Sleep Training Wars & The "Mayo Omelet" Secret: Gen X Dad Humor : Episode 34 Part 3

0:00 She is 10 months old and has never had anything but breast milk. Of course. She doesn't like... The taste is going to be... She doesn't like it. So we start first, Kelly tries to give her a bottle and she's like, won't have it, doesn't want it. So then I start trying, when Kelly's at work, I start trying to mix it. So I take two or three ounces of breast milk, put in just an ounce of... And it's literally, it's like handing an alcoholic, a non-alcoholic beer. It's like you give her the bottle and she's like, here, I don't want this.

0:41 She's no interest whatsoever. So we're trying, we're trying to put it in stuff. Gosh. Like, and she just doesn't want it. Giving a cat a pill. Yeah, that's exactly right. What if we wrap it in here? This is the Gray Hair and Day Care Podcast with a combined age of 111 years and a combined IQ right in that same range. Your hosts, Frank Sirio and Carlo Russo. Welcome back to episode 34, part three. It's our first three-parter because we had so much to talk about when we recorded and we couldn't fit it all in last week. So we're back to finish up the job and get you all caught up.

1:21 So thank you for sticking with us. And here is episode 34, part three. So we come home and we're making this adjustment. And when Kelly goes to work, she's been nothing but breastfed or eating food for the whole time with us. Now we got to get back to bottles. She's not a big fan. And also we got to get her to take naps. Well, the baby will often fall asleep while she's nursing when it's with Kelly. Well, she doesn't even want a bottle. She's not nursing. So she's having a very hard time napping and eating.

2:03 So to the point where one afternoon she will not go down and she gets dysregulated. So it's like four o'clock. Kelly will usually get home like 630. And usually Kerry will stay until about five. But this day, I thought things were going okay. I've got the baby. I had finished up. So I'm like, you can take off it early. So it's four o'clock. Then she just starts. She's a little grousey, a little upset. She hadn't had a nap. And I can see she's tired. She's exhausted. But she will not let herself fall asleep. So I'm holding her. Now I'm like trying to soothe her. She's even grousing when I'm holding her.

2:45 So I'm walking around with her for like a half hour, 40 minutes. And if I try to sit down, she won't even let me sit down. If I sit down, she's crying. So I get back. So I'm wandering around. Now, if I stop walking, she won't. She starts crying. Like she's kind of just so exhausted. She's overtired. But she will not fall asleep. She will not let herself fall asleep. Sounds like my father. Until finally Kelly's on her way home. I'm talking to her on the phone. And I finally. And you've been battling this for like an hour and a half? Two hours. Wow. And I finally feel her head slump against me.

3:28 Yeah. So she basically would not fall asleep until she passed out. Right. And I'm like, we got to do something different. Like we got to change something because this isn't fair to the baby. She can't. She can't. She just got into another routine. Exactly. And the same thing happens. Like, so that was a Friday, I think. And then the Monday, same thing happens to Carrie. So it's not me or her. It's just she like, she can't get her going out until the only way she can get her to fall asleep is to get her to fall asleep in her arms. And you can't even put her down. You got a whole. I'm so by the time Kelly comes home, I'm in my chair at the kitchen table with her in my arm and I'm just like, I'm just letting her sleep on me because I want her to get some rest and I don't want to take a chance.

4:18 So we kind of make the decision that, okay, we got to do something different. We're going to do some sleep training, getting her to go down without falling asleep at Kelly's breast. Gotcha. And we're going to do it while we're off for Christmas. So if we have to suffer through a couple sleepless nights, she's, she's not working. I'm not working. We got some time. So we make the decision to do that. The other thing that came up was she had ended up with a little bit of kind of not great, like not diarrhea, but soft stools when we were on the cruise coming home. And she had some diaper rash, a little bit of diaper rash. So, you know, it's kind of started then.

5:01 And one of the things that happened while we were on the cruise was when we were first leaving, we go through the TSA and they took her Desitin. Oh God. Because Kelly forgot. We use a bigger bottle. We use the regular, like the, a tub of the, like the maximum strength stuff. Yeah. So all we had with us was like the travel stuff, which is not as thick or medicated. So I think that might've been part of what happened. But so she ended up with some diaper, diaper rash and we couldn't get it to go away. So that like that week of Christmas, right before Christmas, we went to the pediatrician to have him take a look at it. So the first thing they do when you go to the pediatrician every time, measure, weigh, they kind of triage you and then you go see the doctor.

5:46 So they do that and they immediately, they weigh her and we're thinking she, because she's been breastfed constantly, like while we were on the cruise, we've been together. She's eating, eating, eating. Then she's been eating all kinds of food. She ate all kinds of stuff on the cruise too. So she's eating solid foods. She's getting lots of breast milk. We're thinking, oh, she's going to be up another, you know, pound and a half, two pounds. No weight change. So in the two weeks from when we had our appointment right before the cruise to coming back from the cruise, no weight gain. And now the graph is starting to look a little. Yeah.

