Day 621 - Blast from the Past (a.k.a. The One Where Bethany Had a Good Idea)

It's official. My wife is full of good ideas. For the record, that was never in doubt. 

Bethany's had plenty of good ideas during the course of our marriage. For example, the tray that sits on the bookshelf in our living room holding our keys, wallets, and other important items. There was also that time she came up with the Excel file that we keep track of our bills with. I know that neither of those seem like groundbreaking ideas on the surface but they actually are quite good. 

I'm sure there are others that are much better. However, I can't think of any right now as it's 9:02 at night as I'm writing this sentence. I have saved the best for last though as tonight Bethany brought forth a great one that I had never thought of. The idea in question?

 "Why don't we go back and look at blog posts from when Ellie was the same age that Ethan is?"

 

That one is groundbreaking, right? Just think of the things I could learn about caring for Ethan just by seeing what Ellie was doing at the same age. In case you want to play along, the month in question would be November of 2016.

For the most part, blog posts from that time frame revolve around the idea of sleep training. From what I can glean through the thinly-veiled sarcasm, I was mildly frustrated at Ellie during the process of sleep training. On one day, it looks like I spent forty minutes fighting Ellie trying to get her to fall asleep for her to only sleep forty-five minutes once it happened. If that's not the epitome of defeat, I don't know what is.

The good thing about Ethan is that putting him down for a nap is the exact opposite of how it was with Ellie. In November of 2016, I pretty much compared it to a prize fight complete with introductions from Michael Buffer. Ethan on the other hand requires no such pomp and circumstance. I lay him down in his crib where he will spend the next four minutes crying before deciding to give up and go to sleep. That's it. It is literally the most amazing thing! I don't want to say we deserved an easy child after Ellie, but we kind of deserved an easier child after Ellie.

Of course, there are similarities between now and then. For example, look no further than my blog post comparing Ellie to an ankle monitor one wears on house arrest. A quick glance at it confirms two things. One being that I must have been in the midst of watching 'White Collar'. The other being that I felt like a prisoner in my own home since there were places I could and couldn't go. For example, I couldn't even step foot near the room Ellie was sleeping. If she was in her swing, I was not allowed anywhere in the vicinity of the family room. If she was in her bedroom, it meant the third floor of our house was off-limits.

Throwback photo alert!

Once again, the good thing about Ethan is that he will not wake up until he is good and ready. Even though that's the case, Ethan's naps are still stressful times for me as I try to keep Ellie moderately quiet in the meantime. It's not that she's a bad kid and won't listen. It's more that her default volume can only be compared to the T-Rex from 'Jurassic Park'. It might even be possible to see ripples in a glass of water from the sound of her coming just like in the movie!

Even if I don't get any useful information out of rereading old blog posts in the future, it definitely was fun to see what Ellie was like in this stage of her development and compare it to Ethan. Although, based upon things up to this point, I'm wondering if the two ever will be that similar. I mean, you need look no further than the fact that my presence is actually a soothing, calming presence upon Ethan. 

It was also nice to remember the time I went to the emergency room with severe headaches. That was in November 2016 too.. Good times, good times. #DaddyWrite

Day 620 - Down a Number

I'm going to assume that most people are aware this weekend is Father's Day. The reason why I say most people is that I myself had no idea that was the case until sometime Thursday evening. I knew it was coming up but didn't know exactly when it was. Ironic seeing as how I am indeed a father. I'm even a father of two for the record.

There's certainly a stereotype of what people should be doing on Father's Day weekend. One should be grilling out. Or perhaps fishing. Maybe even taking in a baseball game. Lying in a hammock. All are good options. In House Holt, our plans for Father's Day weekend revolved around sending Ellie to Nebraska to visit her Papa and Grandma. Don't worry; she'll come home sometime Saturday.

For me, this was honestly a long time coming. Even though I love my daughter dearly, I feel like I was greatly in need of a break from her. Honestly, she was probably in need of a break from me as well as I feel like we've been a little at odds lately. If you asked me to guess why, my first (and likely only) guess would be Ethan. Since Bethany went back to work, I know it's more difficult for Ellie to get the 1:1 attention she craves since I need to cater to Ethan's every whim. Therefore, the best answer was to finally take Bethany's parents up on their offer from February to have Ellie come visit for a couple of days.

After dropping her off in Hiawatha on Thursday and returning home, I was pretty much immediately stricken by just how quiet things can be without a toddler running amuck. Of course, the lack of sound isn't the only difference. For the first time ever, I could actually lay Ethan down in the living room floor without him immediately having his loving sister in his personal space. He could wiggle and squirm to his little heart's delight without anyone getting in the way.

Ellie being absent actually resulted in a varying set of emotions for me. For one, I felt like I was able to really connect and spend 1:1 time with Ethan for the first time ever. While it's been just the two of us before, those times have always been fleeting and brief. Being able to interact with him and see his little personality shine through was definitely a blessing. I don't know that I've ever seen so many precious little smiles in such a short period of time.

