The Fat Lip

When Baby Blogworthy was born, I called him my little sleep terrorist. As much as I'd anticipated life with a baby, as many books as I'd read and A Baby Storys I watched, I was pretty unprepared for the reality of having a newborn.

Sometimes it seemed like it was me against Them. And Them included pretty much everyone in my house.

Not in a cruel way, you understand.  The baby was so unpredictable, the hours so wonky, my time asleep so few and far between, it was hard to find a balance and to work together as a team. Between the baby's crying, my husband's work schedule and basketball practices/games, I was close to losing it many a time. I felt like everybody else got him when he was sleeping peacefully and I got to tend to him when he was screaming his head off or wide awake at 3 am.

After awhile, when life slowed down, my Hub and I started working together. Then it was us against him.

Us against blowout diapers.

Us against a baby who refused to sleep in his bassinet.

Us against the huge mountain of baby laundry that seems to accumulate magically.

It got even better after I went back to work. One time I came home and Hub had done 4 loads of laundry (included baby laundry) and put it all away. And the baby was happy and sleeping and snuggly when I got in. HUSBAND FTW.

Every once and awhile we have some team building exercises that include laughing at our baby. I'm talking about stuff like, giggling when Baby Blogworthy farts or making him dance to I Like Big Butts.

We also like to laugh at Fat Lip.

Fat Lip is the look babies give you when they have been surprised and are displeased by said surprise. Here is a typical chain of events the lead to a Fat Lip:

• Baby is happy and smiling
• Something scares baby (Hubby making a weird face, for instance)
• Bottom lip starts to curl out slowly
• Eyes squeeze together
• Scream blows out of those little lungs
• Tears may form

It feels like slow motion as you watch the whole thing unfurl. Hubby describes Fat Lip as the following:


"The Fat Lip Cry: There is no do-over. You can't take it back, the damage is already done. Once you get the fat lip, you can't turn it back into a smile. You can't reverse it. What I'm saying is that you're basically a goner because all H breaks loose."

And while it should make us really sad for him, which is his ultimate goal I'm sure, it really just makes us laugh hysterically. I mean, we still say "It's OK sweetie, Daddy is being silly", we just laugh, too. It makes us feel like we're winning the war against baby-ness, even though we're actually losing this particular battle.

Watch out for Fat Lip. It will sneak up on you when you least expect it!