Game Day Dad

The world of your pet and your baby will never be the same once that baby gets control of his or her legs. We’ve all seen it on America’s Funniest Home Videos but somehow it just doesn’t click until that first time they’re going head to head over the couch, a food bowl or just a random collision in the hallway. Dad be ready and start working on the scenarios where your pets world and your child’s world become one.

For us it took about 7 months. Our cats sniffed the baby a few times when we brought her own and then minded their own business. I’m not a cat person but I have to say our cats are good like that when it comes to our baby. However at around the 5-6 month mark our infant started getting better control over that little body. Scooting, crawling and now with the help of a walker she’s moving around with those little arms stretched out grabbing anything she can. Guess what the number one target is:

My thoughts are that we’ll have to let them collide. The baby won’t leave the cat alone and I don’t want the cat running from the baby all the time so I’ll have to eventually let the cat land a couple of blows to the head of the baby. It won’t hurt her because kitty doesn’t have claws but it’ll let her know to keep her hands off the kitty unless the kitty says ok.

My advice is to try and get an early detection on how your pet will do with toddlers and babies. We already knew this cat would be trouble because he’s slapped my niece and a couple of other toddlers already.

Seriously when people tell me this all the time I get the same feeling when someone tells me they finished a case of beer in 2 hours.   It sounds like an urban myth people use to scare you.   I’m here to tell you that for some reason small children love the car rides.   In fact my daughter just liked being carried around in the car seat.   It’s got to be along the same lines as riding a carnival ride but children infants like it.   So if you have a night where a bad turn of events lead to a baby that won’t sleep and you’re running out of options give it a shot.   Strap’em in and drive around the block a few times.   You might just get to sleep that night.

The above paragraph I wrote after about 2 months.   Here we are 6 months later and it’s as true as ever.   In fact my infant can be in a horrible mood and we start driving someplace and there’s a sudden silence.   I have no idea why or how but she falls out.   I’ll drive back to the house and carefully bring the baby carrier inside.   It’s amazing how babies work.

My baby like many loves to fall asleep in the car.  I haven’t looked it up yet but for some reason I’ve always heard that and it’s definitely true for mine.   Go driving and she falls asleep.  That’s not what I do when mom’s not looking.   What I do is carefully bring the car seat in the house, set it on the floor in her room and then let her take a nap there.   Otherwise the little sh*t wakes up and wants to play when she needs a nap!

Real quick thoughts on car seats.   When you go to purchase a new car seat for your baby I suggest you consider the weight.   For instance we purchased a full size seat instead of the smaller newborn seat.   My wife really wished we’d gotten the smaller seat to make carrying the girl around better.