Hi Eric. First of all congratulations! Being a father is one of the best things you will ever do with your life and it sounds like you are on the right track to doing a fine job of it.
When My 10 year old was just a baby the missus and I would take him down to the basement with us to work on the layout. Sometimes she would read and/or play with baby and sometimes while he was sleeping she would model trees for me. She is Aces at doing trees.
If he was crying for no apparent reason, as most babies will do quite a bit in the first 4-6 months we found that setting him in his carrier on the running clothes dryer, (just on cool air) while she talked to him would often calm him. Running the vaccuum as long as it's not too loud, worked too. The TV on an off channel playing white noise would often comfort him as well. Go figure?
Now he is older and working with me on a new layout and his little brother gets to come down with his mom to visit. We haven't had to use as many tricks with this one as with the first and since we are still working on subroadbed and risers etc. mom is not gearing up to make trees yet. Luckily mom understands that layouts and older brothers need love and attention too so we stil get time to work on the trains.
Have fun with that new baby. Treasure her while she is little cause they grow up so fast. I know everybody says that...but it's really true.
Hello Eric,
I have two girls - 6 and 10. When the first one was about 2, I got out my trains for the first time in many years. She loved them.
Then her sister was born. It was about another 5 years before I had time to even think about them again. Now the girls entertain themselves a fair amount of the time, and my wife has always been around to shoulder more than her fair share of the caretaking.
So, kids can bring trains into your life, and kids can keep you away from trains - it goes both ways. You're going to need some time to yourself, and the nice thing about trains is that they are right there in your own house so you can grab that self-time whenever you get a chance.
One kid will take up half your time if you and your significant other trade off time. The second kid will keep one of you busy full time while the other is busy with the original one. It will get easier when the get older.
All,
A few months ago, my life changed in a very significant way. My first child was born. She is the apple of my eye and I just love spending as much time as possible with her. I pretty much hold her and play with her from the moment I get home from work until bed time. The same is true for a good portion of the weekend.
The only drawback is my train layout progress has nearly halted. I have pretty ambitious plans for a basement sized train layout that I spent years planning while I worked on finishing the basement. I did finish finishing the basement a month or so before my daughter was born and did just get started with the benchwork. However, I am contemplating tearing down what I've started and restarting with something a little smaller so I might be able to have trains running sooner.
What have others done in this situation? I've heard that once kids get a little older, they'll want to play more with just their toys. Will that give me the time? Should I just wait out the early year or so? Thoughts?
Eric