6:27 Now it goes a little further down. The doctor that we're seeing doesn't seem concerned at all. They're looking at her. She's healthy. They look at her bum and they give us a prescription. But now Kelly's pretty worried, right? Now Kelly's thinking, okay, something's wrong because she's not getting. We're feeding her. She's not gaining weight. She's going to love this when she's like 16, 17. She can eat and not gain weight. Right. So now we're going to be off. We're going to be together and we're going to try some new things. Right. So we actually, for the first time, buy some baby food, right? Because we've, we've been doing just whatever we eat. We're doing simple versions of that stuff. And she's been eating pretty well, but we're going to try some of that stuff.

7:10 And we're doing the, we're doing the diaper cream that they gave us. And it seems to be improving a little bit. Oh, she had a heavy, huh? She had, they had to give her a prescription. Yeah. And it was really, you could tell it was hurting her. Don't miss any of the fun. Subscribe to this show on YouTube. Like this episode, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or give us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. So we got the trees trimmed. We got everything set. I normally, if I'm cooking a holiday meal, the two of the, I usually do as much of it as I can ahead. Yeah. And we'll bake and we'll do other stuff. We'll bake, you know, sweets and stuff. But again, with the baby.

7:51 Things change. You don't, there's no time. There's just no time. Especially when you're dealing with something with the baby. Yes. On top of that. So there, there is that. So the other thing was I would never roll the dice on a new recipe for a holiday meal. I'll always try it out ahead of time. So I had picked out a bunch of recipes I was going to do. I hadn't, I didn't have any time to try them. So I'm, I was a little nervous with some of, with, with a couple, but it was like all new recipes I was going to do for Christmas day. Christmas Eve, I had to read a Christmas Eve mass. So we got that. We got to go to, and Kelly's sister was coming to visit. We had to pick her up at the airport. So it was like, okay, Christmas Eve. We're going to have Christmas Eve at our house.

8:32 So I figured out, okay, I'm going to do surf and turf. I can do steaks in the sous vide. They're cooking, just do lobster tails. They're quick in the oven and asked my sister to bring some sides. She did that and they were good. So it's like Christmas Eve. We hit the ground. I cook what I need to cook ahead of time that day. I get ready. We go to, we go to mass. I did my reading. I didn't mess up. And then straight from mass, pick up Kelly's sister. We get home, get the steaks ready to go on the grill, out of the sous vide and do the lobster tails. Everything came out great for Christmas Eve. And then the next day on Christmas day, the whole morning, I have done no prep. And I'm making, we made brand new recipes.

9:13 I made brajal and it was so good. I made brajal. I made menikati. It's inspired by when you brought some over. Thank you, sir. And I had already made, I did have, had already made meatballs and sauce. I meatballs and sauce and some sausage. And then Kelly's family, because they were there, she wanted to have some Polish stuff too. Of course. So they brought and did kielbasa, lazy pierogi. There was a bunch of stuff. I don't know. I wasn't in charge of that. So I don't know. Stuff with cabbage. It was all stuff, stuff that would never show up at Christmas. I didn't even know how to pronounce it that good. But, but they have the kielbasa was good.

9:54 The lazy pierogi were good. All delicious. It's all good stuff. All delicious. Yeah. Yeah. So, so they were doing that stuff, but the whole morning, basically from seven o'clock in the morning straight through to eating at like one o'clock, I'm. You're in the kitchen. I'm cooking. Yeah. But luckily everything comes out. Everything came out great. I was very pleased. All the recipes that were new worked out very well. So I was super happy. It was, it was a. Did you rope the Brazil or did you. This is, this is how I did the Brazil. What I was very happy about was Wegmans had flank steaks that were already kind of filleted. Okay. Nice and thin. They were ready for. So I didn't even have to really pound them out.

10:34 But what I did was I did that. So you had the meat. Then I did a little bit of olive oil. Then Genoa salami. Then a, I made a stuffing of pine nuts, Parmesan, Romano and breadcrumbs. Okay. Spread that on. Then a slice of provolone cheese and then a whole hard boiled egg. Roll it all up. So everybody got their own Brazil instead of slicing. Everybody got their own, which I had never done. My mom would always make the whole roll and slice it. But I did that.

11:14 And then I cooked them, brown them. And then I cooked them in the sauce for seven hours. Seven hours. They were fantastic. It was incredible. But that whole thing. So I have that. Then manicotti, a beef and cheese filled manicotti. It was a Giada De Laurentiis recipe. Of course. That was, so that's heavy. So did you rope the. Oh yeah, I had to tie them. I tied both ways. Like a little, like a little present. It's perfect. Because with the egg in there, but they were absolutely fantastic. But just the Brazil is a whole hard boiled egg, a slice of provolone, three slices of salami. It's by itself.

