Greetings Little One: Dealing with baby

I have a new strategy when it comes to dealing with you on my own, little one:

No more than fifteen minutes doing any one thing. I’ve noticed that one of the causes of your fussiness is boredom. You like change a lot, and so even though you may adore your bouncy seat, your play mat, or Daddy’s lap, too long in any one place can send you over the edge.

Mommy’s lap seems to be the exception to this rule.

Yesterday Mommy went to the market, leaving us alone for about an hour. For the first fifteen minutes, I placed you in your bouncy seat with a frozen teething ring, your first experience with such a toy. You were as happy as a clam, chewing and rattling the toy with great excitement as I sat beside you and wrote.

Even though you were still relatively happy after fifteen minutes, I decided to take no chances. When the timer went off, I brought you to the kitchen, where we cleaned up for Mommy, who had been baking cookies just before she left. We washed some dishes, wiped down the counter, ran the dishwasher, and packed up her ingredients. You found this process to be incredibly interesting.

After fifteen minutes of cleaning and a quick diaper change, we transitioned to my office, where you sat on my lap as I paid some bills. You don’t spend much time in the office, which is full of windows, so you sat in my lap in rapt attention to everything around you. I was in the middle of writing a check when the timer went off, so again, unwilling to risk a fit, I put the pen down, leaving the check half-written, and we moved back to the bouncy seat with a new toy just as Mommy came home.

I may be onto something, little one. I was productive for the hour we spent together, you were happy, and Mommy’s absence went undetected as far as I can tell.

Victory or Daddy.