Guys Night

Tonight was guys night. What that means is this, mom was working and dad has Gabriel. Here are my thoughts and observations.

Gabriel's tongue is obviously hurting. He bit it pretty hard this morning while at a play group that he is a part of. He held it, touched it, and stuck it out all night. The play group was fun for him, I caught a little of the last bit of it when I picked Pam and Gabriel up. I got a kick out of the mom that didn't miss the opportunity to tell us how smart her kid was. It was funny though, because as she was telling us all about how her little girl walked at 8 months and can learn baby sign language in the blink of an eye and prove Einsteins theory of relativity, Gabriel saw another mom handing out free Gerber Puffs and pushed Mrs. Proud Mom's little girl on her butt so he could be first in line. HAH! Of course, like good parents, we scolded Gabriel, but hey, the kid was hungry, if you can't run with the big dawgs go back to the science lab. Turns out all that ruff housing that I can finally do with my son is paying off. He's pretty smart too.

Gabriel was fussy so we went on a walk to see mommy at Tro Sno. He was asleep in less than a block of walking. He was just out of sorts. He slept for a good half hour, mind you this was at 7:00 at night. That is one and one-half hour before his bed time. He woke up crabby so we walked home. Then I fed him supper as he wined and held his tongue. I felt bad for him. Then I pulled out the happy guns (happy guns are things or something that is a surefire Gabriel favorite). I stripped him down and we took a bath for about 1/2 an hour. He would live in the tub if he could. He was so excited. If you have forgotten why baths are fun, take a bath with Gabriel and he will remind you. We practiced our butterfly stroke and worked on the back stroke as well. The picture of Michael Phelps on this week's Sports Illustrated is cool and all with 8 heavy gold medals around his neck, but Gabriel is already got the flip turn down. Nine golds will be nothing for him.

After the bath we got dressed and did crawling laps around the coffee table. Me chasing him and him laughing. After a couple of minutes of that he got fussy again and wanted to be held. I took him into his room and read him a couple books. He was tired but not even close to sleeping. I decided I'd put him in his crib anyway and walked out of the room. Then I listened to him for fifteen minutes sing himself to sleep. He didn't cry even a little. He wanted to go to sleep so he laid there and sang to himself.

I love being a dad. I LOVE it. When I showed up to play group to pick them up this morning he saw me from a distance, got a HUGE grin and just gave a great guffaw. He was excited to see me. There is nothing in this world that can trigger that sort of inward joy. I have it made in the shade. Between Pam and Gabriel, I have everything. God is good.

By the way, I've talked a lot about Gabriel in this blog. That is because it is titled guys night. Pam is a girl. However, I can say this. I miss her terribly right now and I can't wait for guys night to be over and parents night to begin.