Day 978 - Ellie's Second Eye Exam

Something happened 1,344 days ago. Based upon the title of this blog, I'm guessing folks will be able to ascertain that it was the date of Ellie's first eye exam. Fast forward 1,344 days and there you have the day of Ellie's second eye exam. For the record, I didn't tabulate that difference on my own. I had to find a handy, dandy calculator on the internet that specializes in figuring out the number of days between two dates. It also calculates seconds, minutes, hours, and weeks in case you're interested.

The reason for the lengthy delay between Ellie's eye exams make sense if you think about it. For one thing, it's pretty hard to determine how well a toddler/child can see before said child is capable of taking an eye test. Second, it helps that Ellie and Ethan are now on our family's vision insurance.

Our main reason for scheduling this appointment for Ellie was due to Bethany and me noticing that one of her eyes (usually her left) will occasionally trail off by itself, completely independent of what its mate is doing. Since my eye did the exact same thing as a child which necessitated surgery, Bethany and I definitely thought it was pertinent to start having Ellie's vision checked on a regular basis which brings us to yesterday.

While checking in for an appointment is normally a pretty uneventful task, it wouldn't be a #DaddyWrite post if there wasn't some kind of challenge in doing so. In this instant, the receptionist couldn't locate Ellie's name or appointment in the database no matter how hard she tried. Things got really weird when she realized that she also couldn't locate Bethany's or my information in the database either. I guess that's what happens when one's computer comes unconnected from the network though. Never fear as her coworker was able to locate our appointment although it was for Bethany, not Ellie. That was a relatively easy fix though.

Once we headed back to the exam room, Ellie took her place in the big chair with me seated across the room. From there, Ellie began her eye exam or as she referred to it, school. In her eyes, that probably wasn't far from the truth as she was essentially being tested on her knowledge of letters and numbers. Between Ellie's height and her knowledge, it seemed like the eye doctor was a little surprised to learn that Ellie was only four. 

While Ellie did pass her eye exam "test" with flying colors, our appointment wasn't all good news. We did discover that despite her solid vision, she does have a slight astigmatism which was the main reason for the somewhat lazy eye. The doctor's prescription? Eye glasses. While I now know astigmatisms are no big deal, I was not really prepared for that information in the moment. In fact, I found myself feeling bad for Ellie for having to wear glasses at what seemed like such a young age. The more I thought about it though, I realized (and Bethany told me) that Ellie already knows plenty of girls who wear glasses and it's no big deal to them. Therefore, it we don't make it a big deal, then it won't be one.

Actually, it won't be a big deal until Ellie breaks her glasses. That might be a little irritating but still not the end of the world. #DaddyWrite

Day 972 - **Insert Screaming Sounds Here**

I find that a good scream can be rather freeing. At the risk of sounding like a B-movie horror villian, will you scream with me?

Wow, that felt good, right? However, I think another one is necessary in order to truly exorcise the frustrations of this day. Ready? One, Two, Three...

Scream Shia, scream!

Now, I know I'm ready to write about today and all it took was me taking a few cues from Ethan. Who would have thought?

I feel like it goes without saying at this point that today was somewhat of a struggle. While the occasional rough day comes with the territory for being a stay-at-home dad, today was something else. Part of the reason can definitely be traced back to last night as for the first time in a couple of months, our family returned to life group. Now, I realize that's not a huge thing but when you consider that it resulted in Ellie and Ethan going to bed almost two full hours later than normal, it all starts to make sense.

Actually, on second thought, the rough patch began last night as both kids suffered through separate screaming sessions as we attempted to put them to bed. Neither was particularly fun but Ellie's was definitely worse if you're keeping score.

Today, while I started the day filled with hope anew, it became obvious pretty quickly that Ethan did not share my zeal for the day. Within ten minutes of us beginning our day, he was laying on the floor, kicking and screaming all while being totally inconsolable. The weird thing is that nothing we did really could help him. He finally just snapped out of it on his own.

From that point, I realized that rather than planning the whole day out, I was going to have to be subject to whatever was going to make Ethan and Ellie happy at any given moment. The first example of that would be Ethan taking a morning nap. Now, this wasn't just a 30-minute power nap. Instead, it was a full-fledged hour and a half snooze session. While he awoke from said nap in a decent mood, it definitely impacted the rest of his day. For starters, his afternoon nap would only last a brief while resulting in a long afternoon for the little guy.

