Day 236 - The Semi-Enduring Subject of Dishwalla

So, there's a slight chance that I may have become slightly addicted to Facebook over the past year at home. While I don't spend every waking moment on the social media giant, I definitely am spending more time than I used to. I do see the reason why that is the case though. It's a way to just remind myself that there are other things happening to other people outside my four walls. Not only that, but as Ellie's now a year old, some cool memories have started popping up via the "On This Day" feature. In fact today was one of those days exactly.

Ok, I should be forward with the fact that I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be, a Dishwalla fan. In fact, if you asked me to name another song outside of 'Counting Blue Cars', there's absolutely no way I could ever do it. If my memory isn't failing me, the early months of Ellie's life were filled with lots and lots of screaming. Screaming so piercing in nature that I still don't hear out of my left ear nearly as well as I did before her birth. Congrats baby, your tiny lungs did what heavy machinery and front rows at concerts couldn't do.

In those days of epic desperation, it didn't take us long to figure out music was a calming influence on this tiny, screaming being who was now a part of our lives. 'The Show', '3 Rounds and a Sound', 'Oceans', 'Twenty Four', 'Between the Raindrops'. I feel like I heard each of those songs so often that they will forever be engrained in my memory. However, if I had to tell you why I decided to play Dishwalla for the baby one year ago, I could never come up with a legitimate reason. My best guess is that we were firing up our pitiful dishwasher for a cleaning cycle.

Now, as I think about this post a year after the fact, I kind of find myself missing the music we heard all too much. You see, I instead find myself now listening to nursery rhymes as I write this with Ellie happily dancing and clapping in front of the radio. There's no reality in which the Bose Wave Music Player was developed for this kind of activity. 

In all reality, I know Ellie really enjoys it but I am a little concerned about my sanity. As I stood in the kitchen earlier doing the dishes, I actually found myself bobbing in tune to the rousing choruses of 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm', 'Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track', and 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'. Not just that, but I was legitimately doing the 'Hokey Pokey' as it played in the background. 

I'm sure that Ellie will eventually tire of these songs just as she tired of the grouping that proceeded them. Until then, the beat in my head is destined to be limited to the nursery rhyme albums she has fallen in love with while I'm pining away for the days of Dishwalla and their one good song. #DaddyWrite

P.S. - Anyone have any great suggestions for kid songs for the baby that won't zap me of my sanity with great swiftness?

Day 234 - Is it a great Fair or just simply fair?

You ever go through one of those things so many times that it really takes the specialness out of it? Either because you know exactly what to expect or maybe because it wasn't near as good as you remembered? For me, the Missouri State Fair represents exactly that. I went every year when I was growing up, but now I find myself slightly bored by it at times as a result. Don't get me wrong as I still enjoy going but the Fair, for the most part, really hasn't changed much in thirty years. 

And that dear readers, is exactly what I would have said if I had been asked about my thoughts on the Missouri State Fair before this weekend. If you're wondering what exactly changed over a course of a weekend, I'll tell you. Simply put, this weekend marked the first time Bethany and I had taken Ellie to the Missouri State Fair. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a special experience being able to witness it all through her little eyes. 

The second that we exited the car in Sedalia, little Ellie was thrust into a wonderland of barnyard life, large machinery, fried foods, endless shopping, and token rednecks. With both Bethany and I having a farm background, the first thing we did was to find a cattle show to watch for a while. We thought it pretty much certain Ellie would fall asleep in her stroller while watching since she had fought sleep with every fiber of her being for the two hour journey. 

After carrying the stroller up a set of eight (or so) stairs, we sat down on the wooden bleachers to watch the proceedings. That didn't last long as once Ellie caught sight of the cattle, her excitement couldn't contain itself. She immediately held her arms straight out and started passionately yelling at the cattle before her. At this point, history taught us that a baby screaming during a cattle show is not a good thing. It doesn't matter whether or not it's out of pure exuberance. After trying in vain to calm her, we finally picked up the stroller and hightailed it out of the building accompanied by the disapproving glances of several curmudgeons.

After that, it was time to change up our approach slightly as cattle shows were probably not in the cards for young Ellie. However, there was a place in which her cheering would not be seen as detrimental. That place was the pig races. 

For the unenlightened, pig racing is exactly what it sounds like. Four pigs with pun-tastic pop culture names race each other around a small track, all for the prize of an Oreo cookie. The audience is assigned pigs to cheer for based upon their section of the stands. With our seats in turn 3, we had the blessing of cheering for hogs such as Jean Pig Van Damme, Piggy Cyrus, and Elvis Pigsley. 

From her first class seat on our laps, Ellie would stand up and scream loudly every time four new pigs would make their way to the starting gate. Before too long, our neighbors in the stands were looking at us, not with curmudgeonly glances, but instead with approving smiles. After the final pig races reached its completion, we extricated ourselves from our third row seat in the bleachers and headed off to explore more fun-filled fair adventures. 

