I've always been one to dislike silence. Perhaps I should rephrase that. If I have a pounding headache or am taking a
nap, then OK, silence is good. The rest
of the time, I prefer there to be some semblance of noise about. One of
the problems with being a stay-at-home dad is that it actually really quiet
most of the time. Like creepily
quiet. Like "the scenes in horror
movies right before someone is going to die" kind of quiet (Did I remember
to lock the doors today?). For the most
part, I've had to rely on a television or a radio running in the background just
to give me some white noise. Or I've
just sat around singing to myself, or Ellie if she's awake. However, I don't really have to do that
anymore.
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| Go take a bite out of crime somewhere else, McGruff! |
While Ellie's been able to make noises for quite some time,
it's normally been limited to variations of cries, screams, and the occasional
cute baby noise. She's recently begun to
diversify her sounds a lot more. In
fact, if she knows for a fact you're talking to her, she will actually fill any
pauses in the conversation with replies.
Or even yelp like a dog during the barking parts of 'Who Let the Dogs
Out?'. For example...
While it's really fun that she's reached this stage, I think
there is definitely a part of her that wishes she could communicate more
effectively. She will generally only
reply like this for brief periods of time before her frustrations set in
because, well, because I have no idea what she's saying. I know though that in time, she's going to
learn to speak in real words and sentences.
Then if she's anything like her dad, she really never will shut up. And only about 23% of what she says will be
worthwhile. In case you're wondering,
that number was calculated using very, very scientific methods.
Fortunately for us, during those times when quiet is
preferred, Ellie has a foolproof method of ensuring that is what occurs. What is that method you ask? It's putting her foot in her mouth. Literally putting her foot in her mouth. Over the past couple of weeks, anytime we set
Ellie down on her changing table, she immediately begins stretching her arms
towards her feet with all of her might.
Luckily for her, her legs are really long so she has the ability to
bring her feet to her hands. During the
average diaper change, I probably take her feet out of her hands at least four
times. Wait, maybe I should double check
that...
- · Once to take off her pants and socks
- · Once to remove the diaper
- · Once to replace the diaper
- · Once to put her pants and socks back on
Ok, I had it correct.
I didn't want to lie; that's not
kosher. While the foot game has been
entertaining, it reached a new level today
as I was actually having to remove her foot from her mouth for the first
time ever. Props to her for having that
kind of flexibility though. I remember
always feeling really lame when I was younger because I wasn't as flexible as
the other kids in P.E. I could barely
touch my feet with my arms fully extended without my knees bending under the
strain. Ellie won't have to live with
that shame though. As long as she keeps
practicing putting her feet in her own mouth, she'll never be a pariah in gym
class and she won't want to quit exercising. And isn't that what's best for
her in the long run? #DaddyWrite
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| Note to self, don't let Ellie take life lessons from 'Friends'. |
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