Full belly, empty bowels

That's the secret to a good night's sleep around here. After a big meal, fill in the cracks with milk, and put on the blue diaper with the white stars to induce a nice big pooper before flopping him into his crib.
The boy still hates the actual going to sleep, but he sleeps well once he's down.

Earlier today, I was playing with the boy outside, when a guy across the street looked at us, glanced very overtly at his watch, and called, "Hey, why aren't you at work?"
Used to the attitude, I returned, "I'm a dad! This is my job!"
Without a hesitation: "Oh, I know what you're up to. But what's he doing?"
We laughed, and I said something about how he was just a little freeloader.

And man.
I looked at him thinking about how he would grow up one day, have a job.
Crazy math here: if your first kid has a baby the same time you do, as soon as you become a parent, you're halfway to being a GRANDPARENT.
I'm barely an adult! What the heck!

The tough thing about parenting a boy like DanPar isn't that your kid gets sad, it's that when he DOES get sad, it's something that you can easily undo, and make him happy.
"Oh, you're right, let's stay up all night!"
"You're not done playing the library toys? Okey doke!"
"Chocolate ice cream instead of chicken it is, then!"
It's hard, because his little human experience can't be reasoned with, and you know he doesn't understand why you're being so mean, and are depriving him of something that makes him happy. You have to believe with all your heart that doing the right thing rather than the easy thing will make him happier in the end.

Finishing a strawberry!

While the kid was fetching shoes, I looked down at the slippers on my feet, oversized (just the way I like them), and I had the odd feeling of "someday I'm going to fill these shoes", which was made even weirder because, no, no I won't. As a parent, I find myself experiencing small flashbacks of wonder and novelty from childhood, and then come back to the present, where my body and brain have pretty much done growing.

But this little guy has barely begun.

My kid is the best.