Vaccinations, Panicky Parents, and Baby Josie's First Eye-roll?! : Episode 25

0:00 She's a huge Harry Potter fan, but Harry Potter was a no-no. It was not allowed in the house, so they had a hidden set of Harry Potter books. Really? That's their version of being bad, which I think is amusing. That's their version of me hiding my Judas Priest and Black Sabbath albums. I couldn't have around the house because I looked evil. That's why I'm always amused. It's just like, you hid Harry Potter books and my mom found my lockpicks. I'm like, what am I doing with these? Why do you have these?

0:41 This is the Gray Hair and Daycare Podcast. With a combined age of 111 years and a combined IQ right in that same range. Your hosts, Frank Sirio and Carlo Russo. Here we are. Here we are. Welcome back to the Gray Hair and Daycare Podcast episode 25. That sounds like something. It sounds more than 24. It sounds like one more than 24. It is something. And a little ways from 30. A quarter of 100. Yeah, that's it. We made it. We're proud. Nothing else. We prove that we can count. We can count.

1:21 Up to 25. At least up to 25. Next week or whatever. I can't promise anything. It's all going to go cattywampus. But you know what I love to hear. Yes, you do. So please hit us with it. Well, my name is Frank Sirio. I am 55 years old and my daughter is 10 weeks old. 10 weeks old. It has gone by in the blink of an eye. Yes. 10 weeks is just so so so quick. We're here. We're having sold fully fully into parenting an infant. Yeah, you feel like not you feel like a dad. You're wearing it. Well, you're doing you're doing the dad thing.

2:03 I ask you every day I see is like, what's going on now? What's going on now? You know, and we try to keep it for the podcast, but some stuff, you know, we have to talk and we we talk almost every day. But 10 weeks. Is it what you thought 10 weeks if you thought that at all was going to be like, I don't know if I thought it out in that great detail. When I look at how things are now. I think that it is. It's more fun, I think, and simpler. I feel like we've got our arms around things, but there are still challenges where she just gets out of sorts, right?

2:45 Because so you get into a rhythm, but we're not at the point now where she's on a schedule yet. But just the feeding, sleeping, it's one of the things that it's very easy. The train is going down the tracks. But then if it wobbles a little, it very easily veer and if it does veer off, you're you're trying to get it back on for like 36 hours. It's a day and a half to kind of pull her back into where she normally are. You think regular is at this point. Exactly what normal life is. But yeah, it's like we talked about before. It's like just when you get used to something, something else happens or appears or becomes the new norm.

3:26 And we have some new, we had, we've had some firsts happened since the last episode to talk about. So that and that stuff, too. So that's awesome. It's been a pleasure watching you become this other person that I've never seen you. You've seen me as a dad for many years. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I've only known you as either my friend or then a husband. And it's funny because as you say that, I remember you, you left my life. Yes. As when I moved away, I lived away from Syracuse for eight years. So you, you left me. I think you maybe just started dating, dating Trina.

4:08 And then when we kind of came back together was I was at, I remember where I was standing at the moment you were in Lowe's where I was working and he came around the corner and you had each other. It was either Nick or Natalia probably had Natalia in the, in the cart. Absolutely. So that he was little and there you were and you were married dad and from then on. So you went from like a single Carl, which we worked together and known to coming back to a married man with a job. Yeah. Family man. Carlo. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, I obviously had changed. Um, you know, he looks the same. But with you, I've seen, I've only known you.

4:49 Yeah. Yeah. The whole time away and here as single Frank or even single when I left, I was married when I came back, but there weren't any kids running around. Um, so this has been, it's been neat to see at our age, the changes that we think at this point, we are, we are right. I mean, it's like 55 years old, 56 years old, you know, you're going to change a little here and there. And maybe when we, our kids have kids, grandkids, we change again as grandparents, but at our age right now, you are who you are, but it's nice to see like, Oh, now you're the dad version of Frank. Yeah. And that's new for me. And that's kind of cool. It is. Well, I'm glad, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I get to go home. I wanted to be a parent just for that, for mostly for Carlo.

5:33 So he could see, I knew it. I do all this time and effort was for me and this podcast. So it's fine. So one of the things that I do now as dad, as dad, Frank, as you might imagine, I use, I use Google alerts, Google alerts. I have these searches for stuff about parenting, child, childhood development, and all kinds of things. So if there's any interesting new stuff that comes out that I, I kinda in my email in the morning, I get a list of articles and all, and, and Kelly suggested, because I never, I haven't achieved reading through any books since the book report has ended with the dog books.

6:20 Mostly you said you kind of skimmed the last couple of them, right? Yeah. And I was moving fast, but I do read a lot, but it's a lot of that kind of stuff. Right. So she's, she suggested, she's like, you should put these, when you find these articles that are fun, put them in book report. So we're going to go to one. We have not done in a while book report. So the book report on this time, there's a, I'm not usually a fan of CNBC, but their website CNBC's website has a whole collection of articles on what it's like success. And then under that raising successful kids.

7:01 Okay. And this particular article I thought was very interesting because it's talking about one of the markers of successful, highly productive adults as children. The thing that is very common for all successful people. And that was being early and avid readers, which is something that now I liked. I love to read. Kelly reads voraciously all the time. She always has. She is continually for a lot of our relationship. I'm jealous of that. She will. I wish I was, I wish I was better with it too. She loves Harry Potter. She will have, she will be continually in addition to whatever else is in her queue.

7:44 She will continually be reading through all of the Harry Potter books on a loop. Now, lately she's had enough to read with all the parenting stuff that Harry Potter has set aside. But yeah, so she'll like over and over again, like she, she reads it to her. She reads to relax. And I would probably, I could be wrong, but because she does that TV is really not that important. That was one of the things in the beginning of our, and I think I shared this with you when I was trying to figure out who this person was when she told me she didn't own a television for a while. And I'm like, I almost fainted off the escalator. I can't be in a relationship with someone who doesn't have a towel. Thank goodness by then she had one, but she was like, Oh yeah, for two or three years, I didn't have a TV at all.

