Day 346 - My Daughter or Keanu Reeves?

This should be fairly obvious but I like words. Shocker of the year, right? The guy who's guilty of writing for fun enjoys words. 

I know that I'm often guilty of using a $5 word where a $.50 word probably would have done just as well. That doesn't really matter to me all that much though. It's not like I'm sitting around saying "Hey everyone. Check out this big word I just used so you can all see how smart I am!" I just think it's fun to have a sizeable vocabulary and use fun/different words. 

Ok, I see now how that last paragraph could be construed as slightly braggadocios. I also see the irony in me using 'braggadocios' in a sentence when I didn't really need to. Side note, how often do you think I choose to begin a blog discussing something ironic that really isn't all that ironic?

All of this serves to finally get me to my point. While words can be really fun, they're normally more fun when being used properly. Need additional confirmation? Just ask Ellie.

Like most kids her age, Ellie has been subject to epic babbling for quite some time. Now, if you were to ask me what exactly she's saying, I would wager that I've had about a 50% chance of getting it right. Let me tell you, when dealing with a toddler who borders on overly-emotional at times, those odds aren't nearly high enough. At least that was the case until the past two weeks. In that time, Ellie's vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds. Need examples? I'll be happy to provide.

Let's start off with my personal favorites, although it should be said these are likely Ellie's most useless vocabulary terms. "Cool," "Wow," and "Whoa." Each of these is overly-emphasized to the point that my daughter sounds like a teen slacker in a '90's teen movie. Or Keanu Reeves in any movie. While she doesn't commonly use them outside of repeating after her mother or I, there are those moments when it does happen naturally. Those moments may include looking at a new book, finding a remarkably fun piece of recycling, or playing with water in a sink. All are clearly valid.

Sleeping Ellie versus Sad Keanu...

While I do really like those three words, Ellie's fascination for saying "Mom" is probably more useful. While she's been able to say "Mom" for quite a while, I think she's finally just gained a firm understanding for it in the past week. In fact, it's becoming common for her to acknowledge Bethany's presence with a hearty "Hi Mom" each afternoon. Sadly for me, I think I'm destined to forever be known as "Bob." Oh yeah, after all of this time, we finally figured out that I am the "Bob" to which Ellie has been referring for months and months on end. You know, it's not like I'm her primary caregiver or anything. Oh wait, I am!

Ok, that's probably enough of talking about verbal communication. Especially if it's just going to make me sad. Quick, someone reassure me Ellie will learn to say "Dad" someday soon. Somebody? Anybody? **sadly whimpering** #DaddyWrite

Why did you lie to me, Jimmy Fallon?

Day 344 - Shadow from the Sun

Everyone spends a significant amount of time chasing after something. Examples like the perfect job, money, fame, love, or tacos come to mind. Ok, probably not tacos. Ok, maybe tacos; you never really know what people are chasing after. As for me, I'm somewhat akin to the greyhound at a dog track chasing the mechanical rabbit as fast as he can. I'm sure you can guess this, but in this hypothetical scenario, I'm the greyhound and Ellie is the mechanical rabbit. 

Now, while it's fairly obvious that I spend a decent percentage of my day chasing Ellie around, you may wonder what exactly Ellie is chasing while I'm chasing her. Honestly, it can be any number of things. I've seen her desperately chase after food (i.e. snacks). It's fairly normal for her to chase after her toys after she tosses them. It's even pretty likely for her to excitedly run towards any animal she sees. For the record, based upon our most recent trip to Cabela's, it doesn't matter if they're living or dead. 

Today, though, Ellie discovered something new that requires her full attention in seeking out. While I could just say what it is, it's slightly more fun to me to make people guess. So, courtesy of Google, here's a riddle for you.

Now that I'm an adult, I realize just how creepy Jim Carrey looks in this scene.

Only one color, but not one size. 

Stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies.

Present in sun, but not in rain.

Doing no harm, and feeling no pain.

Any ideas? I can wait a moment while you think about it. Ok, that's probably long enough. The answer that you're looking for is your shadow. That's right, Ellie discovered her shadow today and is now determined to catch it at all costs.

It's no controversial statement for me to refer to this afternoon as a beautiful afternoon. With the sun shining and the temperature residing in the mid-50s, I was bound and determined to take advantage of it. Therefore, after Ellie and I returned home from a quick Sam's Club run for a few essentials, I quickly unloaded our groceries. Once that was done, I extricated Ellie from her car seat and headed outside with her in my arms. 

