Day 446 - Two!!

Ed. note: Before you say anything, I realize I'm publishing this post on Thursday night and it's no longer Ellie's birthday. However, according to the ironclad rules of #DaddyWrite, I am only allowed to count days in which I am home with Ellie towards the running total. That being said, I feel that writing something chronicling my feelings on Ellie turning two supersedes anything that happened today.

I find myself experiencing an odd set of emotions right now. Truly, I do. As I sit down to write a few thoughts in celebration of Ellie's birthday, I first looked back to last year's post, entitled One. There were various reasons for me to do so. For one, I didn't want to just carbon copy last year's post and change ones to twos. More important than that though is that I wanted to look back at my thoughts on Ellie at one and compare them to my thoughts on her today at two.

For posterity, I should probably remind myself how we spent Ellie's birthday. For starters, Bethany took the day off from work so that we could celebrate as a family. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. We started our day off bright and early with a typical Ellie wake-up call over the 5:00 hour. 

Now, while I'm normally pretty ticked about said wake-up call, that was not the case on this day as it meant we were able to grace Ellie with her birthday present just that much sooner. Just to alleviate any suspense, the present was a 36-inch trampoline. It may sound like an odd gift for a two-year-old but makes perfect sense when considering Ellie's affinity for jumping.

After an extended play session, we left the house early to head to the Kansas City Zoo, arriving in the parking lot around 8:00. After nearly three hours of pushing Ellie's stroller, we were spent and it was time to head for home. There, I transitioned a sleeping Ellie from her car seat to her bed where she continued napping while Bethany prepped Ellie's birthday cake.

Once Ellie awoke, the afternoon was filled with plenty of playtime even though Bethany and I each stepped out for brief errands. For dinner, we served up grilled brats and sweet potato fries before presenting Ellie with her ocean-themed birthday cake which came complete with two candles for her to blow out. In case you're wondering, one was successful while the other stayed alit.

Back to my initial thought. As I looked back at my post in honor of Ellie's birthday, I actually found myself tearing up a little. You see, while I swore up and down I'd never forget things about my daughter's life, the truth is that I already have. For example, look no further than this video from just one year ago containing a moment that had completely slipped from my mind.

While that's just one thing, I'm sure there are many, many others. Hopefully, though, those moments aren't lost to me forever. If I'm lucky, maybe I will have chronicled the important stuff in a #DaddyWrite post or at least taken a photo. That being said, I want to make sure I don't forget about the highlights of Ellie's second year. In no particular order...

• Seeing Ellie finally get brave enough to experience the ocean in the final moments of our beach vacation.
• Laying on the floor beside her bed each night and holding her hand as we pray together.
• Being able to run with her and chase after her now that she's older. Just to note, she's deceptively fast.
• On that note, seeing the pure, unadulterated joy riding on a moving sidewalk in the Atlanta airport brought Ellie during our Florida trip.
• I know it's silly, but Ellie's overwhelming love for Sheepie brings me an inordinate amount of joy.
• Anytime I get a hug and a kiss from her warms my heart to no end.

It's weird but just reliving the experiences of Ellie's first year coupled with thinking about the past year has tears welling up in my eyes (that are dangerously close to rolling down my cheeks). Just go ahead and take my man card now; I don't care.

Seriously though, I find myself thinking about just how quickly two years has flown by. Ellie is growing up so fast. She's running and playing, jumping and climbing, stringing multiple words together. She's even already working on potty training (on her own accord!). 

Now vs. Then

As we head into year 3, I know Ellie's going to continue to grow and develop by leaps and bounds. However, I need to make sure I do the same. So, in the third year of Ellie's life, I want to do a better job enjoying my time with her. I want to share new experiences with her, spend more time outside, be on my phone less, intentionally share God's Word with her, take more dumb selfies together, and most importantly, be the dad (and friend) that she needs. 

After all, as my pastor says (and I paraphrase), investing in a relationship with your daughter is one of the best things you can do as a dad. It's something you'll never regret doing and something you'll always be glad you did. Or, you know, something kind of like that.