8:27 She has it just to put things on top of it. Yeah. I was like, what do you, what do you do when you're alone? And it's, I have learned for me, I have, I have tinnitus. So if there's nothing on it's horrible. So I, I have the TV is always, always on in the background because then it's, then it's, it's bearable. I haven't learned. And then every once in a while, one will just turn off. Yes. It's like that does, that happens more as I've gotten older, but he, all of a sudden it'll be like, you're right.

9:10 I, I, the years of the guitar, as they say, 11, we put it at 11. I know screwed up my year. I mean, it had to, I mean, you, I don't know what you think you're, but no, the one sucks. I was always to the right of the amp and this here's good. So I need it. Like I'm used to having back and, and my growing up, my parents, it was always through dinner. Like it was always, there was always a TV. Absolutely. So this talking about how important that is. It talked about five things that are ways that parents of successful children encourage reading. Okay. And some of them I'm doing, some of them I'm going to have to learn to do.

9:50 The first one that I think is one that I absolutely is one of my favorite parts of being a is treating baby babble as conversation all the time. I love doing that. It's so good. It's so much fun. It makes me laugh and have fun. So I'm like, it is, I'm never going to stop. So that's something you did with both the wood. Absolutely. I love doing that. So, so we're, we got that on lock treating baby babble as conversation. It just sounds funny. The next thing is they ask lots of questions and wait for answers. So you, you're constantly, especially obviously as they become more verbal right now, I could be waiting a while, but, but I'll still do that.

10:35 I don't understand what you're saying. Explain it again. So, but building that, making it a conversation and, and really building their, their ability to kind of go do the back and forth and then wait for their answer and waiting for their answer. So that's another, so ask lots of questions, wait for answers. This is an interesting one and teaching them to write that, not just talking about letter shapes and how to draw them, but making sure you're talking about the sound and the shape at the same time, connecting, connecting the sound with the look of what the letter looks like, with what the letters, the sounds that the letter creates.

11:16 Makes sense. Not just names or shapes. I'm learning so much. I'm going to be able to read that. You're going to show up at Natalia's work and be like, and he'd be like, that's right, dad. You are smart. I know you're crazy. Then they play with words. And then with this one, they're talking about like, she sells, she sells, whether she's all guys, he says, yeah, those, those kinds of things, but playing, playing with things, just being clever and funny and using different rhythmic combinations of words to, so they start to understand words as something that is just, that can be fun and play with. So playing with words.

11:57 And then the last thing is, and this, I think I'll get better at, as we go through, I do this now, like I narrate when it's just like this morning, if it's just me and her, and I'm trying to keep her entertained and get stuff done, I just narrate the whole process of whatever I'm doing. So I'm like, so now we're going to feed the dogs. Watson gets more. Cause he's huge. And I'll start when he gets a cup and a half. And that was the moment when. Yes. And that was the moment. Daddy realized. Daddy realized. Mommy was crazy. But he gets that reference. You get an apple. That's right. They seize. So this one, the number five was, they seize readable moments all day long.

12:39 So it's not just reading as a real, as the event reading before vet, it's just finding opportunities throughout the day to what's that say? And what does that sign say? And, and, and finding opportunities to talk about and reinforce reading throughout the day. Kelly is already doing reading time, right? Like she has the books and now it's more like they're all very high contrast color stuff. And she engages, she likes baby beluga. There's one, a whale book. She really likes, she will be all over reading time. So can I, I want to throw this out there because I grew up with none of this in my, I did, I was going to ask you, and I don't know if you know, with Kelly, did she grow up with this, you think, uh, set up, uh, to get her reading the way she is now?

13:31 And how were you? And you just answered that. You were more like my parents. I had none of this. It's interesting. When I went to kindergarten, I was way ahead of other kids just because I had my, my sisters, they were teenagers when I was born. So they taught me like I knew my alphabet and I can read, I can do all that stuff. I was, yeah, I was way ahead, but there was no story time. And I, I enjoyed reading, but like by the time I got into school where reading was important, I like there was, I had certain authors that I like to read and it's mostly science fiction stuff. And that was it with Kelly and her family.

14:14 I think obviously there was a very intense focus put on academics, right? That was the only thing that matters. Yeah. Very high standard for academic excellence and education in general. But I think her older brother, they are cut. They are definitely cut from the same cloth in that Kelly is one of these people that knows it's like, what's that plant knows it? What's that bird knows it? Encyclopedic knowledge of nature, all that, all that stuff.

14:54 Everybody knows that. I'm like, Nope. I know one bird. Yeah. I know it's a Robin. I know that that's a Robin. I'll still screw that up. Yeah. Sparrow, Robin. That's a pigeon from downtown Syracuse. I can recognize those. But yeah, no, she she's, and I think it's because he was a few years ahead and he, I think he spent an, a tremendous amount of time kind of being her little tour guide of the world. And I, and that probably, he probably inspired the reading, but, and it was definitely, I think for her because her, her, her mom pretty strict.

15:36 And I think for, for her and probably her siblings, reading was a little bit of a, an escape, right? Like it was like, like they could never, they couldn't have, she was just telling me about this the other day. She's a huge Harry Potter fan, but Harry Potter was a no-no. It was not allowed in the house. So they had a hidden set of Harry Potter books. Really? That's their version of being bad, which I think is amusing. That's their version of me hiding my Judas Priest and Black Sabbath albums. I couldn't have around the house because I looked evil. That's why I'm always amused. She's just like, you hid Harry Potter books. And my mom found my lock picks. What are you doing with these? Why do you have these?

