The Littlest Gamer

Last night, my wife went up to Alton to see her mother. Since the family was going to go to the Alton Belle Casino for dinner (and Oliver is decidedly underage for a casino), Oliver and I went to gaming together. With the diaper bag, bottled breastmilk, toys, blankets, a rocking chair, and my suitcase full of gaming books, I looked like I was planning some sort of polar expedition as I rolled up to my friends' house. Having Oliver along made for an interesting evening. He is ordinarily a happy, smiling baby. But the combination of teething and a missed afternoon nap combined to make him cranky unless he was being held (and sometimes even cranky then). As holding a baby is not terribly conducive to being the DM, our group ended up playing "Pass the Baby" a lot. Thankfully our group has a number of willing hands to hold him, so no one person got too sore from hefting him. After numerous attempts to get him to sleep, he finally crashed out in my arms about 9:00. And once he was down, there wasn't much that was going to make him stir. At 10:00 we wrapped up our session and with some assistance I loaded back up the car.

It's times like those that make me flabbergasted that some people are able to do this by themselves. It's no wonder that they don't leave the house much.