Where Did Daddy Go?

Last week held an interesting event for our little man that I didn't end up finding out about until Friday afternoon.  It was Wednesday afternoon and I had a dentist appointment I had to go to around 5.   As that time is nearing our son's bedtime, he isn't always in the best of moods, especially if you bring him out somewhere.  So instead of attempting to bring him to the dentist's office with me, I asked my mom to come up and watch him for a little while so I could get my teeth cleaned in peace.  With our son being her first grandson, she obviously had no problem whatsoever.  When she got up to our house, little man was just starting to stir from one of his daily naps.  So soon after my mom got there, I went and got him, changed his diaper, and got him ready to be fed.  No issues to speak of before I left.   However, that all changed after I left the house.  My mom had just started feeding him when I was walking out the door to go the dentist and he seemed perfectly fine, happy and hungry.  About five minutes after I left, so the story goes, he started looking around for me.  My mother said that he started looking towards the kitchen where he had seen me last, trying to find where I was.  It didn't take him long to realize that I wasn't there and he started freaking out and screaming at the top of his lungs.  My mom had to stop feeding him and walk him around for 5-10 minutes till he calmed down and was able to eat again.  After he calmed down and started eating again, there were no more issues.  It was simply the fact that I had left, he couldn't find me, and wanted to know where I was. 

Obviously most of this is speculation as to why he freaked out, but if you look at the series of events, his actions and reactions, it seems pretty obvious that it was my leaving the house that set off this traumatic event.  My mother was astonished because she thought that this type of reaction didn't happen till much later.  Other more experienced parents have said the same thing, this isn't supposed to happen at six months old.  Yet, nevertheless, it happened.  My wife even looked it up in the "What to Expect" book and the only mention of it is in the 12th month, and even there, it receives only minor attention.  So what does this mean?  I don't know.   Obviously I would like to think that our son is super smart, but he is only 6 months and my thoughts are probably just a projection of what I would like him to become.  Realistically, it is more probable that he is merely making mental connections sooner than expected.  At his age, it is supposed to be "out of sight, out of mind", but perhaps he has gotten to the point of "out of sight, let me freak out".  It might have had something to do with the fact that I had watched him all day and after his nap, he saw me briefly and then he didn't.  To us, it is all theorizing.  We have no way of knowing what is going on in that little brain of his and at this point, he doesn't have the verbal acuity to tell us.  It is fascinating how the brain works and it would be wonderful to understand a babies brain even more, what is going on in there, the connections that are being made, and what he is thinking about. 

Regardless, it was fascinating to hear about this little development in our little man.  He doesn't have an issue when I drop him off at day care, probably because he has been going there for almost three months now so he is used to that routine and the people he sees there.  It seems that he has gotten used to being dropped off in the morning knowing that he will be picked up later in the day.  The afternoon, however, is a different issue as last Wednesday was an anomaly.  In a way, I am almost glad that he is getting this out of the way early.  I can only hope that since he is reacting the way he is now to me leaving we will have fewer issues to deal with when dropping him off at school or anything else later on.  I know I am probably getting my hopes up and this may be something that comes back to haunt us at a later date and time, but you never know.  In any case, this week my mother has off from work and will be watching our son today, Thursday and Friday.  I am sure that he will have no problems, especially since she will be coming over in the morning to watch him and not in the afternoon when he is more emotionally vulnerable and unstable.  We shall see how the rest of this week goes, but as usual, we will take it one day at a time and I am sure that he will do what he does best, surprise us with something new at every turn. 

Christian Politicians?

When we look at politicians in the United States and hear their claim of being Christians, do we believe them?  Do any politicians that we currently have actually act as Christians?  Many politicians in fact claim that they belong to some form of Christianity, not all by any means, but a good number of them.  (Before I go any further, let me state that the ideas I am presenting today are not all mine, but they intrigued me when I heard them and felt I had to share and build off of them.)  I don't believe that many of the "supposed" Christian politicians that we have actually act out their beliefs.  In order to understand this, we must first look at what it means to be a Christian, to claim to hold certain beliefs.  In a nutshell, to be a Christian is to act out of love towards others, to not disparage or in any way degrade others or their image, to not act violently either verbally, emotionally, or physically in any way.   After reading that and now looking at our current politicians in office who claim to be Christians, does what they say hold true?  I would have to argue that in many cases, it does not.  Many politicians these days are solely concerned with their own well being, not that of others, and as such act in ways that belie their claims of being Christian.  Some may claim to hold their constituents concerns at the forefront of their agenda, but do they really, or are they just trumpeting that as a means to get re-elected and win favor amongst others?  To me, if a politician is going to claim to be a Christian of some sort, than they should either act as a Christian or leave their religious beliefs at home. 

Considering all that has gone on this year from budgetary issues to the upcoming presidential election, we have much to look at in regards to politicians and their behaviour.  Lets look first at the whole budget debacle that took place beginning last summer and to a certain extent, continues to this day.  In the midst of the whole mess, Christian politicians were not only acting childish, but they were acting in ways that sought to degrade the image of their fellow politicians who happened to be from a different political party, either Democrat or Republican.  Their bickering and name calling went so far as to make them look as they had regressed back to kindergarten and begged the question as to whether they needed a teacher to educate them on proper manners.  Not only were they acting childish, but they were acting as if they had no religious beliefs.  They didn't even attempt to be polite or to act out of love towards one another.  Despite their actions, they continued to make the claim that in fact, some of them were Christian.  Really?  I didn't see it then and I don't see it now.  Lets move on to a bigger show, the bid for the nomination to run for president in the Republican party.  When was the last time anyone saw one of the presidential hopefuls act with a Christian attitude towards another from their own Republican party.  I personally can't think of one.  Just for example, lets look at Mitt Romney, a "Christian".  Given the option, he would be the first to throw any of his opponents under the bus to ensure that he wins the opportunity to run for president.  From mud slinging to name calling to outright lying, he will do whatever it takes to ensure that he gets to run against Obama for the presidency.  A "Christian"?  Not by a long shot judging by his words and actions. 