11:56 So. But it's so freaking good. Oh my, it was so good. I will make, and my sauce was fantastic. I was very, very happy. So yeah, so that was all good. And what was, what I really enjoyed was once dinner's over, I'm done. And I spent the rest of the afternoon just having fun with the baby. That's awesome. And it was just a wonderful Christmas. It was nice to see her, see the baby, get to spend time with her aunties. She had got to spend more time with Kelly's sister and they really got on. You could tell there was a lot of, when you see the baby with Kelly's brother, David, you can tell she's like, you're like man mommy, right? Like they resemble each other.

12:36 But her sister, they're very, they have a very strong resemblance. She's confused the heck out of the baby. So she's like, oh, okay. New mommy. So she had fun. Mommy, you changed your clothes real quick. So, so it was great. We had a, we had a very, very nice Christmas. That's fun. So we get presents. So Kelly's cousin had her baby Arman, who we have mentioned. Yep. Like a month before baby Josie. So she sent some presents and it's interesting. She always sends stuff that baby Arman likes. And inevitably baby Josie wants nothing to do with the toys.

13:17 Like the first thing that she sent was this thing. It's really cute. It's like, it looks like a cactus. Okay. It's an animated cactus. So you turn it on. And if the baby makes a sound or you talk to it, it mimics back to you. And it like wiggles and talks back to you. I want that now for myself. Baby Arman loves it. Josie's not maybe Josie wants nothing to do with it. They send this other thing. It's like some kind of a VTech thing that kind of talks and does stuff. Turn it on. Nothing wants nothing to do with it. Absolutely not. The big hit present wise were like some little stuffies and we got her a xylophone. She really likes the xylophone.

13:57 So that was, that was fun. And then we were rolled into the week, kind of the week between Christmas and new year. And we started the, to try the sleep training. Gotcha. Right. So we're not sure at that point, she's having some challenges and she's having a hard time going down, but we're kind of wondering how much of it is the diaper rash that isn't full. She's not comfortable. Yeah. She's not, not super comfortable. So we're trying, it's not going horrible, but it's also, you don't know how much she's in pain. So you don't want to try to, you know, double up on getting over that and doing this other stuff. So, you know, basically that's kind of it that week.

14:41 We did have a lot of snow. It was very pretty for Christmas, which was nice. After Christmas. Yeah, yeah. That week. Right after Christmas. And we decided we're going to get a sled because we've got lots of like, we don't have a hill, unfortunately on our property, but we go out and find this adorable little sled and we're like, okay, we get her in her little snow pants and bundle all up. And so let's see if she likes this. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. She's just smiling, happy, we're dragging her around. And then I ended up, I wanted to get her one of those little, L.L. Bean makes like a wooden sled for kids and they didn't have any. Like all L.L. Bean were out of stock.

15:22 They were sold. And of course, look on Facebook marketplace and some guy had one. So I went after we took her on the little plastic one that we had got at wherever Walmart or something. Target, yeah. I went and got it. I'm like, and this guy comes out, he looks like he's, you know, maybe the little, maybe a little younger than us. And he's like, so who's the lucky, who's the lucky kid who's going to be in this thing? And I'm like, well, it's actually going to be. And I tell him my daughter's my first. It's me. He's like your first one. And I'm like, yeah, he's like, I, the guy is clearly is younger than me. And he goes, this is, this was from my 12, my 12 year old. She's the youngest. Wow. So he had four, like from 18 to 12.

16:03 And he's like, I asked her, I'm like, I'm going to, I'm going to get rid of your sled. Is that okay? She's like, dad, I'm 12. And I'm like, that's awesome. I have a car now. He's like, have fun, enjoy it. I'm like, thanks very much. It was nice. But yeah, so we had fun. We took her out and got her, got her sledding. And then we kind of, you roll into new year's, which, you know, as, as you would expect, we're in a bed by about nine 30. Do you stay up? I did stay up though. Good for you. We are my brothers. We do every year. We went out to dinner and then we went to my brothers and we watched the football games. And then we changed, change into Dick Clark's new years, which is Ryan Seacrest years. And then we got home.

16:44 Probably one 32 o'clock. Wow. Nope. Look at us. Right to bed. We were asleep and again, we're doing the, we're doing the sleep training trying to do that. So we're not getting a lot. Right. It seemed like first night we did it. Okay. Second night did better. Third night, a little worse. Now it's like new year's and it's bad. Like we're having a really rough night. She's waking up. Can't get her to settle. And Kelly's pretty frustrated at this point. This might be the new normal. Cause maybe we're not sure scary. Yeah. So I get up at one point.