16:17 Yeah, no, that, like that, that's what it was like. It's, it's, it's stuff like that. That's funny how different people grow up. Yeah. She's like, we hid Harry Potter books. Okay. Yeah. The whole reading thing, it's, you can tell because with my, my wife is very into reading and educated in that sort of stuff that I was not. I just, I come from two parents that didn't read themselves. The language barrier is a real thing. It was tough, man. My mother, my mother, I think went to second grade and my dad barely made it out of like maybe fifth grade or sixth grade. And it was, it's, it's, so when you're raising us and then the language, I mean, by the time I was five, I was in my third country of language, you know, so I did have a problem in school.

17:04 I was, you know, I had a problem with picking up English and it's not easy. English is not easy. So in what I, you know, I remember having problems with why is this word sound like this word, but it's not spelled the same word. It is spelled the same, but it means different things. I couldn't figure it out. Why is there silent anything? The languages you knew are much more consistent and organized in a very logical way. It's different when you have all these, like, you know, this before this sounds like this. And if you take that away and put that in front of here, it's a, it's a, so I made reading like a bad thing. It was like an evil thing. I was scared of it. So I was always behind in school until I kind of, okay, now you have to figure it out.

17:48 And I'm not the best reader. So if you don't, if you don't, if you don't think you're the best reader, you're not going to read as much as you fear it. Yeah. No, that's a, yeah, I was never like, I would, I never, even to this day, I don't read, I read a lot, but I read nonfiction. Like I read about whatever I want to learn about. I've very, there are a handful of books, fiction that I've read. Yeah. Yeah. But that's something that I'm sure between the two of us, I think Josie's going to be a reader. So I thought that was fun. So that is a book report. So shows like shows like Sesame street and all that stuff.

18:28 It does. I mean, yes, there's a, but they do teach like the, the A's and the, you know, they do have the fun fundamentals of what you're doing and reading and all that. And now, but now it's miss Rachel. I don't even know what it is now. Miss Rachel. She is the most, she is the most highly monetized person on YouTube. There's a video going around on Tik TOK or one at one of those. It's a real, and it's showing this starts with this little cute little kid crying, just inconsolable. He's crying and they put on miss Rachel and you hear hi. And he goes, he's his app. He just lights up just the sound of her voice. And then there's like five other examples, different kids, and they're all either disinterested or not.

19:12 And as soon as they hear her voice, I think they have found a way to have some kind of high frequency that only babies hear that to get their attention because it's, it's remarkable how it just the sound of her saying hello, we had, we had our version of that was Elmo. We had him on loop. We had him on loop. I mean, if Natalia cried, couldn't, we couldn't figure out what it was, Christmas or whatever it was, almost whatever that movie was. We've seen a billion times, but it was like, yeah, exactly. So that was our, that was our, uh, what's her name? Miss Rachel's I think is her name.

19:54 I do worry about, cause a lot of the content is, has a particular social or political bent. So I feel like we started, like I've started to ever, whenever we do have a chance to watch TV, I'll be like, what's bluey? Like we're watching episodes of these things to see, is this stuff okay? Because I find myself, even though I like having the TV on when I, when I'm doing stuff with her and the TV's on in the background and I see her look at the TV, I'm like, that's one thing that I think will be hard, but there will be no screens with her. Oh no, no way. It is so everything I've read, everything Kelly has read, it is so detrimental for children.

20:38 It destroys their ability to socialize their development in so many ways. I don't think I don't think I see it all that. Yeah. It's just like, that's the up here and the kid just talking and being part of the situation and the family and the, and the moment, it completely short circuits their development. And I tell you, I've been there and sometimes you need something and I get it. I get it. I'm not, I'm not trying to tell you, I've been there, but you have to know. I do worry. I do worry that there's going to be that moment where I want to turn to that, but I feel like what I'm trying to do is cultivate.

21:21 I want, I would rather it be music. I want to try to find a way to use music to do that, to redirect. And hopefully I can build in her, like that love of it. You know, when it starts is when you get a little older and you start doing family stuff with the public, restaurants in places where you don't want to be seen and heard. And so that's when you want the kid to go crazy. And that's where I think most parents have problems with it. They don't want to be looked at the restaurant at Disney or maybe not Disney because everybody's crying, but you know, someone's church or this, that's the other. And that's when you start going, okay, just now, just for now, let me do this.

22:03 And you might get into that kind of habit. It's, it's scary. We didn't, we weren't crazy, but we had our moment. The proof is in the pudding. It works. She's already right. Like the little kids, like they, you, you see it. It's like, they just, they're mesmerized. But in that moment, when you're looking at your kid, don't you? I would think if I saw my little girl and she's like that, it's, it's kind of weird. Right? Like they just are like, Oh, it's like a zombie. Yeah. They're like a zombie looking at the thing and they'll do it for as long as you let them. And when we take it away, they act like you just took away their crack. That's yeah. That's the scary part about it is how you know how long you've abused it by the way they act when you take it away.

22:46 Yep. Yeah. No, I hope I can avoid that. You never know. They're 10 episodes from now. I might be like, yep, nope. She's in front of the TV. She's got four computers from the TV. I don't see that happening. I don't see that happening. I should be playing piano by, um, by three. I'd rather that. Oh, absolutely. Here's a tiny violin. Absolutely. The way your brain opens up with music. Oh my God. How easy it is to learn other things like language. When you pick up another language, it just opens your mind up to everything else. I started working with me, but no, but yeah, so I, hopefully we can avoid that. Yes. But we're going to move on now to something we have not done since April fool's day and it is check please.

