La vie avec bebe

[orichalcum]

Shopping, before baby:
1. Grab wallet and keys.
2. Put on shoes and coat.
3. Crate dog.
4. Walk out door.

Shopping, post baby:
1. Change baby's diaper.
2. Dress baby in multiple layers, including hat, coat, and shoes.
3. Put baby in stroller.
4. Try to find wallet and keys, spend 15 minutes searching before remembering that you hid them from the baby. Eventually find them.
5. Locate shoes and coat, also moved around by the baby.
6. Replace baby's hat and shoes, which he has kicked off while you looked for the wallet and keys. Rescue hat from dog.
7. Crate dog.
8. Open door with one hand, stick foot in door to keep it open, roll stroller out without rolling over foot, close door.

Chuck is growing on me. I hope there's no Writer's Strike.

Comments

[feir-fireb.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm with you on the chaos, though the dynamics of two kids are a bit different from kid+dog. Just wait until he's old enough to find things you've hidden and climb up to where you thought they ought to be while you're not looking.

And one kid can effectively undo an hour's worth of cleaning in 10-20 minutes if he or she feels like it. With two kids, there's no delay whatsoever.

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

Ah, such a vivid description of why we are living la vie sans bebe! :) But le bebe is adorable (as is le chien), so there is that!

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Oh, the adorability helps a lot, but yes, there are definite pros and cons.

[marginaleye.livejournal.com]

At some point, shopping will consist of:

1. hand the kid a wad of cash, a shopping list, and the car keys
2. make a cup of tea, relax, and read a book
3. wait for the kid to return with the purchases.

So, yes, there's massive front-loading inconvenience, but at some point it will pay off (I, on the other hand, will be shuffling baldly and myopically through the supermarket until the day I drop).

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

In this day and age, I suspect it will be, "Hey, kid, go to 1-Click on Amazon and get us X, Y, and Z." :)

[cookie107.livejournal.com]

You forgot the snack/drink packing part of getting ready. Now that Sean can say some words, he will yell things like "Food Please!" or "Milk milk milk!" at the top of his lungs in a store. It does not matter if we just ate at home and are only running in to get one thing. Oh--and at 18 months he can take off the pants, and can almost unzip and get his coat off too--see your future?

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the forecast. ;) Luckily, I mostly take Mac to places where they offer free samples, so he focuses on those. The deli counter is always a hazard, though, he points at the glass and wants _everything._ It's there, after all, and he hasn't tried it before, mostly!

Mac can take off his pants but not when he's already fastened in the stroller; hence my order of events.

[cookie107.livejournal.com]

Free samples are a wonderful thing. I suspect part of Sean's motivation in learning the word "please" is to be able to look adorable and convince the deli counter guy to give him slices of not just what I'm buying, but of what they've cutting on another slicer for someone else. He's even gotten the person working back in the bakery (who doesn't really deal with customers, but is just working in a visible area behind a display counter) to give him cookies fresh out of the oven. This is our local Shaw's--a big chain grocery store, not some small shop.