AdventureDad

When Daniel was born other parents gave us lots of advice and also some classic comments.    They all meant well but it was occasionally a bit scary to hear of their experiences.  The most common one was to enjoy our child because before we know it he he will be grown up.  Parents also told us to forget about our hobbies, that we will never have time to travel, having a child is expensive, we will get fat, there will be no more time for the gym (or running, gym, or mountain-biking), there would be years until we would get a good nights  sleep, and that we could forget about going to nice restaurants/bars with or without our kid. 

After 19 months I’m very happy to see that other parents were only right about one thing.  Time flies. It really goes by faster than I thought possible. We take tons of photos and I was browsing though  the different month’s this weekend.  There are so many I love so I’ll post a few. I’m so glad we have documented our sons first 19 months so well.  If you haven’t done it so far, start today.  Don’t let weeks or months pass by without taking photos or videos. You will never regret it.  It felt like weeks ago when Daniel was crawling around on the ground struggling to turn over by himself.  Not eating solid foods or being able to tell us what he wanted. The first six months went quickly but they didn’t fly by like the past year.  I can’t believe how fast he’s growing up!  The stage where we are at right now is just fantastic.  And I really mean that.  Being a parent has never felt better than right now.  Our son is developing into a little person and behaves like an angel.  We must have built up lots of good Karma to end up with Daniel.  But I’m getting a bit suspicious. This can’t be normal.  It feels a little like a dream.  You know the one where I’m undressing Halle Berry and most of her clothes are on the floor.  She’s wearing nothing but a thong and some high heeled boots.  Then the alarm rings and I have to wake up and go to work…..   It feels like this parental project is  going  too well at the moment.

All routines are working great.  He falls asleep by himself and sleeps the whole night.  He eats well, loves to play, and is gentle to other kids.  He has started to help out much more.  He puts away his dirty diapers, his plates, and sits down to undress when we mention the word bath.  It’s so refreshing to be able to have some two-way interaction with your child.  He’s of course talking less because his three languages (Swedish, English, Spanish) but gives clear directions of what he likes. He never cries and very rarely goes nuts.  That must sound crazy but he only cries after falling down heavily.  Otherwise it’s all smiles.  Smiles in the morning, during the day, and at night.  During the last six months he has greeted us with a huge smile in the morning every single day except a couple of times while being sick.  I can’t tell you what a difference that makes to us.   It’s not that we love our child less when he’s not smiling but it all flows so much easier with a smile.  It’s nice to see that your child is happy to see you.

I’m not expecting this stage to last so I’m making sure to take lots of video clips and photos.  I’ve heard many stories of the "terrible two" stage which apparently is no picnic.  That’s coming up soon.  We never scream at Daniel.  Not once.  We do raise our voices every now and then.  At those times he knows immediately that he has done something he shouldn’t have.We have other friends who scream "no" to their kid 100 times a day and that doesn’t help one bit. But what the hell do I know.  I am after all beginning parent so perhaps I’ve got have no clue.

All I know is that I love this stage and want it to last longer.  Or at least to experience more stages as wonderful as this one.

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