23:34 So if you recall, since it's been a while, check please, I'm going to, for the rest of my daughter's life, track how much money her mother and I are spending on her. So we went through and updated it. So now the last time we did it was a little over a month ago and our total was $4,309 and 63 cents on, on everything. Most of it, I think the number one spending category was the cradle wise and then Amazon. So in a little, about another six weeks, most of which of the time that she's been, you know, well, the second half of her being home. So we're eliminating what to these costs. We're not, because I know we've done a lot of stuff.

24:16 There's been big things that happened. Yeah. This is just what clothes and, you know, that's a good question. Should I be like, should I be throwing like the baptism expenses? Yeah. That's what you're spending it on your daughter. This would be a lot higher. That's what I mean. No, I don't include that. We won't play that way I guess. No. Because it'll be in the millions. Yeah. Like the brunch was kind of more for us. Exactly. She didn't have any eggs by the way. So no, so it's basically anything that's really directly for her diapers, clothes or equipment that we need in support of her survival. Okay. Six weeks. I'm horrible at this. So I'm sure you're going to get better over time. I don't know.

24:59 Six weeks. I will say it's mostly this time. It was mo it was a little bit of equipment, bottle stuff. It was clothes. I talked about some of the clothes when I, when I traveled didn't tell me how much it costs, but you told me you bought stuff and, and then obviously diapers and the, the way I hear about Josie's sometimes she just, she got me for the first time in a long time. She got me on a double this morning. She did. She smiled at me and peed. I'm like, ah, I'm going to say in six weeks we are going to round it right off a nice $700.

25:40 Let's say five brand. You're very close. So you're getting better. Really? Yep. Even we were going through it and even Kelly just, she was further off than you and she's helping me, giving me what she's doing. I put in everything I've done and then I'm like, okay, you got to tell me what you did. So the new total is 49, 25, 53. You were within a hundred dollars. Yeah. So about, you know, almost 600 bucks. A lot of it was clothes, some travel stuff that I was not aware of. Kelly got a travel cooler for when you have to bring like bottles and a travel bottle warmer, which I would have thought we would just bring the mom cozy because it's not that big.

26:26 But so we have some extra equipment that I'm going to have to learn how to use, but that was it. So yeah, 49, 25, 53, still not as high as I thought we were going to end up being. Right. Yeah. That was still under five grand. Yeah. Still under five grand. Almost. Well, obviously five grand, like it's 10 bucks. That's the thing. You know what I mean? Still under 10. We're so spoiled. Like we don't even, we don't even think about it. Our parents bought their house at $23,000. My parents, it was nine grand. They bought their house for a night, like 1955. You're almost there. Yeah. That's fine. It is. But so that, that, that is, that is it for check, please.

27:08 Hey, don't miss any of the fun subscribe on YouTube. Follow us on Tik TOK, Facebook and Instagram. And we're going to roll into what just happened. So I think we had our something that happens to every parent that it was a first for us. It was our first unnecessary trip to the pediatrician. So, and I don't know how much we, we talked a little bit about this, but one afternoon Kelly mentioned that the baby is holding her.

27:49 She's kind of had her head tilted and staying that way. She's fine. She's as smiley as she always is. She's interacting. She's good, but she's just kind of like that. And you know, I had thought about and noticed, you know, I'm always, I typically, if I hold her in a cradle hold head here, she's always looking that way. Right. So I'm like, well, she's always kind of the way you're holding her direction wise. That's where she's looking. Yeah. She's looking, she's looking in that direction, but I had thought a couple of times, you know, I'd lay her down. She's always looking that way. And, and then she would, she would look our way and we're doing tummy time and different things. So I kind of discounted it when she brought it up.

28:31 I'm like, Oh, she looks different ways. Cause then at one point when she seemed a little more concerned, I kind of, I, I took the baby to the bed. I got a little Josie, I got a pillow and I start like I do with tummy time and I put her and she's looking this way. And, and Kelly is like, see, she's looking. I'm like, no, she's actually looking in the opposite direction of what you've been complaining about. Cause now we're in a different position. And I'm, you know, I think she's fine. But if you call the, you know, call the pediatrician if you want. Yeah, absolutely. Now, so she called and they said, well, you know, you can bring her in. Uh, or we had a followup later in the week, I think with the lactation consultant.

29:13 So that, or you could, maybe we can set up something for them. This was earlier in the week. So not a thing. We weren't so, weren't so worried the next day having coffee, I got my computer and I, and I I'm keeping an eye on her and I've her in the little BB Bjorn seat. So she's on the table in front of me and I'm looking at her and she is like, her body is a sea. She is completely like, I can't even do it. Just hunch this way. And so head tilted and looking off to the right and just looks absolutely looks uncomfortable acting, not uncomfortable at all.

29:58 And like, so she's fine. Like she's happy. She's smiling. We're talking to her like we always do. She's completely behaviorally interactively. Okay. She's fine, but it just looks so weird. So of course, what did I do? What you should never do, which is Google search. And I do Google search and I find something immediately called torticollis, torticollis, which is also called apparently Rhynac. Jesus. I don't know what that is. I've never heard of Rhynac before, but it may be people know it from that torticollis. So it is a condition that can be something from birth or something that develops later on in there as an infant or as a, even as an older child, where in some cases, one of the muscles in the neck is shorter on one side than the other.

30:55 So they, so as they develop and things loosen up and change, it starts, they start to do that. Sometimes it is because of their position in, in utero when they're developing, they're all kind of, if they were in that position a lot, they tend to drift, drift toward that. But, and then, so, and of course immediately, and we talked about it, I think I've gotten better, but seeing this immediately, I go to, Yeah, you're looking at it and reading. Now you're like, it is. And I'm like, I'm more, I'm more. And then I'm looking at now, even, even if it was that the long-term solution is like, look, it usually corrects itself.

