Forced Parenting

So Tiff and I have been in Texas since Tuesday. We stopped in Conroe to visit a good friend, and we're now in Boerne visiting the in-laws, Tiff's sister Tawna and more importantly her baby daughter (our niece) BriLane.

For those that don't know me well or maybe just don't know THIS- up until recently I've been more than a little freaked out about young kids (playing with them, holding them, or just being in the same vicinity). To begin to remedy this I've spent over a year volunteering with the 2 year olds at church. I now feel pretty comfortable with the terrible 2's but any younger still freaks me out.

I have some ideas about this. They are two-fold:

1. I've had zero experience. Unless you count a few moments of awkwardly holding a baby while praying it doesn't start crying.
2. The Fear - I've always been afraid they'll sense my fear and start crying, or worse, I'll drop them creating long term damage (you always hear tell jokes about this, but I secretly believe them - there's always a small amount of truth in everything right? so you know it's really happened)

Enter my lovely helper Tiffany. After I declined her invitation to play with BriLane (and by play I mean throw her three feet in the air repeatedly, completely losing contact control, has she not read #2 above?!) she decided I should have four interactions with BriLane before bedtime last night.

1. I started by pushing her on the swing while we were at the park. She laughed, I nervously smiled.
2. Next I held her and we played on the couch. I tried to start her geometry education, she chewed on each of the shapes I presented. Not so bad though, no crying or loss of limb.
3. Then we cruised around in her toy jeep trying to distract her before dinner. She was getting fussy and tired. I couldn't get her to stop crying, but we made the loop of the house anyway.
4. Finally came the real test. After dinner I was charged with diaper change, BATH TIME (baby in water, are you kidding me?!), putting on the pjs, feeding and putting her down. I have to say this was my favorite part. She fussed through the bath, but once I got her out to dry off, she plopped her head down on my shoulder and there was some definite bonding. The feeding was a breeze, she practically became comatose mid suck.

Two year olds..........check. One year olds.............check.