Happy (belated) birthday Ellie!

Love, #DaddyWrite

Day 445 - Oh, Woe is Teeth

Being a stay-at-home dad is a really fun job. On second thought, 'job' might not be the proper term. 'Career' or 'profession' doesn't sound quite right either. Even 'serf' would be the wrong description for what I am. Therefore, for the sake of time, I'll stick with the word, 'job'. 

To reiterate my initial point, being a stay-at-home dad is a really fun job. I truly mean that. Although I often complain, harp, and moan about my current lot in life, that's partly because #DaddyWrite serves to provide me with a nice outlet in which to vent. 

Wrong kind of harp...

Honestly though, think about the perks. I get to be outside pretty much whenever I want. I can go to the park or the zoo at any time. As long as it fits into Ellie's nap schedule, there's nothing stopping me from meeting friends for lunch. Pretty much the only thing I can't do with Ellie in tow is go to a movie, although I doubt that would be enjoyable for anyone.

Of course, for every up in parenting, there must also be a down. For yours truly, nothing is worse than having a sick kid. Even if said kid is not really sick in terms of the conventional definition, it still can be a bummer.

Lucky for us, Ellie have been a remarkably healthy child during the first year and 364 days of her life. Honestly, the only time I can remember her being legitimately ill was due to a single ear infection. However, there have been plenty of times Ellie has found herself "sick" due to one tricky factor: teething.

Ellie has been unbelievably slow to have all of her baby teeth pop up. In fact, the poor girl didn't have a single speck of white in her mouth until about thirteen months of age. Since then, it's pretty much been a nonstop barrage of teething pains. While they are normally bearable for Ellie, she is subject to a really bad episode now and then. When these bad episodes occur, there's only one thing I can do: man up and cheer my daughter up.

Obviously, Ellie is currently in one of those hardcore teething pain sessions complete with mild fever, lack of appetite, and the sour attitude to match. Therefore I've been doing all I can to make her happy. In case you're wondering, I've found there are three things that seemed to work above all else.

The first thing? Building towers with blocks. While this is always a favorite activity of Ellie's, it seems to have increased tenfold today. Although I should state that Ellie is not really the one building said towers. Instead, I'm the one tasked with building as Ellie yells "Build towers" at me over and over again. No matter how good of a job I do, there always will come a time when my tower no longer meets my supervisor's liking leading to its inevitable demolition.

Now for the second thing which is napping. Although, today wasn't exactly napping as I've come to know it. To provide some context, Ellie probably only slept about four hours last night which means that Bethany and I probably only slept about four hours last night. At 7:30 this morning, Ellie began asking for a nap to which I happily obliged. I'm happy to report she slept for two hours during that first cycle. No problem there. 

The problem, however, occurred with each cycle to follow as Ellie inevitably would play for 30 minutes to an hour before asking for a nap again. With that, she would head to her bed only to arise 15 to 20 minutes later. As you can probably guess, this never-ending cycle consumed most of my day. Even though I eventually wizened up and quit latching her door, I still was obligated to tuck Ellie in for each of her so-called "naps".

On to the third thing and make certain you're taking notes here. If you happen to be cat sitting, use said cat to solve all that ails your daughter. With Bethany's friend/co-worker, Vicky, in Seattle for a few days, Ellie and I had been tasked with checking in on her cat, Petey, every couple of days. From the time we walked in the door of Vicky's apartment until we left almost forty minutes later, Ellie was totally enamored with Petey. Not only did she play with him and follow him around the apartment but she also took great interest in making certain I changed Petey's water. Seriously, all I heard during that time was "Petey's water. Petey's water. Petey's water." 

