As all people surely know, there are downsides to every job
out there. Unless you're an elevator
operator; then there's ups and downs.
**pause for laughter** Thanks
folks, I'll be here all week! Now,
obviously there is no downside to raising Ellie. Can we all be in agreement with that and
pretend it's true?
However, there are
downsides to being the unpaid owner/founder/sole proprietor of a blog centered
of the lifestyle of a stay-at-home dad which features somewhere in the avenue
of 12 daily readers. One of which is the
fact that all of my words are out there forever for all to see. Once I've published, I can't go back. Therefore, there will invariably be times
that I contradict myself. For example,
on Day
103 I wrote about first impressions and how there's no changing them. Perhaps I was slightly mistaken about that.
Ellie has a well-deserved reputation as a difficult
child. For example, when Bethany gets
home from work, she needs to give Ellie immediate attention as soon as she walking
in the door. If not, we have a mental
breakdown on our hands. I know you're
saying "That's not so bad." It
gets worse. Ellie has essentially been
kicked out of our church's nursery every time she's ever been left there due to
the intensity, volume, and duration of her screaming sessions. You're thinking "Ok, maybe that's a
little bad." Ellie has also
developed a nasty habit throughout most of her life of screaming at the mere
sight of my father putting his hands out for her. Now, you're saying "That's one of the
saddest things I've ever heard." That's
very true since my dad's a perfectly nice individual.
Ellie must have been aware of the negative public perception
she was developing because she has taken huge strides towards becoming a model
child in the past two weeks. It really
all began when she finally figured out crawling. Once she had her "Eureka" moment,
she's been on the move basically only stopping to show off a big smile. She's just so excited to be able to go
wherever she wants that it permeates into other areas of her life.
For example, Ellie's naps have always been 100% contingent
on her swing. At least until last Friday
that is. For some reason she absolutely
refused her swing on that day. I finally
slid her into a sleep sack, read her a couple of stories, and laid her down in
her crib. I had every expectation of
needing to retrieve her within 20 minutes due to an epic meltdown. Much to my surprise, all noise ceased after
eight minutes. After waiting until the 20
minute mark, I crept up the stairs and slowly opened her door a crack to see
her fast asleep clutching her tiny teddy bear.
To top it all off, Bethany and I left Ellie in the church
nursery on Sunday morning with every expectation of needing to retrieve her in
between service and Sunday school.
Imagine the surprise when she went to do so and Ellie was fast
asleep. It was impossible for us to have
been any prouder of our daughter at that moment. She had absolutely taken leaps and bounds in
the preceding week and was now a tiny functioning member of society. Awww!
I had really appreciated all of the changes I had seen in my
daughter this week, but hadn't really appreciated how drastic they were until a
visit from my parents today. It clicked
when my dad put his hands out for Ellie and she flew across the floor and sat
down in front of him so that he could pick her up. In fact, my dad summed it all up with one simple
quote, "Somebody's gotten much more personable, haven't they?" I truly couldn't have said it better
myself. #DaddyWrite
No comments:
Post a Comment