Once both kids were awake, we loaded up and went searching for a park. I say "searching" because things didn't go quite according to plan as the first park we stopped at had a bunch of broken equipment. From there, we loaded up and headed to Smithville for a fun afternoon of park time.

Once we arrived home, that's when things got really weird. As soon as Ethan saw Bethany, his little mind seemed to break. For starters, he began screaming at her to go back to work. When that didn't work, his screaming degenerated into a full-fledged tantrum complete with him stripping. Seriously, at one point, Ethan would spend a good 15 minutes laying on the kitchen floor with no pants or diaper, screaming all the while.

Finally after nearly an hour of screaming, Ethan decided there were two things that would calm him. First, he desired some carrots to eat. Second, and more importantly, he wanted to listen to 'Pat Mahomes, Take Me Home' yet again. After all, who can resist the healing properties of Pat Mahomes to fix all that ails us? Am I right? #DaddyWrite

Day 965 - The One With the Nickelodeon Playoff Game

Here we are again. It's January and that can only mean one thing. It's time for the Kansas City Chiefs to begin their playoff push on the way to successfully defending their Super Bowl championship. I, for one, am excited. That goes without saying. However, I'm also excited to announce that Ellie and Ethan are joining me in my excitement this year. That's definitely cause for excitement if I do say so myself.

As Ellie gets older, it's actually really fun to see her excitement for watching the Chiefs grow each year. I think part of the reason is that she sees Bethany and me getting excited for games and she wants to be included in that. She's certainly doing her part to be included in all of the fun too.

At the start of each Sunday (or whatever day the game takes place), we continue our tradition of hanging our "Red Friday" flag up in the window for all of the neighbors on our street to see and/or ignore. That's not the only tradition that must take place though. We also have to listen to "Take Me Home, Pat Mahomes" at least once. 

For the record, I would go on record as saying that Ellie is likely the only four year old who knows every word to that song. In years past, we would listen to the War Chant and do the Tomahawk Chop. As time went on though, I began to feel a little bad about doing the Chop with my kids hence our move to "Take Me Home, Pat Mahomes".

Ethan for his part is getting excited too. For one thing, whenever the "Red Friday" flag is unfurled, he immediately starts jumping up and down yelling "Chiefs!". He also does the same thing whenever he sees the Chiefs, or if I'm being honest, any other football team on television. It also bears mentioning that we have already read our library copy of "The Year the Kingdom Rose Again" approximately 15 times since picking it up on Saturday. 

As you can probably guess after everything you read above, our house is very excited for Chiefs playoff football. Unfortunately, this past weekend only served to disappoint as the Chiefs had a first round bye. Actually, "disappoint" isn't the correct term. For one thing, the Chiefs had a well-earned bye week in which the team could rest up and get healthy before their first playoff game. Secondly, Ellie and I began what we hope is a new tradition and watched a NFC Wild Card game together, live on Nickelodeon.

Yes, you read that correctly; I did say Nickelodeon. As in the children's network. The home of SpongeBob SquarePants, Paw Patrol, and a number of other iconic cartoon characters. For the first time, Nickelodeon aired a kid-friendly (well, mostly kid-friendly except for one ill-timed slip of the tongue by Cordarrelle Patterson) version of the broadcast complete with new announcers, graphics, and slime cannons.

Ellie, for her part, was completely and utterly enthralled by the broadcast. Not only were there cameos from some of her favorite cartoon characters but the slime cannons were a big highlight for her as well. For the record, there weren't really slime cannons. Instead, the effect was completed via computer graphics. That didn't make it any less cool though. Ellie would spend practically the entire game begging for touchdowns just so she could see the slime "erupt" in the endzone.

Truth be told, a part of me is a little bit sad that the Chiefs' playoff game won't be broadcast on Nick. It was actually really fun to see her learning all kinds of things about the game seeing as how the broadcasters explained everything in a kid-friendly way. I also enjoyed how a game pitting the Saints and the Bears of all teams held her attention like very few do. We even cast our vote for the NVP (Nickelodeon Valuable Player) together. 

For the record though, we didn't not vote for the eventual "winner" of Mitchell Trubisky though. That just would have been cruel. #DaddyWrite

Day 959 - "I'm Barbara Walters, and this WAS 2020".

Last year at about this time, I sat down and opened a blog with the lame joke, "I'm Barbara Walters, and this is 2020". It's crazy now to think I could approach a year such as this past one with such levity, such flippancy, such lack of importance. Actually, for those that know me well, it's really not all that shocking.

