I want to document this while i'm thinking about it, because maybe one day he won't be quite such a freak. He is absolutely hilarious as a parent because he's ordinarily so laid back, but when it comes to Tyler he is always on high alert. I guess I find this humorous because after years of working with other people's kids, tiny little things don't frighten me and even the big stuff doesn't send me into a complete freak out. One of his biggest triggers is choking. He absolutely lives in fear that our child is going to choke. I think everyone knows that their kid is going to choke at some point, and our kid makes this especially fun by practicing his skills as a competitive eater every chance he gets. The boy can shovel food into his mouth like no other. So last night we were having pizza and tyler wanted the whole cheesey bread stick, not just the pieces his dad had made him. So he was sitting in his chair gnawing on it and I was in the kitchen at the sink, B was on the couch watching baseball. Next thing i know i hear Tyler cough, B says he's choking, and before i can turn the water off, he's flying over the baby gate, pizza plate in hand and is at the table before i can even figure out what's going on. I unbuckle tyler, flip him over, give him a couple whacks (as does b) and he yaks up a chunk of pizza. He then proceeds to wipe snot,spit and puke all over his face and won't let b clean him at all. I said, he needs a bath anyway, let's just bathe him. He is getting increasingly frustrated which makes me nuts b/c it is, in my opinion, sort of irrational. Tyler is fine, yes he has puke in his nose, he'll live. Maybe because i puked for 9 months of pregnancy with him and about 5 months of pregnancy so far now, puke doesn't really perturb me too much. So in the end I take him in the bathroom, he's grabbing all over me with his snotty puke hands, and I get him in the tub where he's finally calmed down and happily playing with his ducks. B comes in and he says, I'm sorry I freaked out. I guess he just doesn't have the same reaction i do...but I know it isn't going to help the situation one bit if i get all flustered while trying to removed a chunk of bread from our child's mouth/throat. In the end I think he was just gagging and couldn't get it out, i don't even think he was really choking. I just told him I really hope he never chokes when i'm not around. I have had infant CPR and have had training in how to handle a choking infant. He hasn't...maybe we need to sign him up for a class before this one comes along!
Any way, he makes me laugh. He says we all think he's over protective and while I don't think that's necessarily true, he definitely worries about a lot of things that i don't even think much of. This is his first rodeo so we'll let him learn and maybe one day he'll relax a little. I know when our kids get older it will be fun to reflect on the days of him as the freak-out dad.
