Check out the cute vid a friend put together on her iPhone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tChjFqsKhQs

Thanks Kimberly - this is awesome. 

The coolest baby on the block

Or at least that's what I think. 

1.  Thanks goes out to Marissa and Jason for this sweet undershirt pick-up.  I mean, how awesome is this?  RUN DMC.  Do our friends know me or what?!?  "Mary Mary... why ya buggin!"  I am getting so much tread out of this undershirt as long as he fits it... you just can't imagine.

2.  Updates... updates...  People probably want to hear less about me and more about Dev.  C'mon!  Cute right?

Dev's grabbing his feet.   That generally means he's about one pendulum swing from rocking himself into the upright sitting position.  And this also means his next step is a job.  He's got to start earning his keep.  No.  Just a little humor.  He can get a job next month.

Next steps should be crawling.  But I'm starting to think there's a good chance Devin is going to skip this stage. He's got crazy strong legs.  With a little bit more balance... he should be pulling himself up and grabbing onto objects. 

I'm presently writing this at the end of week 3 and think this is as good as time as any to drop a little science on everyone who thought me taking over was a little insane.  Yes.  You are 100% right.  God-bless the mommy's of this world.  I had no idea what it is you go through day-in and day-out.  SOMEONE REALLY APPRECIATES YOU!  Thank you Mom.  And thank you too Mom2 (Lalitha).

It sometimes feels like I'm packing 9 days of full-time work into a 7 day week, that happens to work on a 36 hour time clock.  Make sense?  It does to me.  But I'm sleep deprived. 

Sleeping in cycles.  Loosing weight.  Clearly not on a vacation. 

But he makes every second worth it.  I mean... look at this boy.  Soooooooooooo cute!

A tough day at the office

FYI - This is 7:06 pm.  Transition week has been rough on us all. 

Day 1. Yah! We're still here!

For those who said... "Hey Rob - enjoy your vacation!"  You can now officially bite me.  Seriously.  Bite me.  Here's a breakdown of today's itenerary.

3:00 am:  Dev wakes up for a night time feed.  Mom takes care of the feed.  God bless her!
3:30 am:  Dev decides he doesn't need anymore sleep.  So him and I go downstairs and watch an episode of Top Gear.  I pray he will one day own an Italian super-car.  I'm thinking Bugatti Veyron.
4:10 am:  Finally falls back to sleep.  Luckily - me too.
6:40 am:  Ash gets up for work.  She is clearly not a ninja.  I hear every sound eminating from her washroom.  Ugggghhhhhhh.
7:40 am:  Dev's up.  Yeaaaaaaaahhhh.  Change diaper.  Change clothes.  Feed bottle and thus begins the days entertainment (oh ya - that would be me!)
9:30 to 10:05 am:  Dev naps.  Daddy showers.
11:05 am:  Next feeding.  Continue to entertain little man till his next nap.
12:30 pm:  First poop of the day.  Oh Goody.  Change and then we go for a walk.
1:10 to 1:40 pm:  Passes out somewhere on the hour long walk.
2:00 pm:  Poop2.  Babies should poop more, no?
2:40 pm:  Bottle again.  Put on a puppet show.  As soon as he crawls I'm building a fort in our living room.
3:30 pm:  Nap!  THANK GOD!  Seriously... this was insane.  Guess Dev wasn't used to having me around 24x7, so all day was play time. I was able to sneak in an hour nap there myself.  But was up by 5:00.
5:00 pm:  Start dinner.
5:45 pm:  MOMMY RETURNS!  And Dev wakes up.  Long nap, but the poor little guy needed it.
6:00 pm:  Feeding - mommy.
7:50 to 9:00 pm:  Naps on mommy.  I really should have gotten a pic.  Sooooo cute.  Definitely next time.
9:00 pm:  Bath time.
9:50 pm:  Bottle.
11:20 pm:  Dev is down for the night.  Ok, till 3:00 am-ish anyway. 

So there you have it.  Its about 11:45 pm right now and I felt compelled to get a post up on my first day of my new job.  And that's exactly what this is.  It's a new job.  An amazingly fulfilling job... but it has even greater risks and rewards than my paying one.  Bad decision there means boss is unhappy.  Bad decision here means... let's just say I'm sticking to good decision making.

An individual may only get a chance like this once in their lifetime.  I'm going to make sure I get to expereince every last second of it.

Vacation my ass people.  ;)

Thankfully mommy came home today and did not run away... sadly... no 6 pack of beer.  Fingers are still crossed.

Hugs and kisses,
Rob

Here comes the 2010 Mr. Mom.

In an effort to make this post a bit more interesting... I'm going to put this out there. 

The betting pool is now open.  Huh?  Oh ya!  The pool is open.  How many diapers do you think I'm going to change before I return to work in 2011?  If you didn't know already, I am officially starting my Parental Leave as of 12:00:01am Saturday, August 14th.

Why you might ask?  And thus spawns the title of this post.  Asha goes back to work Monday and Mr. Mom takes over.  Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?  No jokes!  It's all me baby... baby.

