An event you won't see at the next X Games

TwoBert's still teething like a mofo, so one of the best ways to distract him from the pain is to play Barber Chair. I lie on my back, he sits on my hands, and I ratchet him upward until I can lock my arms, give him a little swivel, and ratchet him back onto my gut abs. The whole thing makes him cackle--especially when he's at the top and bending over to look down at me.

The fun part for me is playing chicken with the little spit-goobers that fall from his mouth. He's still drooling like Vesuvius, but now he's deep into a raspberry/motorboat phase that ensures that every drop ends up outside his body. So I keep him up there just long enough before the bomb-bay doors open and his little depth charge sidles into place. Have you ever looked up at a sheet of saliva hurtling toward your forehead? It's a total adrenaline rush. For a 40-year-old, anyway.

Comments

[susie]

yeah, my older sister (who was evil, and still is) used to sit on us, and let spit start falling out of her mouth toward our faces and at the last second, suck it back in. but the whole idea was terrifying. i think once or twice it landed i'm scared forever.

[Rebecca Huston]

Careful there, I once got much worse than saliva in my mouth playing that game with my infant nephew.

[landismom]

Eww. I will be sooooo happy when I no longer have to have the following conversation at the dry cleaners:

Dry cleaner: "do you know what that stain is?"

landismom: "baby spit. can you get that out?"

[Matthew]

Both of our twins are into the drooling on daddy phase. We don't play barber chair (although it sounds like fun) but we play airplane and whenever they are directly over my face seems when the drool really flies. I've gotten good at bobbing and weaving but I chalk up any direct hits as a badge of honor.

[Swedish Girl]

Oh well. Sounds like some 30-year olds I know of a Sunday morning. (No names.)

[Dadly Wisdom]

Damn, I thought I was the only dad going through major teething and slobbery noses with goobers dripping down. Maybe we can start our own club.

[sac]

Heh, I've done something similar to the barber chair with all our kids. They would sit on my hands as I'm laying down, then I'd bench press them up and down while singing the "circus song", like "doot doot doodle oodle doot doot doo doo (repeat)," and then at the end of the phrase, give them a pivot back and forth. They'd love it. Our middle kid started asking me to do "doot doots," so that's what we call it now.

Yep, that's as treacly as I get.

[LOD]

Since we have an elderly cat, we have an entirely different appreciation of doot doots.

[katehopeeden]

What's wonderful is that, as parents, we play games with our kids drool :) I remember holding my daughter over her dad and letting the drool go :P Of course, it's not as fun with other people's kids and all of mine are past the drooling stage now.
~K

[Mrs. Kennedy]

When Jackson was littler Jack would put his hands on Jackson's tummy and lock his elbows, then drop him down and rotate him around while humming the "Mission Impossible" theme. It was pretty funny.