This post is a light-hearted look at my first six months of being a parent. I’ve been reflecting about all sorts of things since our son recently turned six months old, and this inspired my recent post 6 things that I’ve learned in 6 months as a parent. This time, I’m looking back at some of the lighter moments.
Some of these are reflections that I have already mentioned on my Twitter feed or on the Dad’s The Way I Like It Facebook page. A fellow parent blogger, Ute Limacher Riebold (who blogs at Expat Since Birth), suggested a while ago that it’d be a good idea to record these experiences so as my wife and I could share it with our son when he’s older. I guess that’s the sort of thing this blog is going to provide (as long as I back it up!).
All of the thoughts below come from between when our son was three months old and when he recently turned six months old, and I’ve arranged them in chronological order starting from the things that date from when he was three or four months old. I hope that you enjoy reading them. Let me know if they remind you of any similar experiences that you’ve had!
1. Making silly noises to get our three month old son to smile is now one of my favourite hobbies, especially when it also stops him from crying.
2. Have cold and our 4 month old son has cried twice due to noise of my sneezes. Now trying to go to another room when I feel a sneeze coming.
3. I’ve used becoming a dad as an excuse for buying several Muppets DVDs. We’re currently watching The Muppets Take Manhattan and really enjoying it!
4. I’m glad that our car’s central locking is now fixed. The alarm started going off a few months ago when I was getting into our car outside outside a hospital maternity ward at 5am. Our son was about five months old by the time I got round to getting this sorted!
5. Thank goodness for YouTube and campsites with WiFi. So helpful when you’re struggling to put up a travel cot on your first family holiday! Here’s a link to the blog post where I talked about this holiday.
6. Got slightly excited about buying our five month old son his first ever toothbrush yesterday – is this normal parent behaviour?
7. Two highlights of today so far: brushing 5 month old son’s teeth for first time and watching our chicken jump in the air to catch flies.
8. When my wife and son were coming home from hospital three days after he was born, I put up some balloons in the front room along with some streamers and a home made welcome home banner. Just over five months on, they’re all still there! He reached the six and a half month mark before we took them down. I thought that we should have waited until we moved house but was unfortunately over-ruled.
9. Last night mistook the noise of a sheep going baa on a television nature programme for the sound of our five month old son crying. He’s was still fast asleep, phew!
10. Just fed my son some food for the first time. Not sure my wife was impressed when I looked at the sachet of apricot and banana porridge and asked ‘so do I just squirt it into his mouth then?’.
11. Our son, who is almost six months old, has discovered a new game. It involves picking up a toy or piece of paper, waving it about, dropping it on the floor and waiting for mummy or daddy to pick it up.
12. Our six month old son is definitely getting cheeky. He blew a raspberry last night when we asked him if it was time to go to bed.
13. May soon have to start wearing full waterproof clothing while bathing our six month old son in his little bath. He’s the one who does all the splashing, not me, before anyone asks.
14. Saw this picture (see above) in one of our son’s books. Thought it was quite a good likeness really.
15. Our son has started weaning recently. We’re still trying to persuade him that bits of carrot are something to eat and not something to just throw on the floor.
16. I’ve been enjoying watching our 6 month old son starting to eat solids. It’s mainly baby rice at the moment, hope we’ll soon be able to give him baby curry. Within minutes of tweeting the comment above, a Welsh vegan group replied with a link to a vegetarian curry recipe suitable for babies. I love it when this sort of thing happens on Twitter or Facebook!
17. Our son’s definitely improving two key skills at the moment: giving high fives and blowing raspberries. I’ve told him to make sure that he puts this on his CV.
18. Dear son, I know you’re only six months old but please remember clocks go back tonight & let us have extra hour in bed tomorrow. Thanks, Dad.
19. Six month old son ignored advice about clocks going back and having extra hour in bed, glad I didn’t stay up for Match of the Day last night.
20, I used the word moron several times when talking to our 6 month old son yesterday. Don’t worry folks, I talk to him in Welsh and moron means carrot!
After he grabbed the remote control recently, we’ve been trying extra hard to make sure we get out and about with our six month old son recently 🙂
21. Looks like I’m not getting a say in what we’re going to watch on television tonight! (see picture above)
22. Stroller we got for our son has a brake but no clutch or accelerator. I think that we might have to take it back to the shop.
What do you think of this post? Have you had any similar thoughts about being a parent? If so, feel free to share your views in the comments section below or on the ‘Dad’s The Way I Like It’ pages on Facebook or Google+.
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I’ve linked this post up with the ‘Something for the Weekend’ parent bloggers link-up hosted by Diary of the Dad and The Voice of Sarah Miles.
Dad's the way I like it 
Nov 12, 2013 @ 04:06:14
Funny admission about Muppets.
In regards to the noises, I think we are all thrilled to do something to make our kids smile even though that changes a bit as they get older.
Nov 13, 2013 @ 12:47:59
That’s so true about the satisfaction that can come from seeing a single smile – I love seeing my son smile when I get home from work in the evening.
Nov 13, 2013 @ 13:12:31
It’s a beautiful thing!
Nov 14, 2013 @ 01:30:25
I love #11! We called that game “gravity” and it’s a stage that lasts just a little too long in my mind. These are wonderful details that bring back lots of memories. Thank you for sharing them!
Nov 14, 2013 @ 20:49:59
Gravity is a great name for that game! I shouldn’t really complain about it too much as it’s the sort of thing that I did a lot when I was little apparently. Glad you enjoyed reading this post.
Nov 17, 2013 @ 23:56:40
Glad I stopped by! Totally agree about the awesomeness of being able to take the time to watch some awesome kid-appropriate movies. I probably wouldn’t often make the decision to sit down with Miyazaki or Pixar movies if it weren’t for being a parent, but I can admit that they’re works of art that I’d be the poorer for not experiencing.
Dec 08, 2013 @ 16:48:26
Thanks for sharing that, it’s so true about some of the kid movies that we probably wouldn’t have watched otherwise.
7 thoughts from my 7th month as a parent | Dad's the way I like it
Dec 09, 2013 @ 19:03:46
Dec 13, 2013 @ 21:42:21
Love 9 — our neighbors have goats, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard them at night and thought one of the kids were crying!
Dec 13, 2013 @ 21:45:25
Thanks for sharing that, glad to know that it’s not just me!
Dec 14, 2013 @ 00:50:21
Lol! Love this! And I totally get excited about things like buying 1st toothbrushes too. My daughter is starting school in Sept. and I’ll be the one taking pictures in the store as she buys her first backpack! (You still have a few years to go for that one!)
Dec 15, 2013 @ 17:11:25
Glad it’s not just me getting excited about buying toothbrushes! 🙂 It’s exciting just thinking about other milestones such as starting school, even if they’re a while away yet.
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I’d like to say that they start realising about the extra hour in bed, but they don’t. In fact, this time of year they suddenly insist bedtime is “when it’s dark” despite not going to bed at 5pm for the past few months. Thanks for linking up. #FamilyFriday
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