Upside Down

From almost the moment Declan was born, all the new dads we knew seemed to give the same advice: the baby gets a lot more interactive when they are around six months old. Rich, being the great dad he is, has put an enormous amount of effort into caring for and bonding with Declan these past few months, but, in the end, the truth is that men don't have the same instinctual baby need that women have.

Obviously, there is major biology at work here because I felt connected and bonded to Declan almost instantly and was probably immune to anyone else's struggles to do the same. So far, it's all been about survival. But, in the last few weeks (because everything changes every week it seems) Rich has really found his bonding niche. He makes Declan laugh by rubbing his little feet against his head and was so excited when he tried to hold Declan upside down and Declan didn't cry. In fact, they both love it now, and it seems like Rich is constantly toting Declan around the house upside down or slung over his shoulder. Declan's face is usually red, but elated, and I can see the budding of a new relationship. It seems like every chance Rich gets, he's trying new methods to entertain Declan, and I know they both love it.

Declan is constantly changing, and this morning was a great example of it. I had a hard night sleeping last night, Rich watched Predator before we went to bed and we (stupidly) ended up having a conversation about what would happen if Predator came to our house. Cue horror movie music. Plus, our garage door was open when we got home from Topeka, and at 2:00 am it occurred to me that a killer could be hiding upstairs waiting for us to go to bed. Rich confidently declared that if any killer was there, he'd have done the deed already and that I should go to sleep. Silly me, I wasn't at all knowledgable about the fictional killer's plan. But Rich is used to my fear of the dark.

Anyway, Rich left at about 5:20 for the airport this morning, right about the same time I pulled Declan into bed to nurse. Usually he falls right asleep and we both get a few good hours, but this morning, Declan was chipper and playful. He was "playing" until 6:00 and keeping me awake right along with him. Needless to say after fearing Predator all night, I was exausted. I heard Declan rustling around around 7:00 but refused to wake up, and I thought he went back to sleep until I heard a loud grunt. I opened my eyes to see Declan, fully awake, staring straight into my eyes, grunting. When he saw that he'd woken me up, he smiled. I big, satisfied grin. Although I was extremely exhausted, I gave in and smiled right back, so proud that he'd come up with a way to wake me up and happy that he wanted to spend time with me.

Oh yeah, and Declan can sit up now, as the picture shows. Like I said, it's always changing.