Numbers Game

On Dec. 16th of '11, I recall logging about 4 hours of sleep. That's because we just had our baby late that night. For the rest of that year and all of 2012 so far, I've been in this endless pursuit to catch up on sleep. It's as though the full nights sleep is 10 feet in front of me, but I'm sprinting toward it on a treadmill. 

Experienced parents say you never catch up (And they're always so happy to tell you. Almost like they're welcoming you to their side). I have found that by not anticipating catching up on sleep, it helps getting up in the morning easier. Progress.

That's where the numbers game starts, 0. 0 is the amount of sleep I've caught up on.

2 - The amount of times our child has fallen off a couch.

3 - The number of colds he has caught.

11 - Baby Einstein DVD's from the Library that are next to our TV.

5 - The amount of time - in minutes - Kicker can devote to a DVD now before he's distracted by something and walks away.

4 - The number of words I need to be an effective "Couch Parent". Here's how it works: sometimes I sit down with a good book or magazine. As Kicker wanders the home, instead of getting up, I just scream these four words in any order - Hey! No! Get! Good. 

Say he's screwing with the outlet in the wall. Rather than get up, I throw out, "Hey! Hey! No! Hey! Get! No! Hey! No! No!...............Good." Works about 5% of the time. Not a clever tactic.

1 million - close guess to the amount of diapers I've changed. Most of them full of yesterday's meal.

7 - How many days it takes us to watch a movie since we can't carve out 2 hours together.

300 - seconds it takes to get him into a car seat. 

And finally...

0 - again. But this time its the number of ways we would have done his first year different. It's been a trip. Can't wait for more.