For most people the terms mother-in-law sends a shiver up their spin. The other half of the family… sometimes the ones you really don’t see eye to eye with… sometimes the ones who say I told you so… For me this isn’t the truth, my mother-in-law is outstanding (ok mom don’t feel bad your mother’s day post is right around the corner).

Two weeks ago my MIL was in town. It was the best few days my wife and I have had in a while. Why, one might ask it – simple out of the 7 days my MIL was in town my wife and I were able to sneak out 6 nights in a row.  It was married with child bliss.

Otherwise it’s really great for Marc to hang with Granna. Since she’s based in Texas its really nice to have her around for a full week. Sure living in NYC is a little cramped but it’s a small price to pay for the happiness my wife gets from having her mom in town. Granna gets to take a peek into Marc’s life goes to all the classes gets to do fun events (like seeing Rock of Ages) and having fancy dinners out with Suzanne.

I’m glad our relationship works…. I hear so many horror stories of the dreaded in-laws but in my mind – I couldn’t have asked for better. Even visiting with them is a piece of cake (well more like a pound and half of Texas BBQ).

One of the best times of the day for me is bath time, but it’s not my bath time it’s my child Marc’s bath time.  It’s a true bonding time for us.  Marc wasn’t always in love with the Bath, he was actually kind of hating it. My wife and I worked at it for about a week before I started to get half undressed and stand in the bath and start to splash him in the tub.  Soon enough he was having a ball and now he just sits in the tub and just plays for 20 or so minutes.

I love this time because it’s simply me and him – no distractions. We high five each other, play with these bathroom Yo Gabba Gabba wall stick toys, and splash each other. We both laugh, usually because Marc’s laugh is so cute and it makes me laugh.

We have a few other bath toys like a rubber ducky and some squirting fish toys but he doesn’t seem to mind them much attention. I’m looking forward to the days of drawing on the bathroom walls with those special bath crayons (cause I’m such the artist ).

Even when it’s not bath time he is super excited to get in the bath and most of the time even when it’s not his bath time he’ll still try to get into the tub.  Which I don’t know if my wife or I really enjoy an sudden game of peek-a-boo in our birthday suites, but we laugh it off for now.

I don’t want anyone to think I’m an expert on this topic at all… so consider yourself warned.

When Marc was first home from the hospital, I didn’t think too much of the first night or two. I was used to not getting much sleep but this getting up every three hours wasn’t fun.  After a week I started to think my eyes were about to bleed and about a week after that I’m pretty sure I was sleep walking in and out of meetings at work.  I was drained but in some crazy way I started to get used to it.

After a while I was totally able to function on about four hours of sleep.  We got a routine down – we started by feeding Marc dinner, followed by 20-30 minutes before bath time, followed by getting him ready for bed, and finally a bottle of formula/milk.

Marc would wake up in the middle of the night for a bottle at 2am and 4am until he was 5 months old. Then just at 2am until he was 9 months old.  At that point our doctor started giving us the advice better do it now then later, he was referencing ferberizing. I’m the big softy here I couldn’t do that to him just let him cry.  Thankfully Marc didn’t need much encouragement to start sleeping though the night, I started by giving him half of his normal 6oz of formula with only 4oz then 3oz and then switched him to water alone. That was the trigger that made him no longer wake up.

Fast forward till now 18 months old, We haven’t altered his routine at all.  Of course we had our moments of growth spurts and teething (wow that was the worst). His little colds that kept him up from time to time, but overall we’ve keep it on track.

He now gets his binky only at bedtime (or in the car or when we’re out in public – we’re still working on that one) and he has a few stuffed animals in the crib and his favorite blanket that he snuggles up with (it’s very cute). We do have a play blanket that is different from the sleep blanket mainly to put some cues that play and sleep are different (I’d like to think that helps).

In no way am I solely responsible for this success alone, without my wife I’m pretty sure Marc would still be falling asleep on my chest, like he did when he was first born. (I still kind of miss that too)

Being a guy doesn’t mean I don’t have a romantic bone in my body. It just means pulling teeth to show it off.  Even with Valentine’s day coming once a year I think it’s important that we remember that Date Night isn’t just once a year.  Last week, my Sister baby sat (which is a win/win – 1. its free 2. she gets to play with Marc for a bit) but even if you need to pay a sitter it’s well worth it.

We live in Union Square and lately NYC has been freezing… we walk just a block to the W Hotel – where the Todd English’s Olives is located in the lobby.  If you’ve never been RUN don’t walk over there one night and drink you’re self silly.  The cocktail menu is wonderful, yes the martinis are $12 but in Manhattan that’s pretty much going rate.

My wife loves the dirty martinis or the lychee martini. I love the super tart passion fruit cocktail.  After sitting the W Hotel’s Lobby living room for a round, we asked to move to a table to enjoy some lite bites from the Olives Menu.  The food was great just what we both had wanted. The prices once again weren’t out of line for a Manhattan restaurant either – I know that people usually think of hotel food and think chicken fingers and fries – this isn’t the case at Olives.

I’m starting to get off topic here, while this date night was awesome…it’s still the principle of having a date night.  We often forget to take care of ourselves, once we have a child.  I think it’s great that we all put our children first, because we shouldn’t be selfish at this point.  But that doesn’t mean we should just forget about the bond that brings us together as parents.  We need this adult time together, we need to remember we love each other, we need to laugh, and we sometimes just need a drink.

One thing no one can avoid is to be under the weather and we all know it sucks to be sick, it sucks for your wife/partner to be under the weather, it sucks even more to have your kid(s) be under the weather, and the worst is when more than one member of the family is sick.

With the change of seasons this is more than likely to be case these days.  I know it hit our house two weeks ago and I doubt we handled it well. I’m thinking that next time around we need a better plan because one sick person should make 2 other sick before they’re even better.

I came home with a sore throat innocent enough, didn’t even think twice about it. It was the beginning of the end, two weeks later and I’m still hacking up half a lung at times.  Suzanne fell to it 24 hours later and Marc maybe 30 hours. It was rough! I don’t handle being sick well, there are those that pop some pills and are good as new. That is so not me, I’m like rolling in the bed – chanting I’m dying I’m dying… Usually Suzanne is helping me out with chicken soup and water but when she’s right next to me rolling around saying I’m dying I’m dying, that relief isn’t coming.

On the other side of the country my in-laws are still recovering from the bug they picked up from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.  My BIL and SIL got a really bad stomach to the point they asked my Father-in-law and Mother-in-law to take care of their kiddo.  Within 36 hours they had the bug as well and some good stories to share.

I started thinking what would I do next time, should I sleep on the couch (a self imposed medical quarantine)? Should I sleep under the desk in the office (just kidding)? Do I just keep up the normal routine and hope for the best? Do you ship the kid(s) off someplace of hopes of not getting them sick? How do you deal with it?