Here's the part  of this post where I ask you all to hold out hope for me that Ellie's teething woes subside sometime soon. You see, even though I know ways to combat what ails her, I don't want to see her suffering. I also don't want to see myself suffering through the mental anguish of putting Ellie to bed approximately 15 times just for her to get out of bed 15 minutes later. Ugh. #DaddyWrite

Day 440 - The One Where Ellie Holds a Newborn

At nearly two years of age, we're rapidly approaching, or have already entered that time frame where Ellie has transitioned from being a baby to being a toddler. I admit that I've been slow to remember that fact over the past few months. However, it's not because I'm trying to turn back time or cling too hard to the care-free days of Ellie's babyhood. Instead, it has more to do with me still trying to get into the habit of calling my daughter a toddler. It's easier said than done. Seriously.

There are certain things that do assist me in remembering that my "baby friend" is now more of a "toddler compadre". Number one is that Ellie is most definitely capable of rational thought and speech by this point in time. In just this week alone, we've seen Ellie start to bust out complete sentences of up to four or five words in length on a regular basis. Even though most of Ellie's sentences revolve around some combination of Mommy, food, and Sheepie, I still find it to be fun.

In addition to Ellie's vocabulary expansion, there are plenty of other ways to help check Ellie's status as a "toddler compadre." However, if you ask me, the easiest way to confirm that Ellie is no longer a "baby friend" is to hold her next to an actual baby. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, allow Ellie to hold said baby.

Adventure personified. Actually I just really wanted to use Indiana Jones today...

Now, as someone who has seen Ellie handle stuffed animals before, the idea of Ellie actually holding a human being in her arms seemed mildly terrifying to me at first. However, in just the last three days combined, Ellie has now held a two-month old and a seven-hour old.  Yes, you read that right; SEVEN HOURS! Actually, that's more of a guesstimate but close enough.

While it's impressive enough to me that Ellie held a two-month old on Sunday, I'm going to skip over that little tale. Why? Because that one was just her cousin. My thought there is that if something bad happened, well, then it was an all in the family thing which significantly reduces the chance of lawsuit. Today was a different story though.

Ellie holding cousin Edmund while cousin Elbert looks on approvingly.

For the past few weeks, we've been eagerly awaiting the birth of the first daughter for our friends, Tabi and Malachi. Therefore, when I got the text last night around midnight that they had headed to the hospital, it seemed fairly academic it would happen at some point today. And happen it did. Since Tabi and Malachi had visited Ellie in the hospital after she was born, it seemed appropriate for us to return the favor. As such, a very excited Ellie and I loaded up to head to the hospital this afternoon around 3:30 pm.

Once we arrived, Ellie and I met Malachi outside their hospital room where Ellie immediately dove straight into Malachi's waiting arms. Then, after a brief delay, we headed inside the room to see Tabi and meet Cassie. As soon as Ellie saw Cassie lying in Tabi's arms, those complete sentences erupted from her tiny mouth at record pace. "Tabi hold baby on lap." "Baby in blanket." "Cali (Malachi) holding baby." 

Finally, as I was holding Cassie, Ellie took the opportunity to crawl up on the hospital bed where she happily sat next to Tabi, jabbering all the while. She even convinced Tabi, who had spent the entire night in labor, to slide over slightly so that Ellie could sit right next to her. 

Once Cassie began getting a little unhappy, I passed her back to the waiting arms of her new dad where he cradled her close. Then, Malachi had the idea of having Ellie hold Cassie. My response to that was that I was fine with it if they were but to make sure one of them was helping support Cassie's head. 

Malachi then sat down on the bed next to Ellie and pulled her in close, allowing her to help hold the lower half of Cassie's body. Ellie's reaction was immediate as she looked up at me with a big smile on her face, proudly proclaiming, "Ellie holding baby!". Over the next few minutes, Ellie beamed nonstop as she helped hold Cassie. Even after Tabi took her daughter back in her arms, Ellie still happily rubbed Cassie's arms and head.

Ellie and "Uncle" Malachi holding Cassie.

Today really drove home the point for me of just how lucky Ellie is to have so many people in her life that care for her so much. Even on the day of his own daughter's birth, Malachi remarked how happy Ellie makes him. Just seeing my friends' excitement in sharing the experience of holding their daughter with Ellie made me really happy as well. 

It goes without saying that I'll probably remember Ellie's first time holding a (literal) newborn for a long time to come. #DaddyWrite.

