Whoops there goes a weekend.

I did mean to blog Friday, really I did. But I did the 12 hour childminding marathon that included a birthday party and bedtime, so I was pretty drained by 8PM. For the record, the wife gave me an hour or so break during the afternoon, so it wasn’t an uninterrupted shift. Still, much love for the single parents out there. I am glad I don’t have to run the whole show all day, every day.

And then Saturday I helped the sister-in-law move, and that move went pretty well. I may not have many marketable skills, but I am a good mover. Saturday night was leisure night and I frittered that away with reckless abandon. Sunday I was the most tired man ever and the blogging opportunities just slipped by me without notice. So now we are here, and I am determined to write something before I fall asleep. Which, given the late night and restless night I had last night, could be at any moment, so off we go!

There’s a moving target that I try to keep in my sights. I try very hard to balance the challenge of anything the boy will encounter with his capability level. And of course he’s improving at everything all the time, with the occasional startling slip back, so it’s a tricky situation. Let’s get specific, shall we? When I’m preparing the little dude’s food, I used to leave the individual components in their un-combined state so that he can eat each one with ease. so, instead of a sandwich, he would get cheese sticks, ham rolls, toast, tomato and cucumber slices, and ketchup to dip. Then it occurred to me that I should start building up the complexity, so I would make the sandwich, but cut it into many small pieces to facilitate the picking up and eating. Now I’m trying out the real deal. Full sandwich, cut in half. This is pretty thrilling stuff, I know.

I can spend the time thinking about the difficulty rating of his upcoming meal because I have the luxury of time that being a parent of only one child affords. When there are other kids in the house, you’re a little too busy to over-analyze the sandwich compatibility matrix. The same progression in challenge still happens in busier households, but it’s a more organic process. When you’re trying to feed a wiggly baby, you have less time for cutting the older child’s food into pleasing geometric shapes, so when things are rushed, they get what they get and they like it.