The other set of emotions kind of surprised me. By about 9:00 pm on Thursday night, Bethany and I already found ourselves missing our daughter and wondering how things were going. Don't worry though as we were able to enjoy our time sans Ellie. On Friday night, we were able to go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with just the two of us (and Ethan, too). After that, we were able to take in a free concert at Zona Rosa as well. That was kind of funny as about half of the people in attendance were friends from church. As you can probably guess, we continually received comments along the lines of "Aren't you missing someone?" or "Did you lose count?". 

Wanted posters are going up all over KC right now.

Even though it was really nice to spend a couple of days free from having Ellie around, I'm definitely excited to get her back home and can't wait to see if she missed us. For the record, my bet is that she'll admit to missing Bethany and Ethan but not me. #DaddyWrite

(Ed. note: I was right as she missed Bethany and Ethan but would never admit to missing me. Sad day.)

Day 619 - Imagine (Not) Dragons

Are you all ready to learn a new fact for the day? Ready or not, here it comes.

Did you know that by seven years of age, 65 percent of children have had an imaginary friend?

Please don't fact check me too much on that statistic as it originates from a 2004 study. It was also the very first hit on Google when one types in "percentage of children with imaginary friend". 

Who's your friend who likes to play?
Bing Bong, Bing Bong!

As you can likely guess, I'm broaching this topic because Ellie currently has her very own imaginary friend. However, for most parents, I'd wager that their child's imaginary friend doesn't result in nearly as much confusion as it does for Bethany and me. Why is it confusing you ask? Mostly because Ellie's imaginary friend happens to share a first name with her cousin, Elbert.

Bethany and I have long been aware of the fact that Elbert is Ellie's best friend in the whole wide world. If we ask her to articulate who her best friend is, Elbert will be the answer approximately 92% of the time. The other 8% is a split between Bethany and Ethan. By the way, I will accept your sympathies seeing as how I don't even get a piddly 0.5%. 

If I had to peg down when this all began, I would say we really just noticed it over the past couple of weeks. However, it's likely that it may have been happening for quite a while. It's likely that this is a reaction on the part of Ellie to no longer being an only child and therefore not receiving as much specialized attention. 

In all seriousness, it's actually pretty fun to sit back and watch the various adventures that Ellie and Imaginary Elbert have each day. For one, the two love to engage in games of hide-and-seek. Imaginary Elbert will go and hide while Ellie canvasses the house for him. It's kind of interesting because even when she's searching for an imaginary person, Ellie's still needs to improve her hide-and-seek skills. 

The "two" also like to spend a healthy amount of time playing in our subbasement where Ellie has set up a completely functional society. For example, Imaginary Elbert spends his mornings building tractors at the tractor factory before heading to his afternoon job of baking cakes. Both jobs enable him to have the means to purchase food for Ellie and himself. Oh, I should mention here that Elbert's brother, Edmund is also part of this society. I'm not sure what he does though.

Oh yes, I can't forget about another of Ellie's activities with her imaginary cousins. First, some background information for you. We (very) recently traded in Bethany's aging Mercury Milan on a used Chevy Traverse with a third row. There was nothing wrong with the Milan. It was just time for something with a little more room. Anyway, anytime we let Ellie have the opportunity, she will wander back to the third row, strap herself in, and proceed to inform us about all of her adventures going on a car ride in the back seat with her imaginary cousins.

I'm pretty sure Imaginary Elbert is on the right and Imaginary Edmund is on the left.

 

In case you're confused, allow me to reiterate. Ellie's cousins are named Elbert and Edmund. She loves Elbert in particular so much that she has named her imaginary friend after him. Ironically, Imaginary Elbert also has an imaginary brother, Imaginary Edmund. After going through all of that, I now feel like I may have gone cross-eyed.

In closing, I know that having an imaginary friend is normal. However, is it normal for one's imaginary friends to be based on one's very real cousins? Someone want to tackle that? #DaddyWrite

Day 616 - Masklophobia 101

In any child's life, there are always many important firsts that deserve to be documented. First steps, walking, rolling over, crawling, eating solid food. All of those are very important. However, they pale in comparison to a child's first Royals game.

Ok, so I may be overselling things a bit. In 2016 when Ellie attended her first game, there was definitely an aura of excitement as the fan base was still on fire from the back-to-back World Series appearances. Today, as the Royals are early in the process of rebuilding, it can be considered a good day at the ballpark if the boys in blue get three hits. Lucky for Ethan, he doesn't know if the Royals are good or not (spoiler: they're not). He's just happy he gets to experience the great outdoors and also gets to spend three hours strapped to his mommy. 

How I pine for those days...

Now, one thing you should know about Bethany and me is that it is unlikely we would decide to tackle taking both kids to a Royals game at this stage of life. Fortunately for us, it was DFA Employee Appreciation Day at "The K" meaning that our trip was free. In other words, if things went completely off the rails, we could simply retreat to the car and call it an early day. In my humble opinion, anything after the third inning would have been gravy!