Although Ellie did have an amazing, fun-filled day of adventure, I would say nothing compared to those opening moments. She saw sheep, horses, and chickens, in addition to more exotic offerings in a petting zoo. She also survived shopping escapades, a daunting walk through the midway, and breathtaking glances at homemade jams, pies, and quilts. There was a cozy nap within the confines of her stroller during the horse and cart show. She even consumed part of a BBQ beef sandwich, fries, and shared a bowl of Mizzou Tiger Stripe ice cream with her mommy. She even met a guy dressed as a cartoon bull which was met with nothing but confusion. Still nothing would compare to those initial moments. 

  

The only thing that came close was a pair (yes, a pair) of trips through the Charolais barn where a gentlemanly farmer graciously allowed Ellie to pet his show bull. Who would have known that the only thing Ellie needed to be happy was seeing livestock. I guess my mom's right; Ellie does have some farm girl in her blood. #DaddyWrite

Day 233 - Baby in a Big Kid Pool

I find myself stricken. Don't worry, I'm not stricken by illness. Although, my face is slightly sore from running into a tree branch while playing capture the flag on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. (Thanks for asking.) 

I'll show you, Mr. Tree Branch

No, I'm stricken by something else and that would be the ability to disappoint poor Bethany. Now, I realize that it's probably pretty common for members of the male sex to inevitably disappoint their wives in one fashion or another. In our house, it's normally something along the lines of me not doing something I said I would do. 

"Jesse, will you take out the diapers?"

"Sure, of course I will."

"And would you mind terribly doing the dishes?"

"Uh huh."

"Maybe toss in a load of laundry while you're at it."

"No problem."

Just so you know, Bethany is nowhere near that nagging. In fact, when she reads this, she'll probably ask if she nags too much. 

I'll get around to it at some point...

The point is that I have a propensity for saying I'll do things, then I inevitably get distracted, put it off, and well, it doesn't get done. Now, don't worry as I normally do get it done...sometime that week. The funny thing is that I generally don't feel too badly about those times. The things I feel badly about are when I fail to adequately document some very special moment in young Ellie's life. In fact, one of those moments occurred on Thursday.

What exactly was that moment you ask? Well, Ellie actually got an invite to her first big kid pool party. She has had play dates in the past revolving around water but never actually in a real swimming pool. With my college roommate housesitting for his parents, he and his wife decided to take advantage and host a pool party for all of their friends with kids. So, with the invite in hand, Ellie and I loaded up around 1:00 after her post-lunch nap and headed towards St. Joseph.

Honestly, I was a little concerned that Ellie would be among the youngest there and that it could potentially be awkward as a result. It turns out that worry was totally in vain as Ellie found herself smack dab in the middle in terms of age. 

Once we arrived, I dressed Ellie in her purple one piece swimsuit and bucket hat (no bikinis for the baby yet), tossed on my own trunks and headed towards the pool. I was a little uncertain as to how Ellie would respond to a big pool. Obviously, she loves her kiddie pool and her baths, but there's a huge difference between those two things and a full-size pool. Namely, many, many gallons of water. 

With Ellie in my arms, I cautiously walked down the steps to enter the shallow portion of the pool with baby in hand. Once I reached solid ground, I bent my knees slightly to put the water level right around Ellie's chest. Her response? Squeal in delight and begin hitting the water excitedly. In fact, before long, I was giving Ellie her first round of swim lessons. In case you're wondering, that pretty much looked like me turning her horizontal with one hand on her chest and one on her backside to support and brace her. She was actually doggy-paddling like a champ and everything.

Before long, two hours had passed for us and it was time for our pool fun to come to an end. Unceremoniously I must add as my sweet daughter didn't even get to go down the big water slide once. As I removed Ellie from the pool, dried her off, and wrapped her up in a fleece cover-up, she took one final glance at the pool, pointed, and sadly declared "Ha!". Unfortunately, there was no more pool fun to be had on that day.

Doubly unfortunate, after we were both dressed and back in the car, I looked down to see my cell phone sitting in the cup holder. I then came to the realization that I had completely forgotten to document the day for Bethany in any way, shape, or form. Man, am I a bad dad/husband or what?

Hopefully this blog post of approximately 700 words can help fill the void left by the lack of photographs in some fashion. If not, we can always document Ellie's second pool experience and declare it to be "the first". Is that slightly unethical? #DaddyWrite

Day 230 - Let's Bag Some Books

I feel like being a stay-at-home dad is rife with the kind of stuff that internet memes are made of. For example, if you ever do a quick search of stay-at-home dads on the internet, I  guarantee you'll find something along the lines of "Lazy dads finding an easier way to watch child". That will inevitably be accompanied by pictures of a dad rocking a bassinet using a string tied to a moving foot while playing Madden on his Xbox. Or there's the one where the dad sucks his daughter's hair into a vacuum hose in order to make a ponytail.