17:25 She's crying. I, I take her out of the cradle and I try to settle her down. She's not settling. I check her diaper, change her diaper. How's the rash? Not selling still better, but still there. That's like a over a week, a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks. Right. And so we have a follow-up coming where we're going to go back and have them check again. So there's nothing wrong. I asked Kelly, I'm like, well, when was the last time you fed her? And, and Kelly says, well, you told me not to feed her at night. I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean? We're both exhausted. Right. And, and I'm like, she's going to bed hungry. What are you talking about? And she's like, I'm like feed her.

18:07 So I give her and immediately she eats. And I'm like, where, where did this come from that? I don't want you to feed her. And maybe she got confused about the breast. And I think that's what it was. What I was saying was she, you cannot let her fall asleep at your breath. Cause then she, that's, that'll be her norm. Right. Because then she gets used to that and then she can't fall asleep. But you gotta feed her. Not that you can't feed her at night. And then at that point, also we're looking at it and saying, okay, she's got the diaper rash. It hasn't fully gone. Clearly there are times where you can tell she's hurting. And I'm like, we need to stop this. Like, let's just try to get back to normal. Do whatever is going to work for now.

18:48 We need, we need this to work for ourselves too. We need to sleep and she needs to get better and then get back to it. So we have the followup. Again, you have the nine month weigh in. She had gained over two pounds. We come back two weeks later after the cruise thinking she's going to gain no weight gain. We come back two weeks later for the followup. They weigh her again. And we've been trying to feed her. She's been with us. No weight gain again. So now Kelly was already concerned. Now I'm like, okay, what's going on? So they look at her diaper rash and they're like, okay, we're going to give you a new prescription, something different.

19:30 Okay. But then we're like, what recommendations do you have? She's getting breastfed. We're giving her all these foods. She's eating solid foods too. What do we do? And so now we have started to see, this is one of the things that I'm not super excited about at this point with, with Summerwood. We never see the same person twice. That's going to be a problem because that's, that's, we ran into that. There's no consistency. The first person we saw, we did see twice. She left the practice. Then it's somebody new. It's the idiot who tells me when I ask, Hey, how many pounds should she gain? Says, Oh, let's look at Google. And I'm like, okay, moron. I know how to do that. So never want to see her again.

20:11 Does she have a high voice? There's one with a very, I just can picture her punchable face. I don't remember the voice, but so, so not, don't see her anymore. Then we see one that was okay. But then the next time we go back for the follow-up, the first, for the, for the, not for the follow-up, but the first time we go back for the first time we went for the diaper rash, we get this new girl. She's new, fresh out of school. She's a PA. So that means because she's not a nurse practitioner, she, first of all, has the most current education. Secondly, she's got to talk to the doctor about everything. So you get two people looking at the situation instead of just one.

20:52 I like that. And she's very friendly. She communicates. She asks questions. You'll never see her again. And she's good with, she's good with the baby. So at that point, I'm like, what's your name? We want to see only you and nobody but you going forward. So we get her again when we go back for the follow-up, but again, no weight gain. So now we're both like, what do we do? So she's like, well, okay. And she's looking at the graph. But at this point, I'm thinking that two pounds that she gained when the idiot told us she could gain between one and three. Well, it seems to me in my, just logically, if a kid is always in the 10th or 20th percentile for weight, and an average kid should gain between one pound and three pounds in that three months, and she gains two pounds and four ounces.

21:41 Yeah, she outdid her. She outpunted her. Or they just weighed her wrong. Or that. Right? And again, she's not super excited about getting weighed. And she's always grabbing the thing that they measure her with. It could have been a false. It's hard to get a good reading. Sure. So I'm thinking, probably, maybe she gained a pound and four ounces. Or maybe she gained. Maybe less. Or maybe. And so then the two weeks later, she had gained weight, but it didn't look like it. But now, since the last time, she still hasn't. Gotcha. So I'm a little. Yeah, there's still a period. Something going on. Now, she doesn't look scrawny. She's healthy. No, not at all. Everything else is good. But we're asking, like, okay, what should we do?

22:23 She goes and talks to the doctor. She comes back and says, the doctor says, sometimes by this time, with breast milk, the protein starts to come down. And you should probably start doing some formula. So they give us samples of all this formula. Like, okay, great. Any other suggestions? No, just keep up with the foods. So we get in the car. And I'm like, well, I think what we need to start doing, too, is we're giving her simple stuff. We're giving her healthy foods. But she tends to like the low-calorie stuff. She likes fruit. And she likes strawberries. And she likes veggies. And she's not as excited about the meat or. My kids did the same thing.

23:04 Broccoli was. Not so much. So I'm like, here's what we need to do. All the stuff that she likes needs to get cooked in butter and olive oil. Get the broccoli and put chocolate over it. Well, yeah. Or like, I'm literally, I'm like, olive oil on everything. Butter on everything. Start. Our dream. I start doing stuff like that, right? Oh, you're making the oatmeal with water. Let's make it with heavy cream, right? And of course, she starts eating that stuff. Because it's delicious now. Well, also, like with the butter, we can't use any salt. But the butter's got a little salt in it. It makes it taste better.

