Daddy, Don’t Wake Baby!

Sometimes, there’s nothing as satisfying as watching your baby sleep. In fact, I was doing that just before I sat down to finish this blog post. Luckily, my baby is a pretty sound sleeper. Our little one has slept through fireworks, power tools, birthday parties and other loud, bright series of distractions. There has been the occasional time that I felt like I was playing a real-life version of Don’t Wake Daddy!

It can be hard to get a baby to sleep, and often it’s deceptively hard to keep the baby that way.

Here’s today’s tip: without making it pitch black, you can still help your baby wind down for a nap. Make it similar to night time. Having a few windows that aren’t completely blocked by shades is a great way to subtly brighten a room with natural light so the baby doesn’t get confused, but it still gets a few winks.

While there are plenty of “Don’t Wake Baby!” moments, there are a few other old school board games that I’m reminded of through everydad tasks. One of those is a game that has been around since before my time: Operation.

Daddy Operation is most frequently played in combination with Don’t Wake Baby. Our baby usually needs a blanket to fall asleep. Once the baby is snoozing, I try to very carefully pull the blanky out. If you pull too fast or in the wrong spot, the baby wakes up. Talk about high stakes gaming!

Perfection is another dad adaptation I’ve come across. Instead of the board wobbling while you try to fit the yellow piece in the hole, it’s a baby wobbling its head while you try to put the bottle nipple in its mouth! Talk about a test of patience.

Those dad games are pretty fun to play, but the original versions are better. I can’t wait (/I’m terrified) to see the dad versions of these two games: Mouse Trap…

…and Crossfire! It had the coolest and Michael Bay-est commercial ever!

Until next time, have some fun! If board games aren’t your thing, you can always get suckered into the Pokemon Trading Card Game like I recently did.