"Waiter..."

“Waiter…”

Time for my monthly post about the lighter side of being a parent. This post is a sequel to 7 thoughts from my 7 month as a parent and 8 thoughts from my 8th month as a parent. I can’t guarantee as many laughs as Anchorman 2, but I hope that you enjoy reading it all the same.

1. In my post 7 Thoughts from my 7th month as a parent, I mentioned that our son’s habit of chewing a plastic duck in the bath was a cause for concern given that we’re raising him as a vegetarian. He now prefers to chew wash cloths instead, which is kind of reassuring to us. As I mentioned in another previous post, I bought 50 of these on eBay (for a mere £15!) before he was born. I think that this was definitely not excessive given that every bath now requires two of them – one for him to play with and one for us to use to wash him.

2. In the post 7 thoughts from my 7th month as a parent, I mentioned that our son sometimes prefers playing with beer mats rather than plastic toys when we’re out out a restaurant. I was thinking of sneaking in a pub to pick up a couple of beer mats and wrapping them up for him as a Christmas present. Beer mats and wrapping paper, two things that he’d love to wave about. What more could he possible want?

"I wonder if there will be some beer mats for me to play with inside this..."

“I wonder if there will be some beer mats for me to play with inside this…”

3. Son had a bit of a howl in the car while we were stuck in a bit of a traffic jam in the car park. I managed to momentarily soothe him by singing along to Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ on the radio. This was a big moment in my life. One of my primary school teachers once told me to stand near the back and not sing too loudly when our class was practicing for an assembly where we were going to perform in front of the whole school.

4. Was going round supermarket with son in a sling today, gently swaying him about to get to sleep. After he fell asleep, I ended up briefly pushing the trolley back and forth in one aisle until I remembered he was in the sling. Does this sort of thing happen to anyone else?

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5. Our son’s recently been leaving one of his picture books open on a page with pictures labelled ‘brother’ and ‘sister’. Wonder if he’s trying to drop a hint.

6. The excitement, the anticipation, the energy, the desire to get up and play rather than sleep… A lot of people associate these things with how young children approach Christmas. However, they also reflect what seems to go through our son’s mind between 4.30am and 6am a lot of mornings. Anyway, we should really be thankful that he generally wakes up babbling and wriggling around rather than crying.

7. This month, we have learnt that the word ‘tapas’ makes our son laugh. We’re not sure why this is, but it sounds like a good excuse to go out to a really good local tapas restaurant a bit more. As we’re doing baby-led weaning, all the vegetables and fruit that come with the tapas at our local place mean that he can enjoy the food there too!

"Dad, you're not going to use this photo to embarrass me in front of my friends when I'm older are you?"

“Dad, you’re not going to use this photo to embarrass me in front of my friends when I’m older are you?”

8. Becoming a parent has certainly lowered my inhibitions. I recently sang What Does the Fox Say while going round supermarket with son. I think that I certainly deserved some extra loyalty card points from the supermarket for this, especially as my son was wearing a really cute reindeer baby grow at the time.

9. I’ve really enjoyed blogging and seeing that people have been reading and commenting on this blog. I was delighted to recently be nominated in the ‘Best Newcomer’ category of the Love All Dads awards for UK dad bloggers. To vote for Dad’s the Way I Like It, all it takes is a click on this link and then a click on the name of my blog on the shortlist. Since writing this post, voting has closed. To see the results, click here.

Vote for ‘Dad’s the Way I Like It’!

What do you think of this post and what do you remember from your first year as a parent? Please 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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