parenting is a wonderful thing between two people. my HUSBAND tony and i had a lonnnngggg time to have our marital adventures before we had our spawn. throughout the now decade that i’ve known my PARTNER in crime, there are certain aspects of his character and mine that blend and balance as time passes.

me, i’ve always been a little bit of a worrywart, do-gooder, savior of the universe type of gal. (that last–usually sarcastic–monniker is from my MAN). tony, is the yin to my yang, the apple to my orange. he is too a bit of a worrywart, not so much a do-gooder, and really could give two craps about the rest of universe unless they happen to be in a beater truck in front of him on kingshighway, impeding his qualifying time in the race only he knows about.

having ella makes me appreciate our differences and shows me how well we will balance each other out, so help us. when it comes to ella, tony’s parenting sensor tends to veer towards the worrywart end of the spectrum. case in point: he has breathing checks. any time ella’s been sleeping, he goes and makes sure she’s breathing. now i know this is cute. in fact, it’s downright endearing seeing this usually misanthropic person obsessing about his child’s breathing.

it is cute. just not at three o’clock in the morning. i was having one of those awesome deep r.e.m. sleeps the other night, blissfully unaware of my surrroundings. when tony poked me awake. i’m sure i’m like most people in that i don’t like getting woken up from a deep sleep, especially when it’s done with a finger-jab. but i digress. it was three o’clock and tony woke up and ella was quiet in her bassinette. too quiet.

now unfortunately, i sleep next to the bassinette, for obvious reasons, so poking me awake made perfect sense to my SPOUSE. what follows is the conversation we had:

“what?!”
“it’s three o’clock. is she still sleeping?”
“you woke me up to ask if she’s still sleeping?”
“well, is she? i can’t hear her breathing.”
“she’s fine. she’s sleeping.”
“but she’s been sleeping for so long. are you sure she’s breathing?”
“yes.”
“okay. goodnight.”
*sigh*

at this point, i’m completely awake, joining my MATE on the o.c.d. train. what if she wasn’t sleeping? what if she stopped breathing?

so of course, now i have to check. i popped out of bed and hung over her bassinette, putting my ear as close as i could to her mouth. tony asks, “is she breathing?”

hmmm….yes! we have breathing and chest movement. all is right with the world. and there’s a hand flail. disaster averted.

we can now go back to sleep. again.

so if i learn a few things from this whole parenting adventure it’s that tony and i make a good team. we balance each other’s crazy out and made a lovely little girl who will hopefully only be minimally effected by her parents.

wish her luck.