I envy the fathers who take a nap with their child lying on their chests. I’ve never been able to get Tyler to do that. I have had limited success in getting him to nap next to me on the couch, but that usually involves me holding Tyler’s arms down so that he can’t pick my nose or hook a finger into my mouth and pull on my lips. After, oh, 5 to 30 minutes of squirming, he’ll either fall asleep or we’ll give up on bonding through napping. When I see a picture or watch a movie where a baby is sleeping on his father’s chest, a little bit of my heart breaks away in sadness of the thought that I don’t get to experience that.

Sarah and I are advocates of Tyler sleeping and napping in his own room. Although there was a bit of a "battle of the wills" between baby and parents, it’s paid off. When we put him in his crib and give him his paci, he knows it’s time to sleep and closes his eyes. When he wakes up from these naps, Sarah and I fight over who gets to go get him. Tyler wakes slowly, like his momma, so he likes to cuddle for a bit, which is what Sarah and I battle each other for. To my detriment, Sarah has better hearing, and she doesn’t say a word about it when she hears him. She just leaves the room. Seconds later, when I do pick up on Tyler’s calls, I jump from my seat and race up the stairs, foolishly thinking that Sarah was in the bathroom.

Back to my previous thought, I’m sure that Tyler just doesn’t associate napping with the couch. As far as Tyler is concerned, the living room is for playing, not sleeping. While it’s unfortunate for my nap-bonding desires, I know that it’s quite a struggle with some parents to get their baby to sleep in his or her room, by his or her self. For that alone, I really shouldn’t complain. But I may not need to because I think the tides may be turning in my favor.

 
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that Tyler was sick (vomit, gross) last week. While Sarah cleaned up the vomit (she volunteered, I swear), I held onto Tyler, who was stripped to only his diaper. I put a blanket over us to keep him warm, and he nuzzled right in. I’ve never felt so horrible for a person, because he was sick and didn’t know what was happening, but on the flipside, I soaked in the joy and comfort of my son accepting me as the nurturer. And in the days since, he has regularly crawled to me so that I could hold him.

Tuesday was the pinnacle for me, and made me 100% certain that fatherhood was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

Sarah went on a movie date with a girlfriend, so that she could take a break from being "mommy" and be "Sarah" for a bit. Plus, she really wanted to see Mel because they had already canceled their night out on a few different occasions and had to reschedule. I refuse to say that I had to babysit Tyler because it’s not babysitting, but I don’t know if there is an equally short word to use in lieu of saying that I would be Tyler’s sole caregiver for the duration of the evening. Either way, it was just me, Tyler, and Delilah.

It was one of the best times I’ve had with him, and we really didn’t do a single thing. He cried for a bit as he crawled through the house looking for Sarah, and when he got to the stairs, I had to take him up to show him that his mommy wasn’t up there either. After I fed Delilah and sat down on the floor, Tyler crawled to me and started climbing up my body. I picked him up and held him against my chest. He laid his head against my neck, and… well, that’s it. I turned on the previous night’s recorded episode of The Jimmy Fallon Show, and watched it. Tyler dozed a bit, but otherwise just snuggled with me.

He did get upset with me before bedtime because I wasn’t reading him the book that he wanted me to read to him. Otherwise…

BEST. NIGHT EVER.

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