What is shocking though is/was the year that we all just lived through. I don't need to go into that much detail; everyone remembers it well. Instead, I'd rather relive the past year by spending a little time remembering the New Year's resolutions that Ellie, Ethan, and I strove to fulfill.

If you understand the point of the pineapple, be sure to comment.

First, let's take a look back at Ellie. Her list of New Year's resolutions were as follows.

1. Learn to read
2. Spend more time outside
3. Improve at riding her bike
4. Be kind to her friends and family
5. Continue memorizing her memory verses
6. Eat less junk food and more healthy snacks

As I look at that list of goals, I realize that Ellie did a great job following through on her resolutions despite the fact that she knew nothing of them. First of all, I feel that #2 and #3 are forever linked as she spent much of the summer and fall outside riding her bike up and down the street with nary a hint of fear. Second, it was great to watch her love for not only Ethan, Bethany, and me grow, but to see her develop quite a few great friendships. #5 and #6 are ongoing goals that will continue to be worked on over the next year.

I do want to take a second and highlight goal #1 for Ellie. While she doesn't necessarily know how to read like a pro yet, she is taking huge strides in that direction. In fact, just tonight, she sat on my lap and read through two beginning reader books with little to no help from me. I don't think I could have been any more proud of her if I tried.

Ethan also found a pineapple in 2020.

 

Now, I think it's time to take a look at Ethan's year in review.

1. Master walking
2. Learn to feed himself with utensils
3. Begin to speak
4. Learn to self-soothe
5. Sleep through the night

I can say with the utmost certainty that Ethan had successfully achieved the first three goals on his list. Numbers #4 and #5 leave a little something to be desired. While he can self-soothe at times, it's not uncommon for me to spend stints in his room laying on the floor next to his bed. Also, it goes without saying that me laying on the floor next to his bed wouldn't be necessary if he was sleeping through the night.

That being said, Ethan deserves special props for the way that he surprises Bethany and me each day. It might be due to his rapidly expanding vocabulary some days. Other days it's due to the remarkable intelligence he shows in learning new tasks and skills. It might also be due to the fact that he's just an unbelievably funny little boy that constantly makes us laugh and smile.

No photographic evidence of me holding a pineapple exists so this will have to do.

There was one more person who had New Year's resolutions to live up to in 2020 and that person was me. In case you need a refresher, my goals were as follows.

1. Spend more time outdoors
2. Read more books, including my Bible
3. Pray more often
4. Show more patience with my wife and kids
5. Better enjoy all of the time I have with Ellie and Ethan
6. Exercise

If I'm looking at my resolutions with an honest perspective, I have to say that I didn't do as well with them as I wished. Now, #1, #2, #4, and #5 were actually pretty good in my opinion. We definitely spent a ton of time outside this year since there really was nothing else to do. I also read plenty of books. While #4 and #5 were a struggle at times (since they are pretty linked), I really do feel like I did a better job staying intentional about following through with both of them.

Now, I probably should reflect a little on #3 and #6. Let's face it. Going to the gym wasn't really in the cards for me throughout most of this year. I still found time to go through the spring and summer. However, with the uptick in Covid cases and the more strict mask ordinances, it's been harder to make myself go. Of course, you can also blame Ethan's 5:00 am wake-up calls a little bit too.

As for praying, it's not that I intentionally don't do it. It's just one of those things that slips my mind and I neglect to pursue. I will say that since my discipleship group went on our men's retreat in October, I've been more apt to pray and reflect on God than I was prior. However, there's still definitely room for improvement so #3 should probably be marked as an incomplete.

All things told, I think Ethan, Ellie, and I did a fairly good job keeping our New Year's resolutions this past year. Believe me when I tell you that doing so is a fairly difficult task for a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old. That's especially true when one thinks about the fact that the two really didn't even know they had New Year's resolutions to keep.

For now though, it's time for me to stop writing and instead begin thinking about what New Year's resolutions the three of us want to pursue over the next year. Until next time, "I'm Barbara Walters, and this was 2020". #DaddyWrite

Day 948 - "Pretty!"

I'm certain that many who read these words either have kids or have found themselves around them at one time or another. Therefore, it probably comes as no shocker to learn that kids sometimes repeat themselves. That's especially prevalent when they're extremely excited or when they are very young. In the case of Ethan, both are extremely applicable.

While I don't intend to shortchange Ethan's vocabulary seeing as how it expands by the day, the fact remains that he sometimes can turn into somewhat of a broken record. Case in point, the word "Pretty!". 