While I would never claim to be that lazy, there are times where I find myself looking for a better way to accomplish a given task. As you full well know, the easiest task can become immensely more difficult when a baby is present. If I'm doing the dishes, it's a guarantee she'll be hanging on my leg attempting to pull out my leg hair. And yes, I'm pretty certain she has succeeded in doing so during her short life. However, that's nothing compared to taking Ellie to the library. 

Yes, while taking Ellie to the library seems like a simple task, it is often anything but. If I'm not paying close enough attention to her while trying to pick out books for her, she will inevitably begin pulling books off of the shelf at will. Then, I get the fun experience of putting them back. Another library related struggle I have faced is just being able to carry both Ellie and a pile of books to the checkout station. Seriously. Since I generally check out four or five books for Ellie at once, I find myself forced to precariously balance the books in one hand while carrying Ellie to the other. Add that to anything I might get for myself and the pile gets pretty high.

As time has gone on, I've gotten tired of picking up books off the library floor after dropping them. Especially when you consider I have to set Ellie down in order to pick them up. Well, never fear because I finally came up with a foolproof solution to keep that from occurring. Although, I must say I am slightly embarrassed for never thinking of it sooner. My new idea (and the savior of my sanity)? A simple cloth shopping bag.

Simple, get it? Because Dory's relatively simple?

Honestly, the difference between library trips pre and post bag are like night and day. While I still have to worry about keeping my daughter from pulling every book she can reach off of the shelf, I no longer have to worry about dropping books myself. Well, that's not entirely true as there is still one drop I do have to worry about: the drop into the bag. Once the books are safe and sound inside the bag, there's no worrying about them until checkout. 

By the way, I'm considering applying for a patent on using a cloth grocery bag at the library. I am slightly concerned that there's nothing proprietary about it though. Even if my patent fails, I guess I'm at least working smarter, not harder, and therefore further enabling my laziness. #DaddyWrite

Day 229 - Get to Steppin'

Side note: I'm really pretty ashamed that I went almost a week without any kind of blogging whatsoever. Sorry about that.

Do you ever feel like you need to just share some odd confessions with others? I do see the benefit in doing so. While I don't generally confess everything for the world to see on #DaddyWrite, I do occasionally engage in the practice. For example, one of my greatest fears is being pulled over by a police officer and subjected to a random drunk driving test. I should probably mention here that I drink alcohol two or three times a year at most (Don't judge me, bro). 

The fear is that my natural lack of coordination/balance/gracefulness would get me in trouble in this instance. I'm 99.9% certain I couldn't walk a straight line with my eyes closed sober after all my concussions. Not to mention the whole "recite the alphabet backwards starting with 'Z'" thing. Worst case scenario, I'd have to go to the police station and take a breathalyzer like my poor friend, Brendan.

 

I bring this up because whenever there's a story about an adult stumbling around or falling, people generally expect the worst. However, it's a different story when a cute, little baby girl does it. Then it's the cutest thing ever. That's right, intrepid readers! Ellie actually took her first steps today. Now, don't get overly excited; she's not running back and forth with the greatest of ease yet, but it's still pretty cute.

Ellie's been able to take steps for a while with the assistance of her walker, but the whole unaided steps thing happened pretty fast. For example, she only learned to stand up by herself without help just last Friday. The moment I saw her do so, I knew it was only a matter of time until she started walking on her own.

That moment finally came this afternoon as Ellie and I were playing in her bedroom after she finished her lunch. By this point in time, watching Ellie stand up is somewhat old hat. Therefore, when she pushed herself up to a stand, I didn't really pay a ton of attention. I realized that Ellie likely wouldn't walk until she really saw something that she wanted. What I didn't anticipate is that it really doesn't take much for something to become the object of Ellie's desire. In this instance, it was none other than her laundry hamper, full to the brim with clothes. 

From her position in the center of the room, Ellie looked in the direction of the hamper. She then turned and took one full step, followed by a stumbling half step before crash landing in the safety of the laundry hamper. Not content, she pushed herself up to a stand again and fished a pair of flowery shorts out of the hamper. With that, she turned and smiled in my general direction before taking another step and a half towards me before crash-landing again.

While the day was largely full of crash landings, Ellie has increased her step total to a whopping three steps. With impressive totals like that, I find myself kind of wondering just when it's fair game to buy Ellie her first Fitbit. Is tomorrow too soon? #DaddyWrite

Apparently baby Fitbits are a thing...

P.S.: Unfortunately I was unable to garner video evidence of Ellie walking. Don't worry because that doesn't mean I won't try again.