I’m a Dad

Real Food, Tantrums, and a Fear of Diapers

Liam started eating vegetables yesterday. His mom boiled some green beans and pureed them up in the VitaMix. Apparently he liked them. She claimed he didn’t make a yucky face or really react at all. I fear the taste of the formula he’s been getting for the last few months has done irrevocable damage to his taste buds. We’ve entered a whole new realm of babyhood. Along with new solid food comes the dreaded solid, stinky poops.

Which brings me to my next topic. Diapers. I realized the other day that I’m afraid of changing diapers. It has nothing to do with the sometimes gooey substances I find inside the diaper, it has more to do with the actual diaper itself – the clean one. Those of you who know us or have been reading my journal for a while know that we use cloth diapers. Nothing but the cleanest, softest, most comfortable fabrics are allowed to come into contact with Liam’s precious little dupa. There is a huge underground cloth diaper society. If you don’t believe me just google cloth diaper and stand in awe. There are many types of cloth diapers and cloth diaper accessories: doublers, liners, covers, all-in-ones, plastic pants. Each type of diaper can have a different kind of closure mechanism: snaps, Velcro, pins. I think there are probably a couple of dozen different ways to fold a cloth diaper. I find it all very intimidating. If we had just one type of cloth diaper I think I could probably figure it out, get a system down. But we have several different varieties, styles and types. Whenever I go to get a fresh diaper to put on him, I’m running around in circles, I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to be grabbing, I don’t know which goes with what. I’m like a dog presented with two equally savory snacks, one in either of my master’s hands – going back and forth crazily trying to figure which I want. I usually just go for the old stand by: 1 cloth diaper, one liner, one Velcro cover. This I can deal with… or so I thought. Took me three tries to get it right the other night. First it was inside out, then it was upside down. Every second is critical when you have a naked baby lying on the floor – things could erupt at any moment. I think maybe Jen needs to give me an 8 or 10 hour hands-on seminar on Diaper Application and Management. I could get a certificate to frame and maybe even a little ID card that I could laminate and keep in my wallet. It would have a picture of a well-covered baby’s butt along with my name and my new title: Aaron Gravvat, M.D. (Master Diaperer).

It’s almost lunch time. I’ll talk about the tantrums a bit later.