Sunday, January 14, 2018

Fatherhood, part 7

I haven't posted in forever. No big excuses, but we have been busy, at times. Since the last time I have posted we have moved out of my parents' house, N. has grown four teeth, turned a year old, and started walking. I've started a new job, we received the shipment of all our stuff from Guayaquil, and with that, we've moved into an apartment in Arlington, VA. Livia and I celebrated a year of marriage.

Needless to say, much has happened in N.'s life, and in mine. He took a trip down to Guayaquil with Livia, and got to spend some quality time with his family there. He went to St. Louis with us for a wedding, and took a road trip to Indianapolis for Thanksgiving at my sister and brother-in-law's place. I wish that I would've blogged in the past eight months, because things happen fast. Well, they don't seem so fast when they happen, but now looking back it's like, whoa things have been happening fast.

One thing that is for sure, kids are definitely a big negative for the 'happy hour' industry. I'm in a different situation than when I last lived in the DC area, now married and a father. When I lived here before I was constantly hitting up happy hours, going to movies, some plays, joined a running club, and was always looking to fill my nights. Now, even if there are things going on, I tend to still look to fill my nights with playing with N. We have been able to get together, or host some of my friends from when I lived here before, so that's been very nice.

We've also tried to get out and see things around town, visiting lots of museums, and making frequent trips to the National Mall. That's been harder the past two months, as I don't like cold weather and Livia abhors it.

As I mentioned before, looking back, so many things have happened over the past eight months in N's life. On Christmas, or the day after, Livia and I looked through all the photos and videos we've taken of N over the past year, and wow, he has changed so much.

Thinking through all of his changes, a few things stand out. One is meal time, which has gone from him throwing almost everything on the floor and playing with his food to a very orderly experience (usually). He has a voracious appetite and over the past month or so has gotten great at putting almost all the food in his mouth. We have a sheet that we put underneath his high chair, and we used to have to shake and dump it every meal, and now we'll go days without picking it up. He has also gotten better about eating broccoli and toast, which early on  the things that he wouldn't eat at all, and would throw every piece on the floor. He's a pro with his sippy cup and when he gets his little cup of Cheerios for a snack, he leaves just crumbs in the cup.

Honestly, I don't remember what stage of movement he was in back in May when I last posted, but he is now walking about like a champion. He seemed to have moved through the stages of walking incredibly quickly. He now can walk for 20, 30 or maybe more steps without falling, and can bend over, pick things up all while standing.

He's more vocal every day, and definitely understands things we say. He uses all sorts of different sounds to indicate different things. It has been wondrous to watch him grow and learn.

I wish I would've written more, and will try to do it more often, because wow is he changing quickly.