I will say this was one of my more eventful trips to Kauffman Stadium and that's not because of the game either. For one, we spent a decent amount of our afternoon on the move around the stadium. While we had good seats out in front of the Hall of Fame in left field, the midday sun radiating over the heads of our children would chase us from those very seats by the middle of the third inning. 

Now, I realize the middle of the third inning seems like a very arbitrary time. However, there's a reason for that and his name is Sluggerrr. Yes, I am referring to the Royals' adorable anthromorpic lion mascot. During the fourth inning of every home Royals game, Sluggerrr makes his way to the outfield experience to meet his young fans. Well, it just so happens that Ellie fancies herself to be quite the fan of Sluggerrr. Therefore, Bethany and I wanted to do everything we could to make sure she met her fuzzy friend.

Knowing from experience that the line tends to grow out of control rather quickly, we rushed and found ourselves third in line. Between five and ten minutes of our arrival, Sluggerrr pulled up on his tiny yellow motorcycle to begin meeting fans. Before we knew it, Ellie's turn had come. As we began to walk towards Sluggerrr, Ellie was suddenly intimidated by the lion's height, choosing instead to abandon her place in line and run to the safe embrace of Bethany who had been standing off to the side with Ethan. Try as we might, we could not coax Ellie to give Sluggerrr another chance. With that, we headed back to the game to enjoy some more baseball action.

So fearsome...

Honestly the rest of the game was relatively uneventful as the Royals and White Sox traded hitless innings back and forth before we left during the eighth inning. The only highlights to be had were Bethany getting Ethan's first game certificate, Ellie and I enjoying a half-inning from the second row, and Ellie repeatedly whacking the lady sitting in front of us in the head on accident. Poor lady; all she wanted to do was knit. Who would have thought that a baseball game wouldn't be a good place to knit? #DaddyWrite

Day 613 - When Construction Gets Musical

"If you're the type of person who has to fulfill your dreams, you've got to be resourceful to make sure you can do it." 

If that's not an inspirational quote, I don't know what is. You'd be forgiven for thinking that quote was offered up by someone like Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, or Abraham Lincoln. I'd even forgive you for thinking it might have been uttered by Phil Keoghan (Why yes, I am watching 'The Amazing Race'. Why do you ask?). 

No GIPHY, that is not Phil Keoghan.

That one IS Phil.

Ultimately, the originator of that quote is none other than Vin Diesel. For the record, I like to assume he first said it while driving a car out of an airplane. That's not true though as the rest of the quote had to do with his personal journey to Hollywood stardom.

I bring up the idea of being resourceful because it describes Ellie to a 'T' these days. Over the past couple of weeks she has shown a tremendous aptitude for entertaining herself. It's not uncommon for her to disappear into our subbasement for extended play sessions centered around her slide, her tricycle, or filling random baskets with her toys. While Ellie's resourcefulness can be a good thing, there are times that it can get her in trouble. 

Case in point, look no further than this morning. Ellie had been happily playing by herself for most of the morning. Even better, she had stayed out of trouble in doing so. As any parent of an infant would be doing in this instance, I was focused on making sure Ethan stayed happy and content until it was time for his next nap. Therefore, I really wasn't focused on Ellie. At least that wasn't the case until I heard a mysterious scraping sound coming from the kitchen. 

As I walked into the kitchen, Ellie scampered to meet me, proudly clutching a kazoo in her hand. Now, Ellie holding a children's musical instrument isn't that out of the ordinary. However, it's not normal for said child's musical instrument to be covered in a mysterious white powder. First things first, I knew I could rule out anthrax as that just didn't seem likely. It was also equally unlikely that she pried open our sugar or flour canisters on the counter. 

Once I had exhausted all of my potential guesses, I finally just asked Ellie to show me what she had been doing. With that, she proudly led me over to the bars in the kitchen overlooking our family room. Then, she put the kazoo through the bars and began scraping it across our popcorn ceiling, watching and smiling as the residue snowed onto our coffee table below.

The first thing I did was to immediately snatch the kazoo out of her hand, placing it on a high surface. Then, I led Ellie downstairs to the scene of the crime where I explained that she was breaking our house and making a mess. Next, I headed back upstairs to the closet to get the vacuum to clean up the house. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize just how terrified Ethan was of the vacuum. 

Once the mess was cleaned, I was then blessed with the opportunity to attempt to calm both of my screaming children. Yes, I mean both. You see, Ellie hates getting in trouble more than anything. Even if she doesn't get a spanking, it's inevitable that she will throw herself on the ground, kicking and screaming all the while. Eventually my only recourse was to send both kids to bed for an early nap. Lucky for me, both kids obliged and took a good one meaning that I got to eat lunch in peace. Nice little break if I do say so myself. #DaddyWrite