31:39 If it doesn't, there are very, there are very simple surgeries that can be done. So it's not, but I'm like, get, call the doctor. Kelly comes and looks and yeah, it looked like she should be in pain. Somebody should be crying when they're in that. Yeah. And, and the, the thing that sold it for me was I'm like, okay, if there's nothing wrong, if there's nothing's tight, then I kind of picked her up and I held her on her side. So imagine she's like facing me and I'm now, she was, she was bent this way. Okay. So I'm holding her so that she should fold down. Right. Right. She should loosen up and she didn't get past level.

32:21 So she was like, so the muscles on that side were tight and it wasn't like she was trying and she was happy as a clam while I'm doing it. She's smiling at me, but I'm like, okay, yeah, no, there's something. And I was even looking up like, well, maybe we can do a little, just some heat, a little warm, like to loosen up the muscle there. And Kelly's like, let's go to the doctor. Do not put any heat. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm not going to like throw a hot pack on her, but, uh, but yeah, so, so we took, we made, we make the trip and we get there and it's funny because again, throughout the day, the first day when I poo pooed it, by the end of the day, we were giving her a bath. It was, it was not, not evident at all.

33:01 The next morning, bam, horseshoe. And I'm like, Oh, okay. What is this? What's going on? So, but then again, a couple of there, the pediatrician, great. They're like, well, you can bring her in. It was, we call them like when they opened at eight 30 in the morning and they got us in at like 11. So we show up by the time we get there, she's looking in the other direction. She's tap dancing. And now, and of course the, the, the pediatrician that we see, Cheryl's very nice woman. She's going through and doing all that. She's like, look, there's, there's nothing, there's nothing apparently wrong. You know, she's checking, you know, checking her pupils and doing, doing all that.

33:42 So she does a good exam and she's like, there is a thing called torticoles. It could be that I'm going to refer you to a orthopedic specialist. But if this, and the way she said it was kind of funny, if this happens to resolve, don't feel compelled to go like, so basically she's like, she's starting the clock on that in case this isn't, but already she was, you could tell this was just a thing. She was, you know, she was favoring that way. And then all of a sudden better. And by the next day, it hasn't happened since really just went away after you.

34:23 What's the improvement? No recurrence whatsoever. Yeah. Never again like that. Yeah. It's just, yeah, it was, it was, it was spooky, especially because she wasn't bothered by it. But when you read more about the torticoles stuff, it also, it was like, they made it sound like it was like a, almost like a muscle spasm that would be uncomfortable. And she never, I was going to ask the children that have this, are they uncomfortable? And I think, yeah, they, they don't talk about it as being painful, but it definitely, but it's not something they're going to smile at. No, they're not going to be completely normal. So we were a little, we were a little trigger happy.

35:03 Well, that's when you bring them. I mean, when you see stuff like that. Yeah. And again, I never experienced that with my children. So if I saw that myself, I would be like, Oh, this is not what I am used to. We have a good doctors and place to go and they take care of you. So, Hey, nothing is too small and nothing's too, you know what I mean? Better safe than sorry. Exactly. If you, if you can do it, you got the, you can do it and they get you in. And yeah, I would rather if you had a child and had that before. Yeah. And you go, Oh, I remember junior had that. But now you're like sitting there going, okay. And then you, like you said, you looking it up. Stop that. Oh yeah.

35:44 No, there's so many things, but yeah. So we had our, that, that happened. And then we came up on, so this would have been two weeks ago. So right before this was, this was just a couple of days before we had to go for our two month physical, whatever checkup at the pediatrician. Now in between Josie got to meet one of her cousins, who's toddler age, right? Came to visit over the weekend. Now goes to daycare, was a great little girl. She comes to visit with her mom and she's, she's very, you know, very attentive, wants to play. And she's having a good time now and a great, great visit.

36:27 It was nice to see, but we have very little exposure, right? And we're not keeping her sequestered from people, but she hasn't met a lot of people. Hasn't met any children, especially a child that's going to daycare and interacting with all the germs. So the next day by the, by the afternoon, she's starting to sound a little stuffy and by the evening, very stuffy, a little crabby. And I'm starting to feel like I've got like, I'm stuffy. I'm like, Oh, okay. But the next morning is our two month appointment.

37:11 So Kelly takes her temperature, no fever. So we're okay. Very stuffy. So we didn't bust out the snot sucker, but I don't even know how, like, I haven't looked at that up close to see, but her nostrils are so tiny. So, but she used, there was some stuff like saline. She put a little saline in and got a pretty good size cookie out and she was breathing more clearly, you know, more, more freely, but she was basically, you know, in a good mood, but a little fussy. So, but at the two month, that's the first round of vaccinations. So I'm not looking forward to that, but we go.

37:53 And, but of course we mentioned the cold, they take the temperature and she's got a low grade fever. So then it's like, Oh, okay. No vaccinations. And we see the doctor. She's great. Goes, looks her over. Yeah. She's got a little cold. You might, she's got a little fever. Don't, you know, don't be too concerned. Take her temperature. If it comes up a little bit, they gave us some baby Tylenol and I didn't know that like, obviously it's not a pill. So they give you the liquid and the syringe and they show you how much and all that stuff. And the, you know, we'll reschedule, we'll have followup in a week. So went home. And now when Kelly had taken the temperature, she did under the arm, the rectal temperature, which baby Josie is not a fan of, it was, it was, was more accurate.

38:46 And because it was like a low grade, 100.5, like it was very, very low grade, but still this fever. So when we checked it later rectally, then it was the, so she still had it. So baby Josie does not spit up. No, like my sister Lucille talks about her son, Shane, that the doctor described him as, I think she said he was, he would call him a spitter, meaning he just, he spit up all the time. Like just, he spit up all the time. It does not happen. I don't remember my kids being that as well. Yeah. So, so yeah. Very little. There you go. Very little of that, but we did the Tylenol, took it fine.