23:44 She's like, you know, Kelly made hummus. And she makes hummus. She does garlic, the chickpeas. Mashes it all up and put some seasoning in it. And she's like, well, how can we make this better? I'm like, butter, butter, whip it. She says better. You say more fatter. Yeah. Yeah. So we started with that stuff. But we also start trying to give her a formula. Well, she is 10 months old and has never had anything but breast milk. Of course. She doesn't like. The taste is going to be. She doesn't like it. So we start first. Kelly tries to give her a bottle with butter. And she's like, won't have it, doesn't want it. So then I start trying when Kelly's at work.

24:25 I start trying to mix it. So I take two or three ounces of breast milk, put in just an ounce of. And it's literally, it's like handing. It's like handing an alcoholic, a non-alcoholic beer. She's like, you give her the bottle and she's like. Here, like, I don't want this. Like she's no interest whatsoever. So we're trying, we're trying to put it in stuff. Like, and she just doesn't want to giving a cat a pill. And this is exactly like, what if we wrap it in him? So she not doing it. So eventually Kelly's like, okay, I'm going to call and see what they say.

25:09 So she calls and the nurse that answers phone calls, I guess, calls back. And I'm there for, happen to be there for the conversation. And Kelly's like, well, you know, we've been trying this and that, but we, and she tells her everything we did. And she's like, I'm not surprised. That was stupid. Who said this? The nurse. The nurse says, I'm not surprised. That was stupid. We never should have told you to do that. She's not going to like the formula. She's, it tastes different. Yeah. She's just like, just keep trying to get her to take as much breast milk as possible. So now, now I'm, I've, I'm starting to really lose confidence with Somerwood because here we are. The doctor is the only doctor there. It's the main guy. He's the one telling us to do this. And somebody who works for him is like, oh no, he's a clown.

25:49 I'm going to override this clown. Right. And so I don't like that. That's weird. But since then I'm trying to just be creative, right? Like she loves strawberries, but she doesn't want to eat the, she doesn't want to eat the yogurt. Well, just mix up the stuff that she likes with the stuff that she doesn't like. And she eats it right. Also, we have been very dedicated with the baby led weaning where we let her eat. So she's feeding herself herself. And now I'm like, oh no, I'm like, so, so we'll give her stuff. And then eventually most of it's not going in. So I'm starting to like, it needs to go in your mouth. Put it on my finger. Hey, she opens up and I give it to her. It's always cute. And like, oh, she's feeding herself, but then there's no food going in the mouth. It is good. Like you can see she's, her dexterity has come a long way and she's doing it.

26:33 But now there's no messing around, right? Like we got to, we got to start getting her to eat. So I'm like, I'm doing the same stuff. I'm like, okay, I found this and you should try this. This recipe I saw online, some Michelin star chef. Everyone should try this. It's fantastic. Came up with the easiest, best omelet you will ever make. Oh, please talk. It is fantastic. I love it. Take an egg, a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise, plop, a little bit of butter. Whisk it together, put it in a little ramekin, 40 seconds in the microwave on high.

27:14 Take it out, put a plate over it, flip it out. It is the fluffiest, most perfect omelet you have ever had. Cause the mayo. I've never, yep, that's what it is. It's the mayo. It is fantastic. So I'm like, we're going to do one. I tried one of those. It came out a little bit runny at 40 seconds with my microwave. I flip it over. I don't know. I just did the 40 seconds because I got to let it cool down. It comes out pretty hot. Dice up some tomato because she loves tomato. Throw it on there. She has never liked eggs, no matter how we did it. Fried, poached, hard boiled, never liked. That, ate a third of it. So we got an egg, mayo, butter. Now the recipe for, normally they tell you to put a little Parmesan in there too.

27:55 Sure. Stuff, but I did it just plain. So egg, mayo, butter. For us, we put the Parmesan. Yeah. So one egg, a heaping tablespoon of mayo, maybe a half a tablespoon of butter. Okay. Mix it up as best as you can. Ramekin, microwave for 40 seconds. Perfect. It is absolute light, fluffy, delicious. It's fantastic. So I'm doing those. I'm putting the heavy cream in the oatmeal. Have you tried the cottage cheese, whisk it with cottage cheese? I have not tried that, but you could do that. I could do that too. So now she's starting to eat. We just discovered, we're like, what else can we try for proteins that we haven't tried? Well, we could try hams. We got ham steaks because she can't have cold cut ham.

