Daddy Dan

We spent Sunday celebrating Babito’s Grandma’s 70th Birthday.

Babito had a great time and danced non-stop throughout the 6-hour party. He and I were both exhausted by the end of the night.

To all you mothers out there: Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I hope all of your efforts have been as appreciated as my wife’s efforts have been appreciated by me, although I may not tell her as often as I should.

My wife, as I always knew she would be, is an excellent mother. She is warm and caring and always puts The Babito’s best interests first.

We’ve made great partners and have consistently worked together to ensure that The Babito is raised to the best of our abilities. We talk often about all of the many issues we’ve faced in our learning process for the hardest, but most rewarding job of all, parenting. I know we don’t always agree 100% on everything related to raising The Babito (and what couple ever does?), but I appreciate the fact that we always discuss things, make a decision we can both live with, and both stay consistent with each other in the decisions we make.

I know we often say that we lucked out in getting such a good baby, and that is most definitely true, but him having you as his Mommy has played a huge role in the person he is becoming, and I hope you know that.

So on this Mother’s Day I just want you to know Honey that I appreciate you so much. The Babito is so lucky to have such a wonderful mother, and I am so lucky to have such a wonderful wife. Happy Mother’s Day! I Love You!

Last night, I called home from work at about 8:00pm.  I wanted to let my wife know that I was getting ready to head for home and I also wanted to tell The Babito good night.

He got on the phone and said “Hi Doddy”  (that’s his pronounciation of Daddy.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell if he’s talking about me or the doggies.)

I asked him if Mommy was going to read him a book before he went to bed.  He started crying and said “No!  Doddy read book!  No!”

I decided then that three straight days without seeing him at all was enough.  When I got to work today I told my manager, who is a family guy and very understanding, that I was leaving by 6:00 today, no matter what.  He was fine with it.

I ended up getting home around 7:00.  The Babito was VERY excited to see me.  Almost as excited as I was to see him.

We played cars, played ball, and generally had a great time.  I gave him a bath, read him several books, and sang songs with him.  (Have I mentioned on here yet that he knows all the words to ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?’  He does.)  

He did call me Mommy several times tonight (yikes!) I guess I have been working a little too much.

I let him stay up about an hour past his normal bedtime.  My wife wasn’t too happy about it.  He’ll probably be cranky when she has to wake him up in the morning.

But she doesn’t mind all that much.  

She was happy that I got to finally spend some quality time with him, and she ended up getting a little break.  

It was a great night.   

This is my first attempt at blogging from my Blackberry, so hopefully it works. I’m going to keep it short, in case it doesn’t.

I’m currently into my second week of the following work schedule:

Arrive at work: 6:30am
Leave work: anywhere from 7:30-9:30
Arrive at home: Eat dinner, look in at a sleeping Babito, go to bed
Weekends; In the office all day Saturday, work from home approximately 6 hours

This schedule to continue through next week, most likely to include Mother’s Day.

Life sucks right now.

And how are you all doing? Tell me something fun you’ve been up to in the comments so I can live vicariously through you. =)

Before I get to the point, I just want to stress how lucky we’ve been with The Babito.  He’s not a fussy eater, he’s an excellent sleeper (usually in bed by 8:00 and always sleeps throughout the night), and has been very good at doing what we ask him to do.

But lately he’s begun to test us.  He’ll do things he knows he’s not supposed to do, like stand up and walk on the couch, get on the fireplace, throw things, etc.  When we tell him to stop he ignores us until either: (1) he can tell we really mean business; or (2) he ends up in ‘time-out.’

I know this is a normal phase that toddlers go through, but it really is irritating.

The advice I’m asking for is this:  How did you handle the ‘testing’ phase?  What worked and didn’t work?  And most importantly, for two impatient parents, HOW LONG DOES IT LAST???

Save us. 

(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A scene from the May Day demonstration in Downtown L.A. today.  The marchers want amnesty for illegal immigrants and a stop to raids on companies employing them.

Mexico flag wavers for people wanting to become U.S. citizens?  Major pet peeve of mine.