23 December 2008

A new life caring for a new life

It hit me today as I was in the thrift store.
I was going through a rack of t-shirts, looking for blank ones to make into band shirts, when I came across a bundle of shirts about "I love my Daddy" and "World's Best Dad." I'd never really paid attention to them before when they were on other people, but now, they make me look twice. Will I be the kind of father who inspires his little girl to wear such a dorky shirt? I sure hope so. And Father's Day? I suppose it will be different when it roles around next year. Instead of running to the store for the usual last-minute "Dad" gift (A DVD, or some bags of M&Ms), I might actually be on the receieving end this year. A strange thought, I admit.
Life has changed around the house here. Our lives are now devoted to this strangle little creature who plays by her own rules at all hours of the day and gets away with it because she does not understand the concept of good and bad. Yet. She sleeps away most of the day, and spends some hours a night complaining to us in her limited way, about various things that ail her (whatever those could be to a 12-day-old). In her own way, she's already living out the teenaged dream life: sit around, eat, sleep, eat sleep, etc. etc.) The only differences are that she talks less, is smaller, and poops herself more. Other than that, I see a lot of similarities.
Our lives have shifted from "being served" to "serving." In a way, I'm glad. I won't claim to know much about parenting, as I've only been a parent for 12 days, but I've learned the following things so far.
1.) Read the instructions on whatever devices you get for your child. Especially breast pumps. They don't work so well when the gaskets are installed wrong because the directions were translated from French.
2.) Babies don't care what you talk about as long as you talk to them. Use this to your advantage, as the baby is likely far more interested in hearing your theories about Star Trek than your spouse is.
3.) When you air out the baby's bottom, make sure to put a diaper under whatever she is sitting on. What can go wrong usually does.
4.) Don't look at a dirty diaper as an annoyance. Instead, look at it as a minature Picasso (or, in some cases, Pollock) painting on a miniature canvas.

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