28:37 Got ham steaks. Crap in there. Loves ham. So we're dicing up ham. She's always loved all the veggies and stuff like that. But I think we're starting to, you know, make progress there. The good news from that visit, though, was the new prescription immediately starts helping. So she is, by this, by now, she's almost entirely better. But it was so bad. You know how when, like, if you have a skin condition for long enough, it kind of stays discolored. It changes your, yeah. She, that's what it's like now for her. So it's not, it's better. I don't think she's hurting anymore. But it definitely, it was very, very. Wow, that was a heavy dose. It was. That was a heavy rush.

29:19 It was. It was rough. And you could tell it was hurting her. But it was like what it had done is you couldn't really tell if you weren't really like checking things out because it was just way deep. And if you weren't spreading the cheeks out and really looking for it, you wouldn't know. It was just that area. So we kind of get past the diaper rash stuff. And now we're trying to do some sleep training again, trying to get her to do that. And she's waking up a lot still. So now we're past the not feeding her idea. Sure. And I'm just trying to, I'm trying to figure it out. Like why is this happening? She's never woke up this much. And I start asking.

30:00 Oh, I know where this is going. See if you can guess. Was teeth coming in? Oh no, she's also teething. And that's something that happens. So she had, she's got her bottom two. And then while we were on the cruise, some of the top ones. And now more. So she now has four on the top, two on the bottom and two more coming in. Because it took Trina and I a couple of days to figure out like, what's going on? What's going on? I'm like, duh. She's pretty predictable now. She'll get real drooly one day. The next day she'll be wanting to chew on stuff. And then it comes through. So that stuff is pretty predictable. No, it's not that. So I'm trying to, I'm just like, what's different? How is this happening? And I find out, I'm like, why is the cradle wise, as we've talked about in the past, her cradle is set that when she stirs, it starts to melt.

30:47 It's supposed to rock you back. And I look at it and it's turned off. I'm like, why is this off? Well, and Kelly's like, well, I knew she was going to have to get used to it, not having it when we were going on the cruise. So I turned it off. And I'm like, okay, like, this is another one of those things. We have to communicate differently, right? We've got to be able to do this better. Because I'm trying to figure out. I don't even know what variables have changed. Right. Yeah. And I'm trying to fix something. You don't even know where she gets, she will. So sometimes what will happen with Kelly is she will make changes. And then when things are going wrong, she looks at me like, how can we figure this out?

31:28 And then I don't know. Yeah, I need, yeah, I need. So, and then I have to go through this discovery process. Which I mean, in her case, good idea. Yeah. Because she's going on the cruise and we have to change it. Get her used to it. Because she's not going to have that on the cruise. Yeah. But again, what your end is like, like everything else communication. It's difficult, but it is. It's funny because there's certain things. And while all this is happening, luckily for us, an opportunity has come Kelly's way for a work opportunity that will allow her to work from home 100% of the time. Yeah. Which is huge. Changes everything.

32:09 Huge thing. But, and it came to her. She was not looking, but a peer that she has worked with in a couple of different situations in the past reached back. And so these people, this company recruited Kelly. So of course we go through and it's kind of a backwards recruiting process. Because it's like, she talks to the person who's hiring her. Then she talks to all of her peers. So that's like interview with the decision maker, interview with the people who are going to be your peers, then apply, then interview with the HR person. And then a final interview with the hiring manager's boss.

32:56 The parking lot attendant. It's so weird. It's a completely disjointed out of order situation. But she goes through all that. And we're getting to the point where they're going to make an offer. So of course, I'm like, I know they're going to offer their job. So I'm like, look, this is what you do. We know what the range, they posted a range for the position of how much it would pay. And there's a bonus involved and stuff like that. So I'm just like, look, whatever they say. Because Kelly is earnest in many ways. So I think she sees negotiation like that as uncomfortable. And I think generally women are less likely to be aggressive in negotiations like that.

33:39 So I'm like, look, you know, might as well. Look, you're going to make this move. You take the job, even if it was the same pay or less pay because of the advantages. But they don't know that. Right. And why not just get every penny you can? Absolutely. Right. So I'm like, okay, here's what you do. When they make the offer, whenever that happens. Laugh in their face. You've already told them what you want. And we asked for like the top of the scale. Sure. You told them what you want. If they say anything but that number, all you say is, that's unfortunate. How soon do I need to get an answer back to you? And say nothing else. He who speaks first loses. Retail 101. Don't. Just that's it.

34:19 Okay. So she calls me the other day and says, well, this other stuff is going on with the baby and your usual typical life stuff. She says, oh, well, I got my offer. I'm like, okay, what was it? And it's like, you know, 25 grand under the ask. And I'm like, what did you say? I'm like, wow, what did you say? I said, what you said to say? And I'm like, what did you say? And she says, well, I said, you know, is there any wiggle room there? Because I've been clear. And I'm like, nothing, what you said. And I'm like, so she gets home and I'm like, I'm like, let's role play this out. Make that offer to me. And she does.

