The attitude of a two-year old

I was listening to my iPod the other day on my way to work, and one of the songs in my playlist begged to be blogged about. We negotiated, and I lost. So here I am, bending to the will of the song and writing about it.

There is a very funny song by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. It's called "Two-year Old Attitude." (See end of post for help on finding the song online.)

This song cracks me up. If you haven't heard it, it is a father describing his two-year old son's attitude. It includes lines like the following:

Now that he is two years old,
He thinks he is some kind of king.
Goes where he wants, He does what he wants
and gets into everything.
'Cauz wait until you get into a church
or a store or another public place,
and then he'll pout and he'll shout and
he'll rant and rave and he'll cry and
he'll scream until he his red in the face--
He's got a serious, serious,
serious, serious
Two-year old attitude.

I think this song cracks me up, in part, because I don't have a two-year old, but I have seen what they can be like. (But hey, maybe the song isn't so funny if you've had to endure toddler meltdown at Target. I dunno.)

But just wait. I'm sure my time will come.

In the mean time, enjoy the song.


Finding the Song online:

The song is available on iTunes; If you have iTunes you can click this link (or search the iTunes music store for): "2 yr. old attitude".

The sample that plays in iTunes, however doesn't include a part of the song where they are actually singing, though, so if you want to hear some of the words, you'll have to try one of these options:

1. Yahoo music. Search Yahoo Music for Ryan Shupe (clicking the link will perform the search for you automatically). At the bottom of the page there is a list of songs. Two Year Old attitude is there, and you can hear a sample. (Its the button with the headphones icon.)
   
2. Ryan Shupe website. Go to the music page of the Ryan Shupe website. The second album, "If I were a bird" includes the song, and from there you can hear a sample of this particular song. (Requires Quicktime.)
   

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Preparing for Pre Natal

You might think that it doesn't make sense to prepare for prenatal. I mean, isn't that what the prenatal phase is for? Preparation for the natality of your child? Is natility even a word? My dictionary says no, but I'm going to be descriptive here and use it anyway.

But that is the phase we are in, right now. We are preparing for prenatal classes. Third trimester prenatal classes to be specific. This is the class that we hear horror stories of.

Let's just say I get a bit queasy around blood. Ok, I get super queasy at the thought of blood. So I'm not really looking forward to that part of the birthing process. But I think that it is one thing to have to watch it for your own child. It is totally something different to watch a video of somebody else going through it.

The thought of it makes me shiver.

But lest you think I'm totally uneducated (which, in truth, I pretty much am), I do recognize that prenatal classes are more than just a video of child birth. In fact, there are a number of different types of classes you can attend. Apparently there are different philosophies about child birth. There is Bradley and there is Lamaze.

Do you realize that these are weekly classes you go to for like 6 weeks?

Hmmm. And how do you determine which class you are going to go to? I mean, if they were an hour a piece, you could go to multiple ones, but really, I can't go to all the different varieties of classes when they are 6 week courses.

We haven't signed up yet. We have to decide first which type of class to attend. Lamaze seems to be pretty popular. At least, it was the only method I'd ever hear about before I was like 22. Then I had a supervisor who was a former Bradley instructor and proponent. And today, my wife got a message from a friend that included the following Bradley advocation (you know, from the root "advocate"): "On the good side - it is the best thing that has happened to child-birth in the last 40 years...at its worst - you leave being VERY educated about everything involved. I can't suggest it more highly."

So now I turn to you, oh experienced web of friends: What methods do you propose? Why?

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11-ish weeks and counting

Well, with delivery planned in just over 11 weeks, things feel like they are finally picking up in pace. Eleven weeks sounds like forever, but I think it is going to go by very quickly.

Now C is in the third trimester, and things are going great. There are currently no signs of any complications and our little girl seems to be doing great. She keeps C up at all hours of the night, probably helping her to get ready for weeks of sleepless nights after she arrives. I don't get any such early preparation, but I suppose that is okay. I don't mind sleeping through the nights now, even knowing that I won't get to in December. Poor C, though, doesn't get much choice.

C recently went to visit her family in another state. While she was there, her mom hosted a baby shower for friends and relatives. It took an extra suitcase, and an extra duffle bag to get all the generously-given gifts back home. And I've never seen so much pink in my whole life. There are pink outfits and pink blankets. Pink dresses and pink pants. Pink undershirts (I think they call these things onesies?) and pink bibs. Pink receiving blankets (I'm still not sure what you use a receiving blanket for yet...). It's all pretty cool. But it makes the pending arrival all that more real.

You know, it is kind of weird. For C, every moment of every day (and night, for that matter) is spent being pregnant. It is always on her mind, because she is carrying the baby with her all the time. For me, however, it isn't an ever-present kind of thing. I think about it when it comes up, but I don't spend every minute of every day anticipating the blessed event. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying I'm not excited, because I am. It just isn't an ever-present thought. Sometimes it kind of surprises me when I remember. But all these baby clothes around the house are making it seem more real.

We made our first joint trip to Babies R Us last week. Wow. They have a lot of stuff. We looked at clothes and strollers and baby monitors, and binkies and cribs and changing tables and mattresses. Wow. wow. wow. Talk about overwhelming. How am I ever supposed to make a decision on anything when there are 40,000 options for each thing?

I think we have narrowed the stroller options down, though. We are looking at a Mclaren, but are also considering the Pliko. Babies R Us had the Mclarens in stock, and I loved that as a 6'4" dad, I won't have to bend over to push it. The Pliko got great reviews on one of the web sites I read, but I haven't found one in stock yet to try out.

Fun fun fun!

Stay tuned for my next post on planning for the 3rd trimester classes...

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