As Ellie gets older, I find it super intriguing to watch her
little personality continue to develop and flourish. For example, one of my
favorite activities is trying to figure out which facets of her personality
come from me and which ones come from her mom. For example, Ellie hates being
stuck at home. If she could voice her own desires and opinions (you know, in a
verbal manner), I'm positive she would ask to go outside to find some kind of
adventure. It should be well-known by now that I go completely stir-crazy if I
spend too much time at all. There are a ton of other personality traits that I
can see Ellie developing but there is one in particular I've come to love. In
fact, the trait in question comes directly from her mother first and foremost.
Here's the necessary background information. Ellie's
evening activities are pretty well defined. Well, at least we believed they
were. Once Bethany gets home from work around 5:00, she promptly nurses Ellie.
Following that, we let the baby play until around 6:00 when we plop her down in
the high chair for dinner. Once dinner is over (usually around 6:30), we draw
Ellie a bath and give the water five minutes or so to cool down before placing her in the tub. After bath time is done, Ellie is supposed to go to bed.
However, that has not been the case as of late.
Ellie's basically decided that only babies need sleep.
Unfortunately, she does not view herself as a baby anymore. It's probably Bethany's and
my fault as we've been praising her lately for being such a big girl.
Therefore, little Ellie now wants to act older than she is. One of her ways
to do so is via her refusal to sleep. Ellie will
immediately stand in her crib after being put down and will either scream
until someone comes to save her or until she passes out. It's just whichever
comes first.
As Bethany and I don't really enjoy the eardrum shattering
cries of our daughter, we pretty much always give in and bring Ellie to our TV
room to play whilst we relax. And play she does. In fact, it's become common
for Ellie to play so hard that she will actually drop her entire body to the
ground from pure exhaustion. Following that, she'll fight back to her knees and
begin crawling again only to experience the same fate moments later.
 |
| Kind of like that. Just without the walking part. |
I think that I love watching this so much because it
actively reminds me of the early years of our marriage. Bethany would often
make the mistake of staying up too late and would find herself collapsing onto
the floor while going to do the simplest task. Sometimes, all that stood
between her and her bed was to brush her teeth. However, a short catnap would
be the only thing that would give her the stamina to complete said task.
As Bethany and I are celebrating seven years of marriage on
Monday, it's easy to find myself looking back at the past seven years and
remembering some of the stories that brought me joy. Even though it doesn't
happen nearly as often anymore, I will always remember the nightly ritual of
trying to scoop my wife off of the floor so she could go to sleep. Luckily for
me, it seems I'll get to relive that all over again with Ellie.
At least I think it's lucky. Who knows? I may revaluate that
statement if Ellie's still crumpling into a heap on the floor from exhaustion
when she's a teenager. #DaddyWrite
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