39:30 She didn't seem bothered by it, but then this was the worst one ever. With Kelly standing in the great room, kind of next to the glove seat. And she goes, Oh no. And I look and it's just, it was, it must've been a whole feed because it was like all over poor Kelly, all over her blouse and sweater down to her, her pants on the floor. Now she's, she's fine. Josie's like, well, okay. She's probably feeling great. And we're like trying to get the dog, like the dogs, we'll take care of it. So like, we're getting the dogs away. So we get Kelly cleaned up and then we had to give her, there was no way any of it stayed.

40:16 So we had to give her another dose. One success. The second time, no problem. We gave her the little small dose and the, by the next day, fine. Yeah. Which was, which was good. So we, but we had our first, so we had our first experience with overreacting and then we had our first experience with a, with an actual cold. Sure. But good. Her immune system, she got it in and got it out. She kicked it in a day or so and was feeling much better. And yeah, that was, that was it. So then the big event coming up from the next week was getting ready for, and then having the baptism, which as many of you know, Carlo and Trina are the God parents.

41:00 So we had some, we had some work to do to satisfy the clerical requirements. So funny. You just calling me up and going, do you have the testaments of the third priest in Sicily? We had to have baptismal certificates for both of them. And then also confirmation. And because they happen to be a couple, their marriage certificate, all from the church. Luckily they were helpful and I had to drive down and pick up the paperwork. Yeah. Oh, did you? I did. Yeah. I drove down. And so is the pastor there now? He left. Yeah. The new pastor, pastor is, I believe an Irish. Is he like a short, short guy? Yeah.

41:40 I don't know who. My height. You're right. Sorry. You mean my height? Cause it wasn't, I went to the rectory there and he, this guy let me in. He didn't introduce himself or anything. And I was like, I'm here to pick up some cereal. Yup. And I went in. Kind of younger, but not, I mean, not old. No, maybe thirties. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it was him. It might've been a janitor. He gave me the stuff and on my way. And the funny part is on my end, my stuff came from Sicily. Yeah. Your birth certificate from Sicily, from the baptismal certificate. So yeah, this is, I got it all together, put it together, brought it in. And I, we had to meet with the, our, our church has baptismal coordinators for new parents.

42:25 So we got to meet with Lindsay and Dom. We're the couple, really nice couple. We got, yep. They, they took, they, they kind of facilitated, sent us all. We had to watch a video. It was like a couple hours and answer some questions. We had to fill out paperwork ourselves. And then we had to meet with them and, and talk a bit about how the baptism would go, but really nice couple. We recognize them from going to mass. We see them, but we had never been introduced. So we took care of that. And then Kelly's parents came from Buffalo the night before and her older brother and his wife. So they were all here in the morning to go to mass.

43:07 Her other brother and his family came along and I was a little disappointed only because I father site, I was hoping it would be the doing the baptism. He is pastor for two parishes. So he did like the homily at 10, 10 a.m. Mass at one. And then he does mass at the other one at 1130. So he wasn't going, but the Deacon Brian's a great guy. I really like him at mass. He did do the homily. And I think he was, do you remember when he pointed out, he's like, there's baptisms. And so for some of these, it's their first child. He's still, he's still dealing with that. I think he is. He's still really, I'm surprised.

43:49 He goes, really? You're free. You should. Yeah. I'm sure. And I thought, I thought maybe they were wrong, but no, he, he did a nice homily. We had a very nice mass. You know, faith is very important to, to Kelly's mom. But I think our, our, I think our parish showed well, like we had a nice mass and then, uh, uh, Deacon Brian did a great job. There were three babies being baptized. He did a great job. Yeah, it was neat. Yeah. I mean, obviously it took a little longer because there's three, but it was, it was really nice because you get to see other families and stuff enjoy themselves as much as we did. Yeah. It was, it was fun. So we, we did that.

44:30 And then luckily because it was mother's day when we had it, that we were able to find a brunch that we could go to. So we had reservations. We went out to place in Fayetteville craftsman in and family came out and yeah. So what did you think of the overall experience of, of God parenting? I did it once before with my nephew, Peter, and we did it again with our nephew Nicholas, but we were not in the same location. We were in Syracuse and Nicholas was in Florida. So we were just named, but we didn't celebrate. This one was special because generally, um, you're not at our age when you're asked to be a God parent, you're generally in the thirties and everybody's having kids and, and stuff like that.

45:17 So it's kind of nice to, to do it again at 56 years old. I thought the mass was perfect. It was a really nice way to do it. They do the mass. And then because it was mother's day, it felt like a special, it was a special day as it was with, with Kelly being the first, her first mother and then the baptism, which faith is very important to us. Um, which is a huge, huge part of our faith. Yeah, it was just great. It was great. And then lunch obviously was the brunch. The place is gorgeous. That was a good, I mean, they, I think they do it on other holidays. I would go back. Oh yeah. There was a nice brunch. The food was excellent. A lot of different food. Yeah.

45:57 Yeah. Nice, nice variety. So you can have, you can go brunch way. You can go totally launch. You can go totally breakfast. Yeah. It was, it was, you really, you did a nice job. It was also helpful because my, my sister, Paula and Avi, obviously they were there. Um, but I had pressed into service since the baby for, for Kelly's birthday that happened not long ago. And then for, for mother's day, I had some gifts that I needed to have wrapped. And Paula told me about this. So, so well, there were two, she tell you about the, there was the jewelry and then the book and then the book. She just told me that boxes were given to her, not even open.

