It’s Friday night! Whoo!!! And what’s going on?
Blogging. [-5 cool points]
Actually, we might have some people come over to hang out, play with the little guy, and do some Wii waggling. [+1 cool point]
Honestly, even before the baby, I’d been completely happy to stay home on a Friday night. Once in a while, I might get cabin fever and need to bust out. But between family and band commitments, Friday nights at home are sweet.
When I was single, it was the opposite. Every Friday night at home felt like a tragedy. Missing an opportunity for life enhancement.
Getting married changed that. When my best friend is at home (aww…) and I don’t have to wake up early, I just wanna hang out. Now with two best friends to hang with, it’s doubly sweet.
note: for full disclosure, Super Mario Galaxy came in the mail today, so that don’t hurt neither. (photo: Matt)
This is where we’ll keep track of our cool points. For historical accuracy, we assessed our coolness before the baby and went forward from there.
| BEFORE THE BABY | |
| we love Jesus | +30 |
| CD has enjoyed Star Trek, Tolkien, and some D&D in the past | -15 |
| traded in sports car for a Corolla | -2 |
| we like computers | -3 |
| CD built our computer | -5 |
| been to Europe a few times | +10 |
| CM is a Rick Steves disciple | -5 |
| been on the front row for a U2 show | +5 |
| CD’s fun 30th b-day party with dinner & dancing | +5 |
| CD turned 30 | -5 |
| we rarely buy new clothes | -5 |
So, maybe it’s just because we’re cheap [-3 cool points], but we have always liked to keep things basic and clutter-free when it comes to home decor (junk mail aside). Five years ago we lived in a 400 sq ft apartment and we added a total of 3 additional pieces of furniture when we moved into the current house. Sparse is the word that comes to mind. But we like it.
To continue with this trend, I did lots of research online about how to be a minimalist with a baby, raise a minimalist baby, or how to be a minimalist parent. Didn’t find much, unfortunately. So I made a few rules for myself:
1. No baby swings. Those things take up way too much room. Plus, I figured that I could get some exercise while being the swing’s replacement.
2. No high chair. We got this cool thing that straps to our dinner table chair instead. The baby loves it and it takes up zero floor space.
3. No big stroller travel system things. A stroller frame to hold up the carseat works great. After the baby outgrows this, we can go with a cheapo umbrella stroller that weighs almost nothing.
Actually, at this moment, I’m sitting on the couch and I can’t see even one baby item in view. Beautiful.
And we’re about to move to the next level of minimalism now that the baby is an official curtain crawler. Maybe I’m weird, but I’m actually looking forward to this. Let’s haul those spare end tables and potentially wobbly stools out of here.
We’re screwed.
It was inevitable. The signs were coming, little by little. They were met with nervous anticipation. But now that it’s happened, we realize the enormity of the situation.
The baby can crawl.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend at the grandparents’, he went from stretching for something he wanted and MAYBE scooting himself an inch towards it to pulling and shuffling himself towards the goal in reasonable time. This was like over the course of 2 days!
Now that we’re home, he’s a pinball, effortlessly gliding from object to object around the floor. Well, maybe not gliding, but fast and smooth enough that you go pee once and you’ll find him pulling at the curtains with all his infant strength.
We’ve got plenty of work to do. Covering up outlets. Moving things that are easy to topple. Fixing loose cords. Figuring out how to use our vacuum. Locking up kitchen and bathroom cabinets. We keep our knife block in a floor level cabinet! That should change, right?
We’re happy that he’s developing, but we always knew in the backs of our minds that once he starts moving around, there’s no going back. He’s gonna REALLY hate the Pack and Play now.
Anyway, this is a sudden development that has taken us unawares. I thought that babies started walking in time for preschool — that’s why you send them away. Oh man, I think hear him starting the lawn tractor again…
A couple of years ago, I felt that God wanted me to write a movie screenplay. Over the past year, I actually worked on it and made great progress. Even when the baby first came, I had time to write, which I need solitude for, when both he & Cool Mum were catching up on sleep. However, when his sleep schedule settled to just at night, time for writing became hard to find.
Cool Mum came across the idea of getting up at 5:00 am to write before going to work. It made sense… and impossible, but I just had to try. It was all God from there on out.
I started waking up at 5:00 am for no reason. No alarm clock, no cell phone, not even to wizz. I just opened my eyes around 5.
Unfortunately, things got thrown off after Daylight Savings Time a few weeks ago. I’ve been waking at 7 lately. So, last night I prayed to God that He would wake me early again to work on my screenplay. I need 2-3 weeks of solid work to edit it and it’ll be done!
I went to bed at 10:30 and the baby yelled for a diaper change at 12:30. Later on, the baby was screaming again, and I feigned pretending not to hear it, hoping that CM would robotically go see him. No luck. As I rolled out of bed, I checked the time. 4:55 am.
God constantly amazes me with the creative ways that He grants our prayers. Hopefully my movie can have some of that kind of ingenuity. God is so loyal and gracious and He does stuff like this ALL the time.
OK, I better focus at the task at hand. It’s 5:42 and I have a movie that’s waiting to get made.
