Tales from a Stay at Home Dad

A lot of people ask me how Chris is liking staying at home.  I honestly believe he could start a blog of his own telling about his experience as a stay at home dad and all the crazy things he deals with.  I have nothing but the utmost respect for my husband and for what he does for our family.  He has the toughest job between the two of us and he does it very well.

I think Chris is enjoying being a stay at home dad.  He loves how much time he gets to spend with the kids and I think he likes that he doesn't have a boss (unless of course you count me :) ).  At the same time I think he gets stressed out, misses the interaction with other adults, and would like to have something of his own to work toward.   Guitar lessons help with the latter, but I think he would love to have more.

Now that the kids are a little older and they only nap once a day he is able to get out and do more.  However, there isn't much of a network for fathers who stay at home (nearly all Mom's groups), plus he isn't as social as I am, so that part has been tough for him.  Not to mention how tough it is to have two toddlers who dart in opposite directions any time they are released from their stroller...it makes it tough to go out alone with them.

I've asked Chris if I can start blogging about the funny, seemingly mundane things that happen to him.  He quickly said he'll try to remember and then proceeded to tell me about two of the latest shenanigans from our little trouble maker, Cooper:

Lesson:  Always lock the front door

Chris was changing Charlotte's diaper in their bedroom (where the changing station is).  Mid-change with a half naked baby he suddenly hears Cooper laughing in the living room.  He didn't know why so he rushed to finish changing Charlotte and went out in the living room.

When he first walked out his heart stopped.  There was Cooper standing at the front door -- which was wide OPEN!  He was laughing and Scout was looking at him in amazement.  Apparently Cooper learned how to open doors and one of us forgot to lock the front door.   Chris was so glad he hadn't run into the hallway!

Lesson:  Preoccupy tall babies in the car with a toy

Chris was driving home from some errands with both kids in their car seats.  They are both still rear facing (because it is so much safer - see here, here, and here) and sometimes they get bored if we don't give them a toy to play with.

Chris hears this click, click, click sound come from the back.  So he decided to pull over and see what the noise was.  He opens up the back door and there's Cooper with his car seat straps loose!  His arms are long enough to reach the lever to loosen the straps!  Chris tightened him back up and gave him the length of the belt (when you pull on it the straps get tighter) and a few other toys to play with. 

He was fine all the way home and seemed to forget how to do it again.  I seriously hope it's a fluke...otherwise we'll have to figure out how to rig the car seat to prevent him from loosening the straps!

Child Labor

At Christmas one of them (I think Charlotte) got a vacuum from Grandma Jacqueline and then Cooper got a vacuum for his birthday.  They are loving them!  I wish they were real vacuums. :)  Of course that could be child labor, but isn't that why you have kids...someone to do all your chores for you?? 

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Maternity Leave - Again!

So we are starting our house search again.  It was only a year ago that we were doing the same thing, except with a newborn (and seriously the whole month of May and June were really tough...what a life changing year we've had)!  This time we have two toddlers.  Our lease is up in June and we are DYING to get out of this cramped apartment.  I'm amazed we've lasted this long!

We started looking to buy, but in the area we want to live and for the amount of time we'll be here we 1) can't afford the house payment without Chris going back to work and 2) likely would not recoup our down payment in this market before we would sell.  So we've decided to rent.  We hope to find something comparable to our old place - 3 bed + den or 4 bedrooms, 2 car garage, laundry hook-ups, small yard, and in Huntington Beach.  This time we're not compromising. 

So far we've found several options in our price range, but we are waiting another week or two before contacting people since we don't want to move until June 10.  We plan to know where we're moving by the time we go to Denver (just like last year!) and this time we are hiring someone to move us.  It's too much work for us!

I am so excited!  Work approved my maternity leave in June and in September.  In CA I am allowed to take 12 weeks off after finalizing the adoption, six of which is paid.  I've decided to only take the 6 weeks paid and to split it up into two 3 week time periods.

I'll take the first 3 weeks off starting the second week of June.  Two reasons for this: 1) we are moving and this will help us get moved, settled and ease the transition for the kids and 2) Chris is going on a hiking trip in the middle of June!  He's meeting up with some old college friends (and we hope they will move the trip a few days so Mikael can join them) and he'll be gone for an entire week hiking the Continental Divide.  That means I'll be home alone with the kids!!

I'm a little nervous, but excited too.  I have lots of friends I can call to help if I need it, and I'm sure the kids will really miss Chris (as I'm sure he will also miss them), but I really think Chris needs this.

Then in August I have a training class in Denver so Chris and the kids are going to come with me.  We're hoping to come a couple days early and find a babysitter so we can go out for a real anniversary celebration on August 9th!!  It will be fun to see family and feel like we live back in CO for a week.

In September during my other 3 week maternity leave, we plan to take a trip to North Carolina to see Chris' dad and step-mom for a week of my leave.  They haven't met the kids yet, we haven't met our niece yet, and they haven't seen us since before we were engaged!!  It should be a ton of fun...although we are nervous to take the long flight with two toddlers.  I wonder if the doctor can prescribe something to make them sleep?!?!  (Just kidding...well sort of.)

It ought to be a busy summer!

Maximum Age Limit

Toys have a minimum age limit on them.  This is a good idea so that young children aren't playing with toys that may have small parts that they could choke on.  However, I really think there should be a maximum age limit listed on the toys as well.  Case in point:

And since they enjoy mimicking so much:

This is what Cooper thought of Charlotte climbing on top.

They are starting to get aggressive with each other.  Cooper screeches at Charlotte and pulls, pushes, yanks, and pinches to get her to 'share'.  Charlotte has always been aggressive, but has had to step it up in response to Cooper.  She tried to bite Chris during hand timeout, but a sharp 'no' stopped her mid-bite.

We've had to institute some consistent rules - No biting, pushing, or hitting to get the toy you want.  Immediate timeout for those offenses.  If one child has the toy they get to keep it and once they lose interest then the other child can have the toy...basically no stealing allowed.  This causes a lot of tantrums, but so far it's working.  Charlotte just follows Cooper around like a puppy dog waiting for him to drop the toy she wants.  She even tries to bring other toys to him that he might want.  Sometimes he falls for it, sometimes he keeps the toy forever!

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We went to the park today.  There is a new park not far from us that is more of a 'baby' playground.  Charlotte LOVES the slide and as normal, Cooper is intensely interested exploring every single inch of the playground.  It was fun to get out and enjoy the sunshine!

She looks like such a big girl walking here:

This is my favorite of Cooper (he had just eaten some sticks and dirt):

Charlotte loved the bench and could easily climb up on her own. 

My favorite of Charlotte trying to climb back up the slide:

She looks scared, but she comes out the bottom with big smiles (unfortunately we couldn't get her to sit at the bottom long enough to get her smile in a picture...she immediately ran to go down again):

Crazy static hair!

Cooper liked the bouncy ducks...except he kept hitting himself in the face with it.

Charlotte would go touch it and then run off...not so interesting to her.

Charlotte was afraid of the tunnels, but Cooper loved them.

Scout hung out in the shade the entire time.

Sock Obsession

Both of the kids are obsessed with putting socks on.  Charlotte is able to put them on herself, but Cooper just brings us socks so we can put them on him.  They don't care whose socks they are and they don't care if they clean or dirty.

Here are some other silly pictures:

Laundry basket fun (they climbed in on their own)

Suitcase fun

Big smiles at dinner time

Toy box fun (they both like to climb in the toy box to play with toys...makes clean up easier!)

Peek-a-boo with daddy

Cooper had a fight with an avocado, and I think he lost.

Pictures are uploaded to the shutterfly sites.