Interruptions

June 17th, 2021

Asher woke up at 4:20 AM. That is pretty standard for him. He doesn’t cry when he wakes up. He simply starts a quiet monologue of baby talk that eventually rouses Karin and myself.

Karin will usually turn to Asher and greet him in German,

“Guten Morgen, kleiner Mann. Hast du gut geschlafen?”

Asher generally makes no reply to that question. He just keeps babbling. Six month old boys tend to do that.

Karin changed the lad’s wet diaper. I took a piss, washed my face, threw on some jeans, and then started to warm up a bottle of formula. While the bottle was heating up, I let the dogs out. After five minutes the formula was ready, and I grabbed Asher.

Karin went back to bed. It was my shift now.

Asher was ravenous. When he is hungry, he wants to eat NOW. It is unwise to get between Asher and his food. I held the boy on my lap, and watched him inhale the contents of the bottle. After a couple ounces, he slowed down a bit, but he was still totally focused on his meal. He is nearly strong enough to hold the bottle on his own. He kept a tight grip on it until he was finished.

Once Asher was done eating, I sat him up on my lap so he could burp. That took a couple minutes. His burps are impressively loud. Occasionally, they are also wet and messy.

I laid him down after he burped. He grinned up at me. Then I noticed a smell. I got my nose close to his butt. Yep, he was stinky.

“C’mon little buddy. Let’s check out your diaper.”

I laid Asher on his changing table. I carefully opened up the diaper. There was a poop explosion in there. He was covered with feces from the base of his spine to his nut sack. It had the look, smell, and consistency of hummus that has gone rancid. I held up both of his chubby legs with my right hand while cleaning his behind with numerous baby wipes.

Asher gave me this little smile of Buddha-like serenity, as if to say,

“I’m fine. Just keep cleaning up my mess.”

I am stoic about changing Asher’s diapers. I figure that some years from now, when I am in a nursing home, somebody will be cleaning up my mess. Everything comes full circle.

The rest of the morning has been a series of interruptions. That’s just life with Asher. It is pointless for me to begin any task that requires longer than five minutes to complete. For instance, it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to finish this essay before Asher cry for my assistance.

(Note: Just now, as I was writing, Asher woke up from a nap. I went to him, comforted him, and got him back to sleep.)

CPS (Child Protection Service) wants Karin and me to have smoke detectors in every bedroom. I will never get them put up. We already bought the smoke detectors. The installation is not difficult. However, I know that as soon as I attempt to start this job, Asher will demand my immediate attention. I will have to get my son Stefan to install the detectors.

I took Asher outside earlier this morning. We sat on the porch together, and he looked with wonder at his world. I looked with him. I think I began to see things through his young eyes. Life is fascinating. He teaching me to remember that.

He’s up again. Gotta go.