34:59 And I say, well, is there any wiggle room there? And she's like, I'm like, now say it to me again. And then I say what I told her to say. It's like, how do those feel? Those two? And she's like, yeah, you're right. Okay. So she didn't listen. She tried, she tried, but didn't, didn't do it. It's funny. But now it's like, now she did push back a little. So they come back via text with a counter. And I predicted within almost exactly what they were going to counter. I'm like, they're going to give you a token, this amount of money, and that'll be it. And I said, so she gets the text, but now it's in text. So I can be like, okay, this is what you're going to say this as you're typing.

35:43 And luckily I was able to get it back up to very close to the initial where we wanted. So she actually, I think we'll be giving officially giving her notice for that job, for her current job today. But of course, she's going to give them a lot of notice. Like it'll be a couple months before we switch. But yeah, so there was that all going on as well. So lots has happened. So the family is working at home for 90%. I mean, I know you go a little here and there. But no, but yeah, she will be 100% remote.

36:24 You're 90. And I'm home a lot. Yeah, I work from home a lot if I don't have to travel. And it'll be nice because when we do that now, it kind of opens up the possibility of spend February in Florida. Anywhere. Instead of the frozen tundra of upstate New York. It opens up your whole life plan. It does change things a lot. So, but mostly just the fact that it's going to get her five hours of commuting. She'll be with the baby. She'll be able to take her lunch and be with the baby. Absolutely. The time spent in the car is eliminated. The hardest part for her is going to be.

37:05 Getting to work. Well, it'll be, I think, dealing with being able to feel like she has quiet space. Because I'm working from here. And I'm on calls all the time. So I'm constantly on the phone and on video calls. So if I have to build myself a soundproof room to keep her. Are you in the office here or are you upstairs in the dining room? No, because since the baby now. So I have the basement version of Kelly's office. So she has. Our old studio. Yes, our old studio is my office. And the room above it is her office upstairs. Gotcha. That has the windows and 22 foot ceilings.

37:46 Beautiful office. And I have the dungeon with the window. But I'm happy to have it. The nicest office I've ever had. So but she'll be. So she'll be upstairs for me. So I might have to migrate into my music studio so that she's not hearing me. Oh, because you're right up. I don't want to. Yeah, because she needs quiet. For me, it's nightmarish because of my tinnitus. So when the house is quiet, I hear the screaming in my ears. I got the same thing. It makes me nuts. But it's going to be wonderful for her and for the baby. And it'll be nice. It'll be nice to have her. At home and be able to have lunch together and yeah, it'll be great. I don't know if we talked about it in the podcast. The stayed home school.

38:27 Home school. Home school. Was that did we ever talk about that? Did we talk about that? I think we mentioned that. I it's funny because when Kelly and I first got serious and talked about things like kids and things. Yeah. She was one that was like, well, you know, private school if we ever have kids. And I was like, what are you crazy people? I'm like, I went to public school and I did just fine. Fast forward a few years of craziness. And now it's like I would never in a million years send her to a public school. Yeah. Because he would be like what? Baldsville. I mean, it's still North Syracuse. So she'd end up at the high school. The high school that I went to is one of the biggest.

39:09 It is. It's a pretty big. Yeah. And I don't like so. But just with the way things are now, I would never do that. I think the choice will be either a Catholic school or homeschool. And honestly, if I am in a position where I could do by then a stay at home dad thing, I would do that in a heartbeat. I'd rather be a stay at home dad and homeschool her myself. Oh, yeah. Then then have her do that. Well, you might have that opportunity, my friend. I hope I would love I would love it. I that is. Best thing I ever did in my life. That is. When I was a stay at home dad. You got to do. Ah, I mean. That's the best thing. It was it was good timing on a lot of things, but it's something that I can.

39:51 I always till this day look back and go, oh, my God, I spent so much time with my kids that. Yeah. I would have probably. And I know I did years with Natalia being in retail that I missed. Yeah. No, that's when I had Nicholas. That's priceless. Absolutely. No, I would love. I would love to be. So you never know. I would love for it to be that we both don't have to. I would I would love to make that happen. You never know. You never know. But but yeah, so that is that is everything. We've covered a lot of ground. It was fun to catch up on everything. I think I hit on all of the fun stuff. Hopefully she's not in high school the next time we get together. We're not going to do it.

40:32 We're going to we're going to get back on. We're coming up on her birthday will will be, I think, the beginning of season two. Oh, that's a good that's a good like for us. How long we when we started. We started in October of twenty twenty four. Wow. So we are well into our second year. And yeah, because we because, yeah, we started. We didn't tell anybody that that Kelly was pregnant until September. And yeah, we started in October and caught up on everything from day one with the pregnancy. And then we have just rolled right into. I can't believe that we were able to do this weekly in the beginning before the baby.

