Greg wrote about a flip-flopping-waking-up-at-3am problem he’s having lately. We used to prop non-suffocation-inducing items around our kids to prevent them from flopping, although not for the same reasons. I think we’d read something about the statistical probability of SIDS being higher if the kid was sleeping on his stomach. (We’ve since come to understand that both of our children are made of rubber and gave up. I once went into their room at 2am and found my daughter sleeping upside-down with her upper body hanging off the bed.) But it was the next thought that caught my attention:

Sure, this is just a phase, but I'm getting the sense that the next two years--hell, the next 20 years--are going to be an endless series of phases.

- Daddy Types: Stopping the flip-flopping?

Amen! I used to be under the mistaken assumption that things would get easier when a “bad” phase ended. I’ve always thought that it would be wonderful, despite the problems, if my children could remain two years old for a decade or so. Have you heard the phrase “out of the frying pan, into the fire?” Actually, that’s not quite accurate. With babies, it’s more like “out of the frying pan, into the slightly larger and hotter frying pan.”

For example. Babies go through a common phase early in life during which they cannot speak. You think, “I can’t wait until the baby can tell me what he wants. What a relief that will be! We will be much less frustrated!” Then, the baby starts talking, which in many ways is a relief. He can now tell you what is on his mind. Unfortunately, “no” and “I want” and “no fair” are often on his mind.

My daughter is entering a phase where she is regularly exercising her newfound power of multi-premise deductive reasoning, god help me. It’s only a matter of time now before she concludes that I’m a dufus.