But since it is a lovely Saturday morning and I did not travel for forensics, Ellery is relatively content in a high chair, and I have just a little bit of time before I need to start cleaning the house, I figure this would be an ideal time to post. Specifically on this whole "raising a human" thing.
Over the last few weeks, Christina and I have both been back to work and trading off on who takes Ellie to the babysitter in the morning. However, even though Christina has been back at her job, I'll be the first to admit that she has has taken on more work when it comes to Ellie. Christina is the one waking up at 3:00 a.m. to feed her when she's hungry. She's also the one taking care of her when I'm gone Tuesday and Thursday evenings for forensics practices as well as Fridays and Saturdays when we're at meets. Heck, even when I'm the one taking care of her, usually it's so that Christina can do something like, oh I don't know, EAT A MEAL.
I'm definitely blessed to have Christina for a wife. She does all this and more and she loves being a mom.
Even with my limited time with Ellery, I've definitely seen a difference in how Christina and I handle her. (Is "handle" a good word to use for raising a baby? Sounds like Ellie is a stick shift or something)
Probably a prime example would be in the "games" we'll play with her. Christina will interact with her and will work to get others to interact with her as well. Like the dogs. Peety, for the record, is not a fan of being "ridden" by Ellery. But he does like to lick her face. She doesn't seem to mind it, either.
But Christina will, by and large, interact with Ellie on almost a spiritual level. Our baby is perfect, and Christina will take moments to appreciate Ellery's perfectness.
Me? Well, Ellie and I play "crazy driver."
Ellie will lay back against my knees and I hold her hands so that she can "buckle her seat belt," "turn on the car," "grip the steering wheel," before simulating driving 120 mph down a freeway. Ellie always "crashes" the car, but thankfully she has an ejector seat so she can "parachute down."
Her eyes usually get intensely big whenever we play.
Sometimes we'll play "beat box," where I'll make a hip-hop beat and have Ellie bust out some dance moves.
Sometimes we'll play "sports fan" where I teach Ellie how to cheer OU.
And about a week after she was born I made a video of her on her belly set to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger." I called it "Eller-eye of the Tiger."
So we've done some pretty dorky stuff. Not that Christina hasn't done her share of dorky stuff (she hums "The Imperial March" to her sometimes). But it is interesting just to see how the things we do seem to compliment each other. I sometimes feel like I have to make the most of the time I have with Ellery because the next evening I may not be home until 11:00 p.m. So my way of taking advantage of that is to play some of these high-energy "games" with her. But she also needs these quiet moments with both of us, and Christina is the best when it comes to calming her down or getting her to feel secure and sleep.
Are we doing it right? I think so. There are certainly "wrong" ways to raise a human, but as long as we just "play" crazy driver and don't actually drive crazy, I'd say we're ok.
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