New Morning Routine

About four weeks ago, I started going to the gym at night. I come home from work, spend a few minutes with Max as he gets ready for bed, talk to Shannon a little bit and then head to the fitness center for a workout. Aside from being wide awake at 10:00 PM, it is a schedule that is working pretty well.

Because going to the gym together is no longer an option, this week Shannon started doing her workouts at the crack of dawn (about 5:00AM, ughhhhhh!). What this means for me is that Max and I now spend our morning together.
I generally get up by 5:30 so that I can take a shower, get dressed, pack my lunch and let the dogs out before my smiling son wakes up. That’s not a big deal because it’s only about 30 minutes earlier than I would normally get up. I am happy to do it. It gives me some “daddy” time with Max during the week. (Plus, as y’all know, I LOVE mornings!)

About 5:50 or 6:00 AM I can hear Max jabbering on the baby monitor. That is when the fun really starts. I flip on the hall light and slowly open the door to his room. I am immediately greeted by a big smile as the boy peers through the bars of his crib. He looks like an inmate about to be paroled. In the last couple of weeks he has started to do this surprised type “gasp” whenever he sees you for the first time. It is just like the sound you would make if you had been holding your breath under water and had just surfaced for some badly needed air. It’s a total riot!

After some routine hugs and kisses it is straight to the changing table for a clean diaper. This is no easy task now that the boy has become mobile. The second I lay him on the changing pad he tries to flip over and crawl away. It’s like a fun little game we play. Flip the boy over…unbutton the jammies. Flip the boy back over….loosen the diaper. Flip the boy back over…take off the dirty diaper. Then, while simultaneously holding him down with my left arm, I wipe him down and slide a clean diaper under him. Last, but not least, I try to get his feet back in his pajamas while he is kicking like a miniature Chuck Norris.

Next comes Max’s breakfast.

Rule number one for feeding my son is: Do NOT put him in the highchair unless you are ready to feed him. In Max’s world, strapped in = food. Sometimes you can distract him with a wooden spoon to play with, but that will only last for a minute. The longer he waits to eat the more he will grunt and groan. As soon as you get his cereal ready and walk over to the highchair to start feeding him, he will get a big smile and let out another one of his happy “gasps”. Then it is just a matter of scooping and shoveling.

By the time we get done with our breakfast Momma is home and Daddy can leave for work. Another successful morning.

Max and Avery sittin' in a tree!

And, we're off!

Max is crawling now. In the span of just a few days he went from being on all fours rocking back and forth to full blown crawling. In fact, he's even started sleeping in the crawling position. He sleeps this way the entire night so that when he wakes up he has huge red blotches covering his knee areas.

With him crawling, there's a whole new meaning to when Shannon says, “Keep an eye on the baby.” Do you have an idea how much ground a 7 month old can cover when he crawls?

To look at him it does not seem that he is moving very fast. Turn your head for a second and he is across the room with one of the shih-tzu’s in a headlock. I am convinced that when I’m not looking, he stands up and runs across the floor.

What that also means for us, is we now have to look at everything less than three feet off of the floor. Especially the stuff that will fit in his mouth. What is funny about that is, when he is in his high chair I can’t pay him to eat a Cheerio. If I throw it on the living room rug, BAM, right in his mouth.

On the bright side, between Max and the dogs, we probably won’t have to vacuum as often.