The Adventures of Baby Arthur

by Lincoln

It recently became known to me that September 13, 2009 was Grandparent's Day. The existence of this day was unbeknownst to me, as I spent the entire day watching football. Shame on me! Had I known, I would have saved that post for a different day.

Grandparent's day isn't quite a hallmark holiday yet but it is one I could get behind. Where would we be without our parents? Thanks to my parents and Liz's mom, our childcare situation has been completely taken care of. We haven't had to use any local daycare, find a nanny on sites like Nannies4hire.com, Care.com, or Sittercity.com, or employ any kind of outside help. Not only has it been a tremendous savings financially, it's been a great relief to have trusted family members oversee Arthur's well-being and development. There's no doubt that the excitement of the first grandchild on both sides of the family has added to the enthusiasm and attention that Arthur has gotten. But, knowing these grandparents, it wouldn't have mattered if he was the first or the tenth grandchild. All would be loved just the same!

On our last post about Sleep Training, Liz briefly mentioned that we very recently had an extremely difficult night with sleep. For some reason or another, Arthur began waking up at 3am that Saturday morning. Despite our attempts to calm him down and get him back to sleep, he wouldn't stay asleep. The loud party noise emanating from the building behind us and the stupid *expletive* drunk people ringing our door buzzer from downstairs did not help, as they would wake up Arthur just when he was about to fall back asleep! By 4am, I flew downstairs in a fit of rage and chased the drunkards away. By 5am, we had given up trying to get him to sleep in his crib and brought him into bed with us. By 6am, Arthur was stepping on my face because he wanted to go the living room and play. By 7am, I trudged out to McDonald's to pick up a pick-me-up with some breakfast and coffee. By 8am, Liz and I were out of gas and trying to keep up!

By 9am, Liz's Mom came to the rescue by showing up unexpectedly and unannounced. Liz and I manage a 2 hour life-saving nap!

We have many similar stories where our parents have helped us out tremendously. I've said it once and I'll say it again: I've never loved my parents in the way that I do today, now that I have my own child. And I've never loved Liz's Mom before either! Three cheers to Arthur's grandparents and all grandparents around the world. We'd be lost without you!

Labels: family, miscellaneous