41:15 We did this every week. We knew we knew that that was going to change as we even said. We'll get back to weekly. So no, I knew. Yeah, because life takes. I mean, again, we're not even thinking of weather because you're going to throw in winter. Right. So that changes things. And then our work. Yeah. Like, you know, that that ramps up sometimes. And sometimes you have that free holidays. Yeah, that was that was free in the summer. So yeah, October, November. I mean, I was really free still. Right. When we talk about, like, coming home from the cruise and Christmas, and I'm still thinking we're going to have the party. And there was this point where, honestly, I was like, it's not there. I was thinking this is going to be really hard.

41:56 Yeah. And then sadly, my cousin Tommy passed away. And that was it. That was just because it's just that whole side of my family. I was like, first of all, he was a wonderful guy. Yeah. And he was he and Tish were the first ones here and the last ones to leave. I remember, yeah. At every one, every time, summer party, Christmas party, they were there. And I couldn't imagine having the party without them. Yeah, yeah. And I and I know that it would have been hard and sad for his all of his his family. So I was like, yeah, we're just not going to do it. Right. And, you know, we'll we'll we'll get back to those in the summer. We'll we'll we'll do it.

42:36 But yeah, there was just there was no there was no time, even if that happened. We were like, it would have been hard. Oh, yeah. We were a machine every week. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Well, it's tough. I mean, and I even said I even said in some prior stuff, I said, you know, things are going to change. Yeah. The podcast is going to change because eventually you're not we're not talking about a baby. Right. You know, right. I mean, so everything changes. And I think we kind of, you know, we did pretty good. Pretty good for a lot of things that have changed in our own lives. We did. You weren't even a parent. Yeah. So you had no idea. We were talking a lot of smack, but you had no idea what you were getting into. Right. I didn't know what was going to happen. So, yeah, it has been it has been.

43:19 I think it's interesting because it has been easier than I thought in many ways and harder in ways that I didn't imagine. Right. But it's it's still the podcast help you in a weird way. Talking about every week with expect because I think I have to give you something. I notice when I don't have time with you. Right. Right. Which we do here. Right. Yeah. Because it's good to talk about and process some of the stuff because I will oftentimes. After we have done one of these, it kind of helps me to collect my thoughts and get a better perspective on things. And then what really does is what I was thinking of doing. And please let us know if you would be interested in this.

44:00 I was thinking for the next season two at the end of season one to do like a clip show of highlights. Oh, that'd be fun. So I was just going back. Oh, that would be really cool. Kelly was in the background and we were listening and it was to go back to some of those early episodes with the pregnancy stuff and different things that were happening and talking about what it might be like. We might want. Yeah, we might want to do a season one cap highlights. Yeah. Yeah. That might be. That sounds like fun. It might be fun to do that. But you know what? Also, how many times in life do you have a chance to experience something and then. Have a record of it. Yeah. And then have a record of it and then talk about it.

44:42 It's usually you do a memory and then you stop and you go to the next thing where we're allowing ourselves to talk about it again and keep it lively and keep it going. And I don't know, it just. It's like having a like a video diary. Yes. And I can imagine it was impactful just going back a year and listening to how things were. So yeah, 10 years from now, looking at these will be. I just picture. I hope. I know I'll say, look how young I was. I hope I don't say, look how thin I was. But we will say that when we look at look at how thin Carlo. Yeah, hopefully that stays until the summer.

45:22 My goal is, I swear to God, my goal. I just want to be in a swimsuit once before. Right. Until I put it back on. Like give me one time of feeling okay with my shirt off. Yeah. Before I most likely start eating again. Like no, no, no. But again, the older we get, the more we have to think about that. Right. Our health. That's right. You know, we're in our fifties. You have a long, beautiful journey with your baby. And so we want to help out any way we can. And I took it upon myself this year to make sure I get into 2026 a lot healthier. So there you go.

46:03 Yeah, yeah. Well, this was fun. It was awesome. Thank you for saying. I think this is probably what do we got? We got an hour. And we started at noon. Hour and 38 minutes of content. We only had one time that the camera went off. That'll edit down. I bet you will get two, three episodes out of this. Three episodes would be nice. Hour and 40 minutes. Yeah. 30, 90. We could do that. We'll see. It will definitely be a two-parter, maybe a three. But anyways, thank you for sticking all the way to the end. And we will see you again soon. Well, folks, that's another episode of the gray hair and daycare podcast in the books. Thanks very much for tuning in and spending this time with us. We hope it was fun.

46:44 If you enjoyed this week's descent into the madness of dadness, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any of our future adventures. And while you're at it, give us a like and share the cast with your friends on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, carrier pigeon, whatever you crazy kids are using. Have any hilarious parenting stories of your own questions about navigating fatherhood later in life, or even when normal people do it, email us at ghdc.podcast at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to.