling, anticipating his first little scoots across the floor. Adorable, right? I had to remind myself of that a couple of weeks later, when I left the room for about thirty seconds, only to return to find him perched on the top of the little picnic table in the dining room.

I remember waiting for what seemed like forever to hear Abbey’s sweet little voice say its first words; now there are days when I think I might pull out my hair if she starts one more sentence with, “I want…”

I’m currently lamenting the fact that Dylan seems to be a worse sleeper than Abbey, which I wasn’t really sure was possible. Yet, I know that one day I’ll be waiting for them to crawl out of bed after a late night out (I remember my own teenage years), and I started to think about how at least now I know they are safe at home, in bed or in our arms, and there’s something to be said for cuddling a baby well into the morning hours.

Basically, the physics of parenting states that for each moment of realized anticipation comes a bit of regret. Each of their little phases are so fleeting and sweet, and wishing them away simply so that I can get a better night’s sleep is only going to come back to haunt me in the end.

Of course that’s easier to say right now than it will be at 2:45 am when Dylan’s up for the sixth time in an hour…

MIT, feel free to contact me at your convenience for the guest professorship on Parenting Physics. You should see my kids demonstrate that irresistible force/immovable object law (or something like that.)

Photo evidence showing they already like to prove me wrong:

maybe the problem is that we expect them to sleep in their cribs?

seriously

he fell asleep before I even got his little pants all the way up

of course getting pants over a cloth diaper does take a little extra time

she didn't fall asleep with shoes on

she stayed asleep when I put them on

we were running late (of course that's when they decide to sleep)

Ignore the Mess

The mess behind Dylan is folded laundry, so at least it's a clean mess.  That's an oxymoron if I've ever seen one, although it doesn't beat the classic "jumbo shrimp" example, but I digress.  Any day of the week will find some manner of laundry in the living room, because between the diapers and the clothes and the towels I am basically swimming in laundry at all times.  Whoever invented the laundry chute concept needed to take it a step further and invent some sort of chute to send the clothes back up.  Folding and putting them away would be a bonus, too, Mr./Mrs. Inventor-of-the-Laundry-Chute.  Thanks.

Look past the mess, though, to the little boy pulling himself up on the laundry basket.  That is not a fluke.  For the past week he has been trying like crazy to pull up on anything available, and on Sunday he managed to get to standing.  He then proceeded to scoot himself from the laundry basket to the edge of the couch.  He is determined to make it impossible for me to sit down for even one minute during the day.

I just can't believe we are at this point already.

Abbey wanted to help him

good luck with that

he's going to be bigger than her by the time he's a year

Fluffy Stuff

Cloth diapers save money, but they involve an upfront cost that can seem a little steep, depending on what sorts of diapers you plan to buy.  I decided to spread out the cost, buying a little at a time, based on what we needed at the moment.  Well, my plan was well thought out, except that I based my shopping timeline on Abbey's approximate sizes; we all know that Dylan is blowing that growth curve right out of the water.

Basically, I needed to buy new diapers a little earlier than anticipated.  My favorite diaper retailer (and local mom) just opened a storefront fairly close to our house, so we stopped by the other day and reloaded our diaper stash.  There is something so cute and fun about a bunch of new cloth diapers.  And of course they get even cuter on little behinds!

Also, you know how people talk about blocking out things like labor pain?  Well, I think I blocked out what happens when you start a baby on solid food.  The last couple of days have really grossed me out.  I guess it's not appropriate to hold off on solid food until Dylan is potty trained?  I didn't think so.  Still, it's a good thing we just invested more money in our cloth diapers, or I might be tempted to run screaming for the disposable diaper aisle at Target. 

For anyone interested, the four items on the left are diaper covers (the striped, green, & blue ones are Thirsties, the cow one is Blueberry).  Covers go over old fashioned pre-fold diapers and new-fangled fitted diapers, like the blue & green Mother-ese ones on the top right.  The bottom right (blue & brown) diapers are Fuzzi Bunz Perfect Size pocket dipes.  These should supplement the pre-folds we already have, plus our Fuzzi Bunz One Size diapers & Bum Genius One Size.

this is how the diapers normally look at my house, after washing but before being sorted, folded, and put away

and here's the cutest boy ever, playing with his gym in his manly cow diaper

see why we needed bigger dipes?