Shane - 10 months

Has it really been this long? My boy is almost a year old? It's hard to believe sometimes.  I remember dealing with Carrie's pregnancy, or sitting upstairs on a January afternoon with a 1.5 month Shane sleeping on my lap, and a laptop playing Zulu, Sanjuro, or some other random flick on Netflix streaming. Now, Shane weighs more than a small barbell, sleeps less, poops more, and is standing up! The days are long, but the months are short. I was frustrated this morning, because the boy woke up crying and then wouldn't take his bottle! I bolted out of bed in boxers, tore downstairs, came back up, and I got no cooperation. He's ate like a trucker after a long haul since then and is napping peacefully behind me (How else do you think I'd get time to type?).

Parenting is a lot of work, but I've learned a lot:
1) No one was kidding when they said "your whole life is about to change."
2) Grandparents are even cooler when they're your child's grandparents than when they were yours.
3) Any time you think you've got the routine down pat, you're already a step behind. It changes that quick.
4) Which is probably why everyone always says "they grow up so fast" and I've always shrugged it off thinking old people like to reminisce.
5) I'm officially one of those old people now.

On to the Shane-annigans:


Teeth: Shane is the proud owner of 6 teeth and number seven is just erupting. He's got the top 4 middle, and the bottom 2 middle fully out at this time. Carrie was worried that he'd have a gap/missing-tooth on the topside like she and her brother had, but it looks like Shane got his tooth genes from Daddy. Let's just hope his front two don't go buck out and flap in the wind like mine did.

Teething has been a pain for the boy. It clearly bothered him with the top teeth were coming in. He's not making as big of a deal for the latest tooth, so I hope he's getting used to it. Baby OraGel was a life saver on a couple of nights (like the fantasy draft!). We haven't used any for the past two weeks, which is good in my book. Shane gnaws on everything in the meantime. Wood, metal, his mom, you name it. Paper and clothes seem to be a huge favorite, but I've been good about keeping books and receipts as far from Shane as I can (much to his dismay).

Athletics: My son is going to play sports. I have no doubts. You can't keep this kid down! He jumps up, pulls on everything, and can cruise around the room. Sometimes, he can even cruise with only one hand on an object and the other is flailing around for balance. The problem is, the boy wants to run. Walking is too pedestrian. I need to get Carrie to send me some of her iPhone videos of us walking around with the boy. I like to hold his hands and let Shane provide the impetus. Most of the time he leans forward and tries to tear off at a Dad's lower-back breaking pace as I hobble around over him. Shane is rarely still and seems happiest when he's moving. He can even climb up stairs! Not that we let him unsupervised. The Awesomely-Delightful-Dope Boy climbs up a stair or two, and then will whip himself around to look at something behind him. If I was there, this would equate to him bodily throwing himself off the stairs. My son does nothing half-ass. When he turns, he throws his whole body into it. The kid has energy to spare. Too bad he's not sharing.

Talking: Shane loves making noise. Sometimes he'll start screeching and I'll harmonize with him. He enjoys the game and keeps on howling until I stop matching him. Other times, he'll babble. I hear discreet syllables and I swear I've heard "Hey, Da-da!" in there somewhere, but it's clear Shane has no concept of what he's doing yet. It's just fun for him to hear his own voice. He talks most when he's sitting and chewing on something particularly gnaw-worthy like his truck or when he's in the car seat. The rest of the time he's too busy trying to stand up, or crawl around on hands and knees. So far, it sounds like the 'ahs' are the easiest sounds for him to make. I've given up on my dream of having 'Poo-poo' be his first word.

Personality: Oh boy, is my son going to have personality. When he wants something, he wants it. He will try to climb, stand, shake, or cry his way to it. If you pull him away, he will blast right back full speed. If you put it away, he will cry and keep trying to make his way towards it. Thankfully, he has my attention span and you can quickly find something else he's interested in. He's generally a happy bugger, praise God.

Shane hasn't seemed to have separation anxiety or any fear of strangers. If Carrie or I have been away for a while and return (hours), Shane's face lights up. He has this huuuuge smile and lets out a squawk that melts a parent's heart. If a stranger comes by, Shane looks at them, decides if they have any earrings, glasses, or necklaces he wants to yank on, and then goes back to whatever he was doing. If they do have something he wants, he's not shy about grabbing for it! He tried to drag down one lady's shirt who held him at church a month ago! (Thankfully, she was an experienced parent and a scene and a surprised reaction were all avoided, heh).

