Six Months... Already?

Tyler's first faux-hawk

Tyler recently celebrated his half birthday. Upon being asked by any passers-by how old he is, Tyler can now say, "Zero and a half" with the air of excitement that kids have when they know they've crested the mountain, and are now barreling downhill towards cake and presents. His first birthday is still 6 months out, and Sarah is already making plans for it.

Tyler's half birthday had me in awe of the fact that I've been a dad for 6 months. And then, I thought to myself, "already?"

It really feels like it's only been a month. He's already 6 months old. That's way too close to 18 years old. I'm not ready for him to move out yet.

Is time going to continue to move this fast from here on out?

Tyler had his well-baby checkup last week. The nurse asked the typical questions about his diet and his poop. She asked if he's been sick. We told her that he's had two colds that he caught from his cousin. She followed up with a question that appeared to be more of an assumption and statement.

"And he was treated by Dr. Woods?"

I paused for a second, and found myself unable to answer. Who goes to the doctor for a cold? I couldn't wrap my mind around that. It was a cold; a simple, let-it-run-its-course-because-there's-no-other-course-of-action cold.

Me: "Uhh, yeah doc. Tyler has a cold. You know, a cough, sniffles, and mucous."
Doc: "Okayyyy."
Me: "So, what can you do about it?"
Doc: "Nothing. Leave your $25 copay with the receptionist."

Sarah bailed me out and told her that we took care of it from home, by ourselves. I mentally appended her sentence with, "because we're not completely brain dead."

The appointment went well. Recently, I mistakenly told someone that Tyler is 25 pounds. He is, in fact, only 23 pounds. He measured at 72cm. He is still in the 95th to 97th percentile for height and weight (read: tall and heavy).

"Wow Tyler. That makes you," I said, pausing for a moment, "28 and a quarter inches long."

The nurse turned to look at me. She had a look of utter confusion on her face when she said "that's right". She didn't see that I had just punched some numbers into the calculator function of my phone. Either that, or she didn't expect me to know that there are 2.54cm/in. Maybe that isn't common knowledge.

The doc commented on how adorable Tyler's chubby thighs were. Then, she put a glove on and said, "ok, it's time to count to two."

Confused and intrigued, I leaned in a little closer to see what was going on. It makes sense to me in hindsight, but it never occurred to me that they would need to verify that Tyler has two testicles. I find myself hoping that Tyler develops a crush for her when he gets older, so I will have yet another bullet to fire at him from my "embarrassment gun".

We did have one concern that we wanted to discuss with the doctor. Tyler, for the last couple months, has had some red bumps around his left eye. Some days, they're more pronounced than others. After looking at them, doc said that Tyler has eczema. We followed her instructions of carefully applying hydrocortisone (1%) to the area, and keeping fragrance-free lotion on his face. It started looking much better within a couple hours. A few days later, it's completely gone. Sarah and I cursed our collective ignorance. We had no idea it was that important to keep baby's skin moist. I really hope it didn't itch too much, or cause excessive discomfort to Tyler.

On an unrelated note, it appears that Sarah and I may have cursed Tyler with our sleeping habits. We cannot sleep on our backs. Sarah often sleeps on her side, and I on my belly.

How or why Tyler felt the need to turn a 180, and put his head where his feet should be is beyond me.