wafj_john's blog

It's been nearly a month since I've shared anything here about my adventures in parenting, but they haven't stopped. Our Evan is five months old now and has started teething. No one believes that our happy, smiling baby can be cranky. HA HA HA! We'll send him to your house next time the whole teething episode flares up! Teething puts Evan in a mood that we've never seen.

We've discovered that Evan loves a crowd. I took him on stage with me at a concert the station hosted last week, and he loved it. He didn't cry. There wasn't even a whimper from him. He was leaning forward, checking out the audience while they were checking out him.

Evan is learning how to drive. No, not behind the wheel of a real car. I'm giving him lessons on his Vtech Learn and Discover Driver. It's made for 6 months and up, but we're getting an early start at 4 months. He's a pro at handling the gear shift. He can accelerate and stop better than some licensed drivers I've seen on Augusta's roads. He hasn't quite figured out how to turn the steering wheel, but give him time. He knows how to honk the horn, which I think is the most important feature of any car.

Amy decided to take advantage of the free child seat inspection at Babies R Us yesterday. It proved to be very helpful in making sure Evan's car seat was correctly installed (and of course, it wasn't). Are any of them? I mean it takes a genius to figure out how to get the bubble into the middle of the indicator.

Evan has picked up his first "daycare cold" after only being there a couple of weeks. Everyone warned us that he'll be much more prone to pick up bugs in that environment. The doctor says there's nothing he can do for him right now, but for us to keep him upright and put him in a bathroom full of steam every so often. I've never felt so helpless in all of my life. When I get sick, there's all sorts of remedies that I can use to feel better, but not so for a 3 month old.

Lately, Evan has been finding his voice. He's so cute with his cooing, but now he's learning to chuckle. While I was changing his outfit this week, I kissed and blew on his belly to see if he would react. It was then that I heard my 3 month old son laugh for the first time. I've been waiting for that moment and it was so precious. This was no ordinary laugh - it was a hearty chuckle along with that million-dollar smile!

There's something about the laugh of a baby that is comforting. No matter what kind of day you've had, the sound of that sweet baby just seems to make everything better.

After twelve weeks of maternity leave, my wife went back to work last week. This included working the entire weekend, which meant I would be taking care of Evan. For a man who has never been in charge of a baby, that's a scary thought! Would I be able to do everything the way his mommy has done it? Would he cry a lot? Would I be able to get him to stay on his sleep schedule? All kinds of questions were running through my head.

Monday was a milestone day for me and Amy as parents. It was Evan's first day at daycare. Amy is working part-time now, so he doesn't have to go to day care that often, but the whole idea of "handing him over" to someone else was very emotional. Actually, all of last weekend was emotional at our house. I was consoling my wife, reminding her that everything was "going to be okay." At the same time, I was glad that I did not have to be the one to drop him off at daycare because I would probably cry more than she did!

I've never been fond of having my picture taken, especially since gaining some weight over the past couple of years. Working in radio, though, it's hard to escape the flash of a camera. I'm always flattered when someone wants their picture taken with me. I just don't always like the finished product.

The day after Christmas 2006 was one I'll never forget. Amy and I were on our way home from visiting family in Alabama and the tire on our Honda Accord had a blowout on I-20. It was a very scary experience, but some nice DOT workers came to our rescue by helping us put on the spare and giving us an escort to the nearby Wal-Mart tire center.