Monday, September 29, 2014

Raising a child

When I started this blog it was because I wanted to document what it's like to raise a baby and continue to train as much as I do and how I manage the 2.  Over the course of almost 2 years, I think I have possibly forgotten a lot of writing about the raising a child part.  It's so easy to write about training and what I'm trying to accomplish and how I've either been successful or not.  Those are documented things.  However, I haven't been writing that much about Riley and how he has influenced my life.

Outside of the obvious, he's changed my life for the better, he's the most important thing in my life, and everything a parent should say, etc.  Riley has also taught me a lot over the past 21 months.

-He has taught me that it's so easy to laugh at almost anything.  The wife and I are really lucky. Riley is such an easy baby.  Very rarely do we experience the typical terror baby (which is also why we don't want to mess it up and try for a second soon).  So it is very easy to look at Riley and laugh at almost everything he does.  He is so good and playful that even if he does something bad, he gives this face and you just have to laugh at him.  Even in his devilish ways, laughing at him is so easy.

-Schedules are good.  Yes, we all know schedules are supposed to be followed, but how many of us actually do this?  Since about 3 months, Riley has been on a schedule for most things. Naps, food, playtime, bedtime, etc. What we find is that the more he follows this schedule, the better acclimated he is at everything else.  What this also does is allow the wife and I to be on a regular schedules ourselves.  We know how we can build our days, workouts, plans, and everything else around his schedule.  This makes our lives so much easier.  Yes, we get the comments of how "structured" we are, but we also get the comments on how good Riley is, so I'll take the structured comments with how great of a baby he is.  I'll also take knowing when I can go for a long run vs. short intense run because of timing issues.  This helps me plan my training tremendously.

-Grandparents mean well, but.....I'll just leave it at that.  Riley has 2 sets of wonderful grandparents.  They both love him and make our lives easy....most of the time.  Some of the challenge with having grandparents is that since they raised you, they think they know everything and always use the line "well, I raised you and your sister (or brother or X amount of kids).  This is very true, but it is the wife's and mine choices that are going to have the most impact of Riley's development.  We like to think we know what's best for him since we see him every day.  So when we know he has to be fed by a certain time or he'll turn into Audrey 2 from the Little Shop of Horrors, we know what we're talking about and that he should probably eat.  While we can stretch out the times we eat, he can't.  Or when we only allow him to watch TV before naps and bed, that means it should not be on all day.  The wife and I can't complain about Riley's grandparents too much since we'll take them over most, and definitely not having, but we wish they would listen to us a little more.

- A way to make Thunder like you is through his stomach.  At first, Thunder wasn't too fond of Riley.  He didn't like the attention he was getting and wanted me all to himself.  This all changed when Riley started eating real food.  Since Thunder was always Riley's best friend, but Riley wasn't always Thunder's, this had to change.  Riley always wanted to play with Thunder.  So when Riley started giving his Cheerios to his sidekick, Thunder started getting a little more interest in Riley.  Now Thunder follows Riley around since there is a chance he might get a snack.  To watch a boy and his dog play is one of the true treasures in life.

There are tons of things I have learned and experienced over the months since Riley has been born that I can't write enough.  But since I realized that I have gone away from a lot of the reasons I created this blog, I wanted at least get some of them out there.  Having Riley in our lives has been a blessing and one that we wont trade in.

A Boy and his Dog

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