CHANGE!

It has been a while since I updated this blog, or any blog, huh?  It is always the same excuse: I'm too tired, I'm too busy, I'm trying to write a novel, I'm a stay-at-home-dad, I'm too absent-minded.

Well, enough of the excuses!  It is time for a change!  This blog is going to be different!  More of a journal.  I might even try my hand at *gasp* drawing once in a while.  We'll see.  Though, for your sake, hope that I don't get that far.  I may think very visually, but I can't draw to save my life and don't really have the time to learn.  I know how long it takes to get good, two of my siblings are artists (4, if you count siblings-in-law) and they're too busy to draw my ideas.

So, since this will try to be a frequently-updated blog that will be light-hearted.... your first new post!!!


I am convinced that parenthood is about teaching parents to do their repetitive tasks and mind the details more than it is about teaching their kids these things.  And not things like feeding and changing...  allow me to give you an example.

There is a scene that plays out all the time in my house, and it's so easy to avoid.  I start out typing away on the computer, either writing down an inspiration, trying to work on my novel, reading a webcomic (such as http://www.christophercomic.com), checking the weather, or, since we don't have TV, reading the news.  I know I should be spending every waking moment watching my child, but sometimes I need to do something to feel like.. ME... and not JUST like dad.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love being dad, but I like to think that dad is just one part of me; the other parts need loving, too!  And I like to think that I'm teaching Addy how to play on her own as well as with me.

But there's only so much of this that Addy can take at once.  I'll be reading about what happened in Angola and how the current political system's abuse of filibustering is undermining the very fabric of BABY!!  Addy has had enough alone-play time and crawls into my lap, her cute little butt on my computer.  She has a love-hate relationship with our computers.  IF we're paying attention to them, then we're not paying attention to her.  But if SHE'S paying attention to them, they're "forbidden" and thus fun.  Well, in this case, they're the enemy.  I can tell this because not a moment after she wiggles her butt against the touchpad, I can smell that she needs to be changed.  BADLY.

So, I put my computer down, pick her up, and swing her happily through the air, trying to get her to giggle before the trauma of a diaper change.  It is quite a hassle to change her if she's squirming, and worse if she's poopy.  I hate having to wash poop out of hair.  I finish cleaning her up despite the struggling, but I have to take care of the dirty diaper that is currently sitting folded on the hamper filled with its toxic package.  I've already had enough of her screaming and fighting me, so I put her down to run around while I head to the toilet not 10 feet away to dump out-
OH GOD!  THE COMPUTER IS OPEN!  Why did I leave the computer open!?  My novel!  Forget this diaper!  I just toss the whole thing in the toilet and run as fast as I can to catch up with speedy chubbylegs gonzales just in time to see her pounding away on the computer keyboard.

You'd be surprised at how much damage that can cause.  My wife has had her screen turned off after one of Addy's poundings... and we couldn't get it back on.  So, I pick her up, check the computer to make sure it is still worki-
OH GOD!  THE RADIO!  She's run across the room and is now pulling the speaker to my nice radio down and trying to eject the CD so she can... stuff it down her diaper or something.  Quickly, I close my computer, hoping I didn't just turn it into a paperweight, and run to stop her from knocking the radio off the shelf.  But she sees me this time, and now it's a game!  She giggles cutely and runs away, looking over her shoulder and hoping I'll catch her.  And, of course, if I don't, she heads straight for the bathroom to go for...
THE DIAPER!  OH THE HUMANITY!


One of these days, I will learn to put my computer away BEFORE I change her...