Shrimps and Piggyback Rides

This evening 'Rad experienced the joy of shrimp.  I'm pretty sure he's had it once before, but with the possibility of a shellfish allergy looming (my sister is horribly allergic to the delicious little critters and other crustaceans) I had my guard up.  There were no signs of an allergy, but after we put the little dude to sleep and he started crying my mind suddenly turned to paranoid mode.  Is he crying because he can't breathe?  Did his shellfish allergies just kick in?  What if he needs me and I'm just letting him whine?  After months of not feeling the need to, tonight I crept into his room after 30 minutes of silence just to check on him.

In the dim light of his room, between the slats of the crib, the sight of 'Rad sitting up took me completely by surprise.  What was even more startling was seeing his body swaying slightly at the edge of the crib - he was asleep.  I know he's done this before, but I've never actually witnessed it.  I gently laid him back, draped his blanket over his shoulder and down between his legs, and snuck back out of the room.  I had really gone in to check his breathing, but was so startled by him being vertical that I forgot to check.  Z went in a few minutes after me just to double-double check on him (on my request).  The dude is fine.

I'm reading the book Bringing Up Bebe, 50 Shades of Grey (it's all about balance, right?) preparing for a move, and trying to tie things up at work (ha!) and my mind has been buzzing lately.  Questions about parenting, work, adjusting, priorities, money, parenting, and what's socially acceptable have been floating in and out of my flighty mind.  It's amazing that someone as indecisive as myself ever made the decision to have a baby, because along with that big decision seems to follow an unending series of even bigger and just as important small decisions.  If anything, I've learned to be more decisive or at least to believably feign it.  This guy will always call me out if my decisions don't have conviction:

He will always also try to mount a free back:

I learned this while laying on the bed trying to have a conversation with my sister; 'Rad is wild about piggyback rides almost to the point of being obscene about it.  If your back isn't occupied he will start humping it until you usher him on for a ride around the room or through the house.  Once he's on there, though, he's having the best time of his life.