Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Hot and Cold

I've never had such a roller coaster of emotions until I became a parent. One minute you're playing on the couch with your kiddo, the next minute you're cleaning milk-barf off the microfiber. One moment I'm pleading with Alli to stop screaming bloody murder (as my mom used to call it) and the next she's laughing and giggling. You wake up an hour before your alarm goes off and smile because you know you have another hour to snooze... then the baby wakes up (and the smile quickly fades).

Hot then cold. Sad then happy. Up then down. Rinse. Repeat.

Just when you think you're getting into a good rhythm, she does something off the wall that makes you want to pull out your hair. You begin to question why you ever decided to become a parent in the first place. Then, just when you think you can't take it anymore, she does something cute that makes me smile the biggest proud-papa smile I've ever had. Kids just have that effect on you... and there isn't much you can do about it.

People ask me all the time how parenting is going. The best description I can give them is "The lows are pretty low, but the highs are so high." In the beginning, there is just enough good to outweigh the bad. It's just enough to make you reconsider giving your child up for adoption when you're awake at 3am for the fourth night in a row.

As Alli gets older (a whole 3.5 months now), the bad becomes less and the good becomes more. There's more hot than cold. And you can ask any Damn Yankee around these parts, we moved down here to be hot.

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