46:38 I showed up. I'm like here. Yeah. Just a bunch of boxes from various places. But the, there were two things. So I did, I was, I was talking with Kelly this morning. I'm talking about, well, what's the notable stuff from baptism and the brunch. He's like, well, you made me cry. And I'm like, at first I'm like, but she did. Yeah. So what got her, which I might, I'm like, okay, that's a win. What got her to crying was there was this thing that I found and it's a company called Wonderbly, Wonderbly, Wonderbly or Wonderly, something like that. I will put, I'll put a link, I'll put a link in the description of the, of the episode and they do custom books for different life events.

47:24 And there was one for a first mother's day with a mother and daughter. And well, and you can customize it, right? So you pick out, you pick out mother, daughter, and then you can customize it. So the characters in the book shapes and even look. Yeah. So you can pick dark hair and glasses and ponytail and no tan. Yeah. And it's not super detailed, but it was enough. Yeah. You could do it. And then if you want to, you can write specifically what you would like on a particular page, like an inscription. So I did that in the beginning, but it was a cute little book now.

48:04 And I thought it was kind of a 50, 50 shot. Either she was going to be very touched and at what she was, or she's going to think it was hokey. If you told me what you did, I would have told you without that. It's going to be the one and only thing that makes me the thing. So she really, she did really like that. And of course my sister did a nice job of wrapping. And then the other thing was I wanted to get her some kind of jewelry, first child, all that. So baby Josie's birthstone is aquamarine. So I did a bunch of searches and I found there's a company called Angara or Angara, A-N-G-A-R-A. We'll have that. Beautiful stuff unbeknownst to me, but my brother-in-law had bought a couple of pieces of jewelry or at least one for my sister from, from them.

48:53 That's cool. So I found it was a nice teardrop pendant on a chain. Very pretty. And you could pick like a, whatever size stone and whatever clarity. So I picked it out. I was very proud of my selection. So I, I had taken a, I took a screenshot and I texted it to my sister, who is a jewelry person and to get her, she thought it was nice and all that. Now, of course that screenshot then resides in my phone and among all the other dozens of pictures of baby Josie. And so at one point as we do, I cast photographs from my phone to the screen, to the television screen in our green room.

49:39 And we're looking at pictures and we're flipping through and all of a sudden it's Josie, Josie, Josie, Watson pendant on the screen. And Kelly's like, that's pretty. Wow. And I'm like, yeah, I thought quickly. And I'm like, my sister has been sending me pictures, thinks I need to buy you something, some kind of jewelry for, because, because of the baby. And she's been sending me pictures and I just, so, so I tried to play it off and I'm thinking there's no way she, she must know. But so then to really, really lay it on thick, I tell my sister, okay, here's what happened.

50:20 I tell her what happened. You got to text and start, start looking things off and texting to them, to me randomly. That's funny. And so then I can play it. I'd say, see, yeah, she's still sending it. It worked. I think we'll have to ask and see if she really knew it was because at least it took her off the initial, it threw her off the scent a little. Oh, wait a minute. Maybe he, but I was like, it was per one time we were literally eating dinner. My phone goes off. I, I look, I'm like, see, I'm telling you, she won't leave me alone. So I think for you to even think of that, but the other, the other problem is dangerous.

51:03 You know that, right? Yes. Yeah. If you could think that quickly and stuff like that, I would be scared a little bit. You're going to show me, is this real Frank? No, it is. So anyway, because I ordered it online, we don't have cable. We have YouTube TV. Okay. Well, YouTube TV connected to Google. That's how I search for everything. And it pipes special commercials to you based on what you search on. Right. So like I get commercials for like guitars, like it's like commercials, no other person would see. And so since I went to their website every day, we'll be watching the news and it'll be there's a commercial from Angara.

51:44 Oh, like every, I'm like, Oh, come on, you're killing me. That's funny. Yeah. So, but I, I think she was still, she probably expected it. Well, she probably suspected some jewelry, but I think, I think you took her off the scent of what but she does seem to like the, the pendant as well. So I was, I was happy with that. And what, what I think was equally funny was one of the things that my sister loves about that company is they, in the box that the jewelry comes in, they build in an led light to make it sparkle when you open it up. Now the battery in hers that my brother-in-law has given her has since died.

52:28 So she's like, like, if you're not going to use the box, I'll test. She's been vying for the boxes. So I thought I'm going to find a way to change the battery in her box just because she did a good job. Every, every day she's like, for that battery to die, what are you doing with it? How many times, is it like a refrigerator? What are you doing over here? She's peeking at it. Everyone's in awe. Look at putting it back in. Just put it back, playing the game. Oh, surprise. Look how it sparkles. I know she's listening. Stop opening that. Just close it. Close it. Save it for special. Walk away. Save it for special occasions. Special days. That's funny.

53:08 That's funny. But it was a beautiful day. Yes. Weather-wise it was sunny and nice and we had a nice, nice meal afterwards. And it was on Mother's Day. And on Mother's Day, which was nice. So yeah, I thought it was a wonderful day all the way around. Yeah. And, and then we had our follow-up just today. Oh. Because we couldn't do the vaccinations. Right. Because of the sniffles. The sniffies. We went back earlier today and we had our first vaccinations. So it was three, three vaccinations. So one was oral and then one in each leg. Shots. Now, so the three are, so this is one, there's a series, there's a ton of vaccinations.

53:51 There's all kinds of stuff to read. Yeah. Some of it I'm uncomfortable with, but generally. Of what they could, reactions. Just some, like, I feel like there are certain ones that I just feel like we have so many in the United States. And for some that I just think it's ridiculous. Now there is a chicken pox. Like you had chicken pox. Sure. I had chicken pox. Everybody had this guy right here. We would have parties. Right. If we didn't have them, we would get together and get it right. Get your kids together. That's what it was. That's what happened to me. The kid down the street got it. They let everybody know from the school. I got to go to a party with that kid.

