Smile is most pure part of parenthood

When people find out you’re expecting a child, there’s no shortage of advice.

Some of it you’ve got to take with a grain of salt. Because any parent knows no two kids are alike. What may work for one, doesn’t work for the other; even if they’re siblings.

When we announced the birth of our daughter in March, someone said something to me that’s been living in my head rent free.

“It’s the hardest job you will ever love.”

She was right.

I am by no means a parenting expert. I’m sure the woman who told me this may feel like she’s not an expert either.

As parents, all we can do is learn about ourselves and our child(ren) each day to do the best job we can as their mother or father.

I haven’t been a parent long, but here are some things I’ve learned about myself, my wife and my child that stick out the most.

Punctuality

Dinner plans at 7? Grab a table, we’ll meet you when we get there.

Appointment at 2:30? Hopefully the doctor doesn’t cancel on us.

We’re on baby time now.

We can start to get ready an hour and a half before our plans are about to start, and there’s still a good chance we won’t be there on time.

Baby Schanz will need to feed just before we leave. Or, we’ll put her in her car seat and — like clockwork now, it seems — she’ll spit up on her clothes and we’ll have to change her outfit.

Or, just as we walk out the door she’ll start crying because she needs a diaper change.

No matter how hard we try, we’ll never get to functions on time.

There’s no such thing as punctuality as a parent.

Chores can wait

Laundry and the dishes aren’t going anywhere. The weeds in the front garden will still be there tomorrow.

The carpets can be vacuumed another day.

Just recently, our daughter was having one of those days when she just didn’t want to be put down. Unfortunately, it came at a time during which the household chores were piling up.

We hadn’t pulled weeds in a while and they were seemingly overtaking our flowers. The lawn needed to be mowed. We were running out of clean clothes and we didn’t have clean dishes to make dinner.

At the same time, Baby Schanz would not sleep in her bassinet or her crib. She wouldn’t let us put her in her bouncer or on her play mat to entertain herself.

She just wanted to be held in the arms of Mom or Dad.

All. Day. Long.

But as Chrissy sat in our rocking chair, baby in arms with a pacifier in her mouth — all the while we had a house to clean — it hit us.

One day, our daughter won’t want to be held anymore. So we need to cherish these innocent moments when all she wants is Mom or Dad.

Those chores can wait.

The milestones

Every day it seems our daughter is hitting milestones. She loves rolling to — and sleeping on — her stomach. (Though she hasn’t mastered going from stomach-to-back yet.) 

She babbles for extended periods of time. She can switch items from one hand to the other. I’m pretty sure she’s taken a pacifier out of her mouth and then put it back in, although I haven’t seen it first-hand yet.

She can almost hold onto her own bottle, too.

But so far the best milestone of all is when her bluish-brown eyes get real big, she looks at us and gives us the biggest smile.

It lights up our day, no matter how stressful it may have been (even if she induced it).

It’s what I look forward to the most whenever I see her. 

It makes others happy.

Simply put, there’s nothing more pure than a toothless infant smile.