Things I've Learned About Being a Stay-At-Home Dad

Here are a few random things I've learned since being a stay-at-home dad with Parker. Most of these things would have never crossed my mind before we had a baby, but now you notice the weirdest things.

1) When grocery shopping, the best parking spot in the world is right next to the cart-return-thing. It doesn't matter if the cart-return-thing is in the far corner of the parking lot; it's still the best spot. When you get out of the car with your baby, you can grab a cart quickly, put him in, and toss his bag of goodies in as well. Then, when you're bringing your groceries out, you don't have to go far to put the cart away while your baby waits in the car seat ready to go.

2) Line-ups suck. I was at the post office today with Parker in his stroller, and 5 seconds before I got there some guy with a 7-foot box showed up. All 3 employees were helping him, but none of them seemed to be doing very much. They didn't seem to know how to mail it. Eventually, one of the employees said, "I'll keep working on this, you help all the other people in line," because by now there was a 10-person line-up. The entire time, I was hanging out with Parker and giving him drinks of water and making goofy faces, but in my mind I'm thinking, "Don't have a melt down! Don't have a melt down! HURRY UP POST OFFICE PEOPLE." Luckily Parker very rarely has crazy fits in public, but that still doesn't quell the paranoia. Plus, babies can smell the fear.

3) Babies eat a lot. Now that Parker is almost one year old (his birthday is this Friday! Yay!) he eats soooo much food. I think he eats more than we do. Well, maybe not. But he eats a LOT. It seems like we're always going to the grocery store or CostCo to get more supplies. It's good to get out and do things, though, especially when we have pretty limited time inbetween naps. Going places helps the time fly by!

Here are some photos of Parker outside on the lawn in his John McCrea (from Cake) hat.