Initially, we were both more than content to just play in the driveway. However, it didn't take Ellie long to tire of that and seek further adventure. While her adventure bug was briefly satisfied by a short trip to the mailbox, that ultimately wasn't what she was looking for. Before long, we found ourselves wandering up and down our street with me leading the way and Ellie toddling along behind. As we walked, Ellie and I spotted our octogenarian neighbor, Roy, waving at us so we wandered over accordingly to catch up.

As Roy and I engaged in conversation, Ellie, according to form, quickly became bored with just standing there in Roy's driveway. Therefore, she began to check out everything around her. It didn't take long before she looked down at the ground and noticed a dark mark on the pavement. As she knelt down to rub the spot, imagine her surprise when said spot moved just as she did. 

It was then that she really began testing the spot through any means necessary. When Ellie would move an arm, the spot would move. When she'd move a leg, the spot would move. Finally, Ellie resorted to attempting to chase and catch the spot. I'm sad to say that she never did catch the spot. However, she did catch something arguably greater. The understanding of the sun's role in casting a shadow off of our body that will inevitably mimic each and every move we make. Even Roy was commenting on Ellie's enjoyment of her shadow during our conversation.

Before long, our conversation ended and Ellie and I headed back home to call it an afternoon. Of course, on the way, Ellie did have to make one last ditch effort to catch her shadow. Unfortunately for her, that effort was met with failure once again. 

This is where you should have one of two reactions. "Aww, that's so sweet" is always acceptable. The alternative is "Stupid baby, you'll never catch your shadow." I'm honestly going to leave the decision on reaction up to you. 

Although, I do find the first one to be preferable...#DaddyWrite

Day 341 - Requiem for a Cookie

Throughout the majority of my life, I've been the tall one in my family. It started when I took a growth spurt in middle school and bypassed my poor dad. Although, to this very day, he cranes his neck to its absolute limit in an attempt to prove he can be taller than me. For the record, I'm generally slouching when he does so. 

Anyway, as the "tall one" in the family, I've become accustomed to being tasked with standing on my tip-toes to stretch up and reach something from its high perch. For the record, I don't really consider my 6'2" frame to be all that tall. In fact, a fair number of the teenagers I work with in our church already surpass my height! 

Almost got it...

I bring all of these height-related ponderings up for a special reason. You see, Ellie seems to have noticed all of my stretching and reaching for things that are high above my head. Not only that, but she's decided to put her rapidly growing frame to use by reaching up valiantly for things that were once out of her reach. I have to say once because our baby girl is now tall enough to reach all counters in our house. Need an example, I must say I'm happy to provide.

Small amount of background information for your reading pleasure first. Today officially marked Day 1 of Ellie's new daily schedule. At 19 months of age, Bethany and I, with the help of Ellie, finally came to the decision it was time to drop Ellie's morning nap from the rotation. Instead, we would focus on not only getting a quality after-lunch nap for her, but getting her to sleep until at least 6 am each morning. Ellie's habit has long been to head to her crib within an hour of Bethany leaving for work around 7 am. Today, though, after I abstained from following her to her room, Ellie returned with a confused look on her face and a renewed vigor for playtime.

Of course, there were issues with this new way of life for Ellie. You see, over time, we have carefully cultivated an idea of right and wrong in Ellie's head. Rules for what she should and should not do. While it's not chief among those rules, it still goes without saying that one important rule is to not drag stuff off of the counters, especially the kitchen counters. Obviously, we don't want her getting hurt by a heavy pot or stray knife. We also don't want her just helping herself to anything that's on the counter.

Taking all of that into account, picture me sitting on the couch in our living room minding my own business when I hear a vicious ka-boom! My first inkling was that Ellie had likely pushed her milk cup and snack of cereal off of the kitchen chair both were sitting on to the wood floor below. As she wasn't crying or reacting negatively, I chose to give her some space and not hover. At least, that was my plan until my daughter sheepishly turned the corner into the living room with a look on her face screaming "I think I did something wrong." With that, I decided it was probably time to get up and check the kitchen for anything out of the ordinary.