So why even bring this whole issue up of politicians acting like Christians?  Well, if you are going to claim to hold certain beliefs, I believe that you should at least make the attempt to stick to those beliefs and live up to them.  Is it easy to do?  Not by any means, especially when someone across the aisle or your opponent starts berating you, degrading you, and by any means necessary stripping away your personal character.  When someone acts out against you, either verbally, emotionally, or physically, it is much easier to retaliate than it is to take it and still act out of love in return.  In fact, it could be the hardest thing we ever attempt to do.  But if we are to make the claim of being "Christian", of holding certain beliefs true to our hearts, than we should do everything in our power to act as "Christians".   I find it hard myself, especially in a society that holds violence and retaliation as sacrosanct, to always act as a "Christian".  My first reaction is usually to make the other person pay, to hold them accountable by whatever means, and put myself first.  But as a Christian, that is not what we are called to do.  If our politicians who claim to be "Christians" actually acted as such, they might actually attract more involvement in the political process.  Part of the reason that I find I can't watch any debates or listen to politicians is because of the way they act towards others.  I despise the name calling, the degradation, the mud slinging.  Most of all, I despise the fact that they don't even make the attempt to act out of love towards one another.  Their whole concern is with getting elected or re-elected, and their beliefs do not matter at all.  I could go on and on about this, how it pertains to many different areas, but I won't.  Lets simply start, if you are a Christian, to act out of love towards one another, to attempt to sympathize with others, to hold ourselves to a higher standard.  Then maybe, others will change around us.  Its a hope, maybe a small one, but a hope nonetheless. 

Shadows and Feeding

To set the record straight, no I don't feed our son in dark shadows.  However, he has started to learn how to hold his own bottle and in regards to shadows, he is fascinated by them and tries to grab them when they are on the floor.  Both of these things started yesterday as I watched him throughout the day.  His fascination with shadows may have been present previously, but it wasn't until yesterday when we were laying on the floor with the early morning sun beaming through a window that I really discovered this about him.  As he was on his belly, working on figuring out how to crawl, I saw him grabbing at the rug, hitting it and scratching it.  Curious about what he was grabbing at, I held out my fingers so they cast a shadow in front of him and walked my finger shadows back and forth.  Sure enough, he followed the shadow on the floor back and forth reaching to and fro and attempting to grab the illusory fingers.  He has yet to figure out that it is my fingers in the air that are causing the shadows, although in an attempt to show him the connection, as I was walking my fingers back and forth, I would fly them in to his hand along with the shadow.  Still no connection though.  All in due time.  I personally find it fascinating that shadows have such an appeal to him, but then again, it is something new that he has had relatively little exposure to in such a direct fashion, and we all now how babies love anything new around them.  He even tried to taste the shadows once, but found the rug instead and kept on tasting that.

After he was done on the floor, it was time for his morning brunch.  As is usually the case, I lay him in his boppy on the couch next to me and held the bottle for him.  Yesterday he seemed to be overly fidgety when I was feeding him however and it was taking quite a while to get him to eat from his bottle.  It wasn't that he was fussy, he was just trying to move constantly.  He would swipe at the bottle, knocking it out of his mouth.  He would push off the back of the couch with his legs all while twisting back and forth and again, force the bottle from his mouth.  After about 20 minutes of this and only half a bottle gone, I decided to start teaching him how to hold his own bottle.  So as he placed his hands on the bottle as he occasionally does, I took my hand away.  The bottle stayed there for a few seconds till he moved one of his hands and it fell.  I lifted the bottle slightly off of his chest so he could grab it with his hands.  I didn't, however, lift the bottle up so he could get any milk, I let him figure that part out himself.  And he did.  It wasn't immediate, but it got to the point where if the bottle simply fell on his chest, he would grab it himself and lift it up to his lips.  Occasionally, his hands would slip, sending the bottle soaring onto the floor or the couch around him, but that mostly happened near the end as he was slipping into what we call his "milk coma".  Obviously when that happened, I picked up the bottle for him and handed it back.  Regardless, I didn't know if he would figure out how to hold the bottle correctly and feed himself, but he did.  He is definitely not to the point yet where I can just have him feed himself entirely, but it is a lot easier now that he is in partly in charge of getting the milk from the bottle into his mouth. 

So those were the two big occurrences yesterday, just after I said that he wasn't making any enormous strides.  I guess it just goes to show that everything happens according to his schedule and no one else's.  The end of the day was fantastic.  After my wife got home from work, we set our little man on the floor for some more tummy time.  It seems at this point, he has mostly lost his fascination with rolling and is intent on figuring out how to crawl.  That isn't to say that he doesn't roll anymore, it is just that the majority of his effort is spent on forward movement, which it seemed like he almost got yesterday.  But anyway, back to him on the floor.  While he was down there, we would each take turns tickling him and I must say, he had us both cracking up as well.  His laugh is just so precious and infectious that you can't help but laugh along with him.  I couldn't even begin to describe it, you would just have to hear it yourself.  But I will try a little description.  It starts almost as a grunt, morphing into a little giggle which occasionally turns high pitched, and then on occasion he will get out a little hiccup laugh or two.  Like I said, the description doesn't do it justice, but I had to try.  Overall, though, yesterday was a wonderful day.  He was in good spirits for the most part, took his 2.5 hours worth of naps, and whatever we were doing, he was fascinated by it.  Next week I will only be watching him for one day instead of two and it will probably be that way from here on out.  I will miss the two days, but will cherish the one that I have alone with my little man.