Shane's Favorite Things: (In no particular order, because he ain't telling me squat)
-TV.  I try to keep the TV off most of the time when it's just Shane and me, but I know Carrie can't live without background noise when she's home. Shane has shows that are CLEARLY favorites. We have a praise DVD from my mom and Carrie DVR'd the Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension movie. Shane's attention snaps so quickly to those shows I'm surprised he doesn't get whiplash. I always turn one of them one whenever I feed him solid food, because the boy becomes an absolute zombie.

-Music. My son likes music. It could be the music on the aforementioned shows, or it could be Mozart, Jonathan Coulton, or Grits, or some other random song he's decided he likes. I still sing his favorites like: "If You're Happy and You know it..," "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys, and "Hush Little Baby." Sometimes, when Shane's crying I just open my bookmark for Mozarts Piano Sonata in C, K.545 and the boy zones out on it. It's crazy. I never planned on playing classical music in an attempt to "increase brain function" or anything like that. I just noticed he liked some songs and the ones he did typically had clear, individual notes instead of a muddle of instruments. Maybe Shane will be an athletic musician. If he has any talent, he clearly gets it from his mom's side of things. I'm just a good listener.

-Animals and the Outdoors. Another easy way to please a fussing Shane is to take him outside. He particularly loves it if Indy Anna is around and chasing her ball. You will have an instant happy child. It's funny, because my Dad seems like he really loves throwing the ball for the dog when Shane is watching. He's developed a repertoire of throws and tricks he does to put the dog through her paces.

-Books. Shane loves books....to eat! I still try to read him to him, but I think that's mainly a daddy endeavor. He's real bad about trying to eat, or grab whatever I'm reading. I have most of his books fully memorized by now. One time, he was crying while Carrie was driving home with him and I was on the speakerphone. All I had to say was "I wish I were a pilot!" and he stopped crying. He knew the book. Carrie had me 'read' the whole book over the phone and my son's attention was held rapt the whole time.

-Toys. Chew toys are at the bottom of Shane's list. He LOVES his dump trucks though. I bought one at a garage sale for a dollar, and the other came from my mom. Shane chews, pushes, rolls around with, and generally adores them. I told Carrie that he's found his future career! She didn't seem to fond of that. I know I wanted to be a garbage man when I was a wee one. My great-grandfather, Papa Coleman, was a head garbage collector in his Texas town before the Great Depression. Besides, a city garbage collector can make much more than I do with overtime. It's a necessary profession and they get a big truck. 'Nuff said

-Naps. Shane likes to nap once he's asleep, but he's an absolute warrior about resisting them. It used to be easier, because you could just lay the boy down, but now that he's standing he's able to fight naps off much better than before. He's down to two naps a day and sometimes he'll try to go with only one nap. It never works, and he's incredibly cranky after the sixth hour, but the stubborn little tyke will refuse to let himself go down some times. By standing up in his crib, he'll prevent himself from getting comfortable enough to drift off and after 5-10 minutes of loud fussing, I give in.

-Funny stories. I wish I had more. So much of what Shane does is just normal life to me now, so I don't always have distinct memories of exact moments. I will say that he likes to make all sorts of strange noises with his mouth now. Including chewing noises. Several times now, he's panicked me into thinking he was chewing on something when there should have been nothing small enough for him to swallow anywhere near him. I've poked and prodded and forced his mouth open to make sure he's not going to choke or poison himself, only to find that he's just making spitty noises for the fun of it. The whole being a turd side of Shane comes from my side of the family (but don't think my wife's side didn't contribute some of that! Love ya, Carrie).

-Grandparents. Have I mentioned online how awesome grandparents are?  Whether it's Carrie's parents holding on to Shane so that Carrie and I could have a vacation, or my mom and dad helping out with child care during the week, parenting would be much much harder without grandparents around. I have much more sympathy for families living in a new area now. I have an amazing amount of empathy nowadays for single parents with babies. It's hard enough with a partner and family support, but all on your own without a break? Quality affordable daycare would be a necessity (and lots of blessings from above!).

Shane gave me 40 minutes to write all that, but he's up now. He's got a runny nose, so I think he has a cold, but there's no fever. Plus, I think I smell poo.

Parenthood! Can you smell it?

Late edit: I'm renaming Shane to Snot Faucet (YUM!).  It's been going like patchwork plumbing all day.