Day 438 - Introduction to the Sandwich Arts and Canine Greetings 101

Who's ready for yet another #DaddyWrite confession time?  

Raise your hand if you've ever found yourself guilty of being a mooch.

Truth be told, every single reader should really be raising their hand. If you're not, then you're perfect, you're lying, or you're just not into raising hands just because some guy with a blog asks you to.

Speaking for myself, I know I'm a mooch. Look no further than the fact that it took me approximately three years of mooching Netflix off of Bethany's college roommate, Alison, before I finally broke down and paid for my own subscription. That's not the only instance though. I've also been guilty of mooching cable TV access via the internet off of both my parents and my brother-in-law from time-to-time (side note: World Cup coverage counts as time-to-time, right?). There's also a history of me using my sister-in-law's Amazon Prime account for the sake of free shipping. 

The nice thing about mooching is that it works in reverse too. For example, Bethany's brother has free reign to use our Netflix password whenever he wants. Also of note, especially as it pertains to this blog post, is that Bethany's and my Sam's Club membership is also fair game for being mooched. In fact, one of those Sam's Club mooching experiences led to what some may qualify as an embarrassing experience on the Sam's run Ellie and I went on today.

With my sister-in-law in charge of feeding dinner to approximately 70 kids during her church's art camp, she decided (rightfully so) that the easiest way to get the necessary supplies was via my Sam's membership. Well, not only my Sam's membership, but me as well. Therefore, with Friday actually being a wide-open afternoon for Ellie and I, we hopped in the RAV and headed to Sam's to procure the goods.

Now, I feel it important to remind you of my startling ineptitude for math. And yes, I am still aware of the fine irony in saying so considering I spent eight years in the financial industry. There is a difference though as in the financial industry, I had a little tool at my disposal called Excel. At Sam's, I found myself having to figure out exactly how many pieces of bread, slices of turkey and cheese, grapes, and bananas it would take to feed each child. 

#MATH

What's that? Why yes, I did have to use my fingers multiple times to keep track of numbers in my head. I am proud to say though that I was able to leave my shoes on as I didn't need my toes in order to get an accurate count! Although, it goes without saying that there was more recounts going on than the state of Florida in 2000. And yes, I am aware of how much that reference dates me.

I should say Ellie was perfect most of the time while I was painstakingly doing elementary math. However, the keyword there is 'most'.  As we wandered through the store, we eventually stumbled across a sight that Ellie had never seen before: a service dog. 

Now I should specify that this was actually an emotional support animal. I don't know if that makes any kind of difference or not but I just want to be as accurate as possible for the sake of posterity. 

True to form, it didn't take Ellie long to begin yelling "Hi, doggie!" at the top of her tiny lungs in the direction of the support animal and her slightly embarrassed owner. As patrons all over Sam's Club began to turn their heads in our general direction, I saw the poor woman attempt to make herself as small as possible. Imagine a turtle retreating inside its shell at the first sight of a predator and you have a decent idea of what was happening. 

After about the fifth instance of Ellie yelling "Hi, doggie", our new friend and her canine companion began heading towards the exits as fast as their six legs could carry them (Hey, I just did more math!). Unfortunately for our friend, we were heading in that same direction meaning Ellie could continue her raucous calls of "Hi, doggie" for at least a few more aisles. 

Before you think me cruel, please understand that I was indeed finished with my shopping trip and was actually heading towards the check-out lines. In hindsight, I realize I should have distracted my daughter with something else interesting at that moment. After all, as everyone knows, bulk-sized containers of Tide Pods are always exciting (Just kidding). 

Don't worry though. Our problem soon resolved itself as our friends eventually took an alternative route to the exit through the clothing department whereas Ellie and I continued in a straight line towards the registers.

The moral of the story is simple.  *deep breath** Never go to Sam's Club without having a firm handle on how to solve simple sandwich-based equations or else your toddler daughter will relentlessly harass a human and their emotional support animal simply because said emotional support animal is a canine. **exhale** #DaddyWrite

Good life lesson, Daddy!