Perhaps Michael Keaton did it right?  He was forced into the whole stay at home, take care of the kids, Mr. Mom thing.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  Mr. Mom... Movie... 1983 comedy... When the auto factory he works for in Detroit is taken over by the Japanese... and he gets laid off in that quintessential 80's recession fashion.  Oh booo hooo.  Poor is me.  I'll find a job faster than my wife can.  Blah blah blah.  Then Teri Garr (the mom) goes back to work in the corporate world of advertising... I think.  And good ol' Michael Keaton... well he gets to take care of the kids.  But not by choice!  I have a choice.

This is my short-term future.   Feed, entertain, poop, sleep.  Feed, entertain, poop, sleep.  If that was me - I would simply say 'Sweeeeeet!'  But its not.  So bring on the baby!

More frighteningly is that this is Devin's future for the next 20 weeks or so.  OUCH - right?  Dev and Dad.  Dad and Dev.  He's stuck with me!  The removal of the awesome mommy saftey net is happening and we're going solo. 

Not gonna lie.  I have no idea what I'm doing.  Not even going to pretend I actually have a clue how to raise Devin without Asha's incredible naturing and parenting. 

Asha.  Now she knows what she's doing.  Watching Asha and Devin together is like watching ballet dancers dance an elaborate allegro.  One completely in tune with the other's moves, queues and patterns.

Insert Fumblina and an akward crashing sound as the entire ballet set falls to pieces.  Yes - that would be me.  But Dev and I will persevere.  As parents we have the greatest child on Earth.  He makes it easy.  I'm pretty sure I can do this. 

A number of my co-workers have been saying - "have a great vacation" - like I'm going to sunny Cuba and staying at an all inclusive resport!?!  People!  I'm going to be in Milton.  At home.  With my son.  24 X 7. 

This isn't a vacation!  Ok - maybe its a bit of a vacation.  ;)

Goodbye Government.. see ya in 2011.

CUTEST BABY EVER!

First steps... ok... well kinda baby steps

We had an awesome visit with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Sio and cousins Parker and Paige on Saturday.  Uncle Jeff decided it was time to start walking. 

I think its time for him to get a job.  Baby steps I guess.  Baby steps.

Not bad for three and a half months right?

Now try to imagine him at 2 years.  DAMN!  Look out Usian Bolt!

Is there such a thing as a cool lullabye?

Ok. This may be the coolest thing to happen to children's music since the invention of music itself. Move over Disney! Get outta the way Sounds of Nature! Bite me Mozart! Die Wiggles! Seriously... die.

One of my many fears in bringing a child into this world is my inability to listen to children's music. It's horrible. And I know Ash agrees. Don't get me wrong, I know where the creators and producers of it are going. Its simple, its repetitive, its basic, its "fun". Its designed to stimulate and encourage growth within the child and assist them in cognitive learning and vocal playback development. Hell - just saying that makes me want to listen to the crap. Perhaps there's still a fighting chance for my growth and development too. ;)

That said... to me it's like finger nails being run down a chalk board. Let's face it, it just sounds GOD-AWFUL! Boop, beep, click, rattle, boom, pow, click, zing, ahhhhhhh, errrrrrrrrr, GRRRRRRRR!

So there I was last month perusing the Inter-web for childrens lullabye's. I've read the importance of babies having music / white noise / sounds of nature played for them to lull them to sleep. It works. I've seen it in action with my neice and nephew. Oh how music can soothe the savage beast.

Back to the Inter-web... Needless to say, I found a tonne of stuff. Both good and bad. Really bad.

There were cd's offered by every Tom, Dick and Harry who had access to a flute and thought they could easily make a buck off of a children's CD. FYI - 99% of these people should be shot. Don't quit your day job jerk-face.

There was "The Sounds of The Grand Canyon". I say huh? "Sounds by the Sea". Great. Nothing will soothe your child like the sounds of a squawking seagull or the cling-clanging of a water buoy! Genious!

Would it and could it be possible to raise a happy and healthy baby, while at the same time preserving any last chance at my musical sanity? I feared the answer was no. Devin would have to grow up listening to weird and wretched tunes of yester-years gone by.

"The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round. 'Round and round." Kill me now.

But yes. Yes it would be possible! Because then I found this.

Have you ever heard of Rock-a-bye Baby? No? I'm not talking about the good ole' - Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top... blah blah blah. I'm talking about ROCK-A-BYE BABY - BABY!

If you are a parent, then you have to click this link. ROCK-A-BYE BABY Trust me! YOU HAVE TO CLICK THIS LINK! Just do it! Then click on the pink album.... it's frickin' Journey! Jounrey!

Someone out there totally gets me. And God bless them! Everything from Kayne West to U2 to ACDC to The Rolling Stones! All done as nursery rhymes / lullabyes. C'mon! Too awesome!

Thus far, I've managed to "acquire" 32 albums and still counting. Devin - you can thank Daddy later. Perhaps when we're singing a lullabye to Coldplay's Clocks kiddo or Bob Marley's You Could Be Loved.

So one last plug for the company. www.rockabyebabymusic.com Thank you! Thank you so much!

FYI - had to insert a pic. Our kid rocks. Devin hugging Blue Bear. Awesome pic honey. Man my kid is cute.