The first thing I see when turning the corner are Cheerios spilled all over the kitchen floor accompanied by a small puddle of milk from her glass. To me, this isn't exactly a big deal and I was actually much more interested in the second thing I saw. Ellie's sweet tooth had overtaken her decision-making, causing her to do something very bad. She had managed to reach up onto our kitchen counters and drag a covered Pyrex dish containing peanut butter drop cookies onto the floor below where it landed upside down. Luckily for me, the Pyrex dish remained in one piece. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the cookies had broken down into tinier bits. There was no real harm done and Ellie escaped severe punishment, instead receiving a literal smack on the wrist for her transgression.

Poor cookies...

If nothing else, this little escapade reinforces the fact that it's time for us to start being extremely careful about what is close to the edge of our kitchen counters. That and there's no end to the lengths to which Ellie will go just to eat a cookie. #DaddyWrite

Did somebody say cookie?

Day 340 - Just Keep Swimming, Winter Edition

Here at #DaddyWrite, I often pride myself on enthralling you with the types of thrilling facts one could never hope to obtain elsewhere. Today, I find myself wanting to wax poetic about our friend, water. Not Walter, but water. 

• Water is made up of Hydrogen and Oxygen (we're just getting going here)
• Nearly 97% of Earth's water is salty and therefore undrinkable (doesn't mean it's not good for swimming or playing in though)
• A person can live approximately a month without food but only a week without water (I haven't tested this fact and only know of one person who has done so and survived...so, you know)
• 75% of both the human brain and a living tree is water (We are Groot?)

Ok, now that I know you are absolutely captivated by all that I have shared, I now can segway into the meat and potatoes of this blog without problem. What is that, you may ask? Easy, Ellie's first swim lesson!

For those that don't know, one good thing about living in the Kansas City metro area is that we often have access to quite the variety of what I'll call 'enrichment classes' for affordable fees. One of those is the Water Babies class offered in four-week cycles at Park Hill's Aquatic Center for the low, low price of $19ish. To tell the truth, the Water Babies class had been on our radar for a while and this so happened to be the perfect time for said class to happen.

So, now that you're all caught up, I take you back to Thursday morning. With Ellie's class scheduled to begin promptly at 10 am, we made plans to show up at the Park Hill Aquatic Center 15 minutes early. In order to make that happen, I actually made the unprecedented decision of planning ahead by ensuring I already had Ellie's swimsuit on under her normal clothes when we left home. Therefore, all that had to happen was simply shedding a couple of layers once we got to the pool.

Ellie, what are you looking at?

Now, if you have never shown up early to a class such as this, it can be kind of uncomfortable. Or maybe that's the just the case if you're the only adult male in the room, as I was. Needless to say, I found myself engaged in some pretty awkward conversations with the moms as we waiting for class to begin. In fact, I probably learned more about one woman's history of breast-feeding her child than I ever needed to know. Short version of the story, her kid had teeth at three months and she began pumping the day they came in. **shudder** Luckily for me, one grandfather eventually showed up with his grandson in tow to join the class. Although, for the record, I'm not certain that was much better.

Chandler Bing is correct.

Once the time came for Ellie and I to hop in the pool with the rest of the class, I was a little surprised at the cold temperature of an indoor pool. So was Ellie as evident by the epic trembling of her lower lip. We both adjusted soon enough. In case you're wondering what exactly baby swim lessons consists of, it's a strange array of water aerobics, singing, dead man's floats, wacky noodles, and crying. Oh, the crying.

Lucky for me, my child wasn't the one responsible for the crying. In fact, Ellie's prowess in the water was, dare I say, Phelpsian (exaggeration, much?). As you can probably guess, I never let go of Ellie during this class but was encouraged to put her in positions designed to help her gain comfort with the water. For example, with position 1, I rested her head on my shoulder and helped her to float in the water on her back. With position 2, she was stomach down in the water with my hands under her armpits for support. That was actually my favorite position as I kept tossing a toy in front of her and watched excitedly as Ellie used her legs and arms to pull herself through the water until she reached her prize. Ellie even got to experience "jumping" off the side of the pool into her daddy's outstretched arms.

The most endearing image of Michael Phelps the internet has to offer...

As a whole, I would consider week one to have been a great experience for a couple of reason. For starters, Ellie absolutely did not want to leave the water when class was over. Second, Ellie's teacher was so impressed by her comfort with the water that apparently Ellie will get to experience a slight dip under the water next week. 

For the record, that's a slight dip only so keep visions of waterboarding out of your head. I'm pretty sure the waterboarding lesson isn't until week 4 at the earliest. Kidding, kidding. #DaddyWrite

What do you mean I can't swim anymore today?