54:32 Get it. And yeah, you get it and you get out of the way and it's, and it's done now. Then they come out with the vaccine. Right. And I'm like, well, why do you need a vaccine? The kid's just going to get it. Well, now you have to get the vaccine because if you don't get the vaccine, so few kids get it. You get it when you're older and then it's dangerous. It's shingles. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, or if you get it as a child is bad. So there's just, there's a lot to it and there's a tremendous amount of reading and information. But as is often the case, our pediatrician, if you don't sign up to take every one of them, they won't see you. You can't go there or you can't go to school.

55:15 You gotta have them or you're ain't good. Yeah. So, but anyway, so the, so the three today are Vaxellus, Prevnar 13 and Rotavirus. So Vaxellus is, it is actually six vaccines in one. So it's diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis, and some others. Was that the oral one or? I'm not sure. You're not sure. Okay. Prevnar 13. It sounds like a planet in Star Trek. Prevnar 13 covers 13 types of pneumonia. And then Rotavirus is the one that gives you the scoots. But it's very, it's a dangerous one for, for little kids.

55:55 So they got that. So there was the three, the oral one. She was like, didn't like that. I need to chase her dad. Now. And it was what now I thought it was going to be worse with the shots. It was definitely a kind of crying that I have not heard of until now, but I feel like she handled it. Well, it doesn't last long. It didn't last too long. And it's maybe afterwards, you know, they leave you in the rooms and, and Kelly was going to feed. And I was like, well, that wasn't, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It looks at me like I'm a monster. She's like, it wasn't. And I'm like, well, no, like I, I was, all you have to say is I expected just honestly, honestly, I'm thinking don't cry.

56:41 I cried. I tear up. I was, that's, I was worried. I was going to cry. She, I think handled it like a champ. It was also like a delayed reaction. I thought as soon as the needle hit her, now you say that, that's true. They're like, what just figured out like that just happened. You're absolutely right. I do remember that. It's like, uh, did it, did, did, did the wallet? Yeah. Yeah. So checkup was fine. We have a new weight. Ooh, no, no. Last time 10 pounds official last month, the last one was 10 pounds, five ounces, I think. And it was a couple of weeks ago. Have we hit 11? I thought we were going to be there. So we're, we're, we're at, uh, we're at 10 pounds, 10 ounces, 10 pounds, 15 and a half, 10 pounds, 15 and a half ounces.

57:32 That's like if she had had one more boob of feeding, if she didn't have that one day, but yeah, so she's right at 11, right at 11 pounds. So otherwise good visit, checked her all out, listened to everything. I really liked that practice and I really like the woman that we're, that that's been working with us, Cheryl. Uh, I think she's great. So imagine that place where we, where you go now, imagine my son, Nicholas, still going there. Cause that's just with the Mickey mouse. And then my son's like six foot one. He's just like, dad, can I go to your doctor?

58:13 Can I please, can I please go to your doctor now? And I'm like, whatever, bro, they're not going to give you a lollipop. Shut up and hop up on the table. So that's funny. I know you, you don't know what we're laughing about, but it's, it's the, yeah, it's an adorable practice, but it's like bluey is playing. It's like chalkboard and everything's black and white and red. All Disney characters. It's can't picture it. Everyone's one. Sometimes when we're there, there'll be like a nine year old. They look like, come on, why am I here? Yeah. But that was, so that was, that was earlier today.

58:53 But yeah, so we've had lots of things. The first that I think that I have had that I think are the most interesting, I think some of them are not even first jets. They're like, I think they're coming. But one of them is we had our first outside tummy time. It was a beautiful day outside tummy time on the grass. We on the deck brought out a blankie course did a little rolling around out there. Fresh air. I bring almost every morning now that it's been, we've had some nicer weather, even it's a little chilly yet, but we'll go out just for a little while. Let her listen to the birdies, feel the breeze, get some fresh air. But yeah, we had outside tummy time. She's definitely already mastering being flirtatious.

59:36 She gives, she knows how she just does these little help head tilts and she, she uses her eyes effectively. And this is the thing that I think is not a first yet, but I told Kelly this, and I do think this is what's happening. I'll be talking to her being goofy and she'll just look up and to the left like this and she's smiling. But I think what she's doing is it's the beginning of an eye roll. I think she's getting ready to be like, Oh my God, she's, she's, I think she's developing the, Oh my God, this is my father. Yeah. So I think she's, she's working on her eye roll. It'll be like, I'm sure in a, by like six months, it'll be like Tina Fey quality, like super eye roll.

1:00:22 Is there any better thing than a baby smiling? My God, I think that'll end any war. It's just fight. It's impossible to appreciate the biological component of being father. I know I would never have thought that there was anything like that. Like for a woman, sure. And there's all kinds of things happening, but there's no doubt that that is somehow triggers the biggest dopamine Oh, it has to, in your brain of anything without, without some kind of injection. Absolutely. Just light up. You can't help but light up. You can be the strongest meanest.

1:01:03 I don't care what you are. And that little thing comes at you with a smile and you're like, you can't help it. Oh my God. You just can't help power. So much power. It is. It is. It is a lot of power. Okay. So that, that is a week, two weeks. Yeah. A couple of weeks. We had a lot happen. I'm looking forward to now nicer weather. Yeah. We got her a little, uh, life preserver for being out on the boat and some sun girl. Yup. We're going to be, we're going to be a little be with her shades and putting on her coated. Yeah. We're coated in SPF 20,000. It's like, is that concrete?

1:01:43 What is it? What are you putting on her? Anyway, but thank you for once again, making it to the end. And, uh, we will be given more updates in a couple of weeks. Wait for number 26. The excitement of 26 is going to be, it'll be a whole new level level. All right guys. Thanks. Thank you. 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. 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 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.

1:02:31 Have any hilarious parenting stories of your own questions about navigating fatherhood later in or even when normal people do it, email us at g h d c.podcast at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed.