Without knowing that Matthew would start 'talking' around 12 weeks old, I picked the right time to take my 2nd week of vacation to spend at home. I would consider this perfect timing on my part because I can talk to him and he would 'talk' back to me in his own language. I would say, “Hi Matthew!” or “Are you daddy's good boy?” and he would shriek in delight. Just take a look at this short video as an example of him reacting to my voice and 'talking' back to me.
The week off started with Matthew's first major road trip. The Vivona family rented a beach house at Bolivar Peninsula for a post-Thanksgiving / early birthday party for Maria. Matthew enjoyed the strolls on the beach while the doggies were busy chasing every sea gull in sight. I even dipped Matthew's feet in the water, as Maria posted in an earlier blog entry. Boy, I did not expect the reaction I received from the "little guy". Even though it was unseasonably warm, the water was cooler than I would have guessed -- low 60's. Maria and I went for swim later in that day and I have to say that it was quite chilly. We came back home early on a chilly, drizzly Monday morning. A cold front came through the night before, ending the 70 degree weather. At least the shorts-on-the-beach December weather was great while it lasted.
Even though daddy had the week off, mommy didn’t so it was daddy's turn to experience what mommy goes through day in and day out. The rest of the week can be summarized in the following activities I performed with him daily: (disclaimer: this is what I did with Matthew on my week off from work and does in no way infer that Maria does this while she is working!)
- wake up and hand Matthew to Maria for a feeding
- going out for about a long morning stroll with the doggies, hoping that Matthew falls asleep in the stroller while mommy works
- when sleeping Matthew wakes up, it is feeding time again
- after the mid-morning feeding, it is play time: hand-eye coordination exercises with daddy's hands, tummy time and rolling over practice, followed by some "office work" (see a preview blog entry)
- once again, handing him to Maria for a feeding then a nap
- after his mid-day nap, we would go for our second stroll of the day, hoping that this would lead into another nap
- after the post-stroll nap, if Matthew is hungry, he would go to Maria for another feeding
- after the feeding, spending time in the vibrating chair playing with cube, zebra and rattles on the toy bar, or simply lying down on the boppie feeding pillow, and admiring how hard mommy works.
Most days, we ended up going for two long strolls. Both Matthew and doggies loved that. Last Thursday, we must have walked 5 miles since we were out of the house for a total of 2 1/2 hours.
Dinnertime poses a bit of a challenge; not necessarily the cooking but Matthew’s mood determines if the parents eat together or take turns inhaling their dinner while the other one occupies Matthew. But I am sure that every parent knows and experiences this... :-)
Matthew is also enjoying quick trips (and sometimes not so quick) around town, grocery store, Babies ‘R Us, Petco, etc. I also indoctrinated him into being a “techie” by making an hour-long trip to the cable company service center to swap out the cable box so he can watch National Geographic channel in high definition. Okay, I have to admit that I am projecting here; the cable box upgrade was for the parents. They just have to watch the Food Network, Discovery Theater and “The Dog Whisperer” in HD. :-)
I should have known that he’s a “techie” by this photo:
In summary, I knew that motherhood was hard but I had no idea how hard. I have a new respect for all mothers once I’ve experienced first hand how much it takes to raise a child while daddy off at work, solving software problems inside the developer tools for the Space Shuttle flight software.
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