Now, everyone knows that "Pretty" can be used in a variety of ways. There's the most obvious form which refers to a person, normally a female. You can also describe a sunset or a nature landscape as being "Pretty". Inanimate objects like decorations can also be described as pretty. In fact, it's that last one that Ethan seems to be referring to when using "Pretty" in a sentence.

Ever since he first laid eyes on Christmas lights this holiday season, Ethan has been completely mesmerized by the sight of twinkling lights. The first thing he wants to do every morning upon getting out of bed is run to our Christmas tree and continually point to it while exclaiming some combination "Pretty", "Tree", "Lights", and "Please". Once we plug it in, he'll start making the rounds to the other Christmas lights in our house until everything is illuminated. 

It doesn't just stop there though. Ethan will make approximately 97 trips to the window each day and will sadly look outside at our landscaping and that of our neighbors while he patiently waits for nightfall so the outdoor Christmas lights can be fired up. You can hear and see the disappointment flowing throughout his little body as he eagerly awaits the lights turning on.

Keeping Ethan's total love of all things Christmas in mind, this evening we set out on a little adventure to check out each and every one of the houses participating in the Gladstone Christmas decorating contest. Now, I have to say that this adventure required us to do some serious traversing (in our Traverse, of course) of Gladstone. There were 24 homes spread out throughout the community in all different directions with nary a clear path to see all. So, with that being said, special props go out to Bethany for her mad Google Maps skills enabling us to get to each house as quickly as possible.

While Ellie was understandably excited to see all of the Christmas lights, Ethan took the excitement to another level. Each lighted home that we drove by would result in excited cries of "Pretty!" or "Oooh". My favorite had to be whenever the little man saw a house with any kind of bear on display. At that moment, Ethan would automatically begin yelling "Bear!" at the top of his lungs over and over until we finally acknowledged his findings.

For the record, after exploring the neighborhood to its fullest degree, we have decided that house #8 is our personal favorite when it comes to the Gladstone Christmas decorating contest. Congrats go out to you, whoever you are, if you won and happen to be reading this. If you're not reading this, then I guess my congratulatory wishes mean approximately diddly-squat. Oh well. #DaddyWrite

 

Day 946 - The Monkey Bar Maestro

You know what they say about a car wreck, where it’s so awful you can’t look away? Well, the good news is that on this occasion, I'm not referring to an actual car wreck. The bad news is that the metaphorical car wreck in this instance refers to a certain event from this afternoon involving Ellie and Ethan. I'll get there soon enough though.

First things first. Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Seriously. If you live in the Kansas City metropolitan area and didn't get outside, then you missed an amazing 65 degree afternoon. By the way, it IS still December. I double checked a calendar just to make sure. Anyway, for myself and the kids, we chose to spend this afternoon at Barry Platte Park soaking up the warm weather on what could be the final park trip of 2020. That's actually a thought that is both sobering and exciting at the same time. After all, I'm pretty sure everyone (except maybe Patrick Mahomes) wants 2020 to end as soon as humanly possible.

Upon our arrival at the park, I let Ellie go on ahead and scamper up the hill to the playground while I extracted Ethan from his car seat. By the time the two of us made it up the hill, I was just in time to watch Ellie attempt to make it across the monkey bars on her first attempt of the day. Unfortunately, that attempt was not to be. Instead, she let go of the bars and dropped a good four feet to the ground. While you might think that would stop her, that was not to be the case as Ellie was right back up on the bars for her second attempt. The second went much the same which resulted in her taking a short break to enjoy the swings.

After 10 minutes of enjoying the array of swings Barry Platte Park has to offer, Ellie gave into her minor obsession and decided to try the monkey bars again. Standing with her toes right at the edge of the platform, Ellie took a deep breath and grasped the first bar. Then, she swung herself off of the platform and began to dangle in mid-air. With that, one rung at a time, she began to move across the bars. As she reached the next-to-last bar, it looked like she was about to give out. However, she instead used every ounce of strength left to propel herself to the ladder leading to the ground. Once she climbed down, she immediately ran to me and wrapped her little arms around me as tightly as she could. I'm guessing she just wanted me to share in her joy and success.

Oh yes, I almost forgot; I need to share the story of the metaphorical car wreck. On what was probably Ellie's seventh trip across the monkey bars, Ethan decided to run underneath her as she was traversing the bars. Unfortunately for the little man, he took a errant kick to the head from Ellie on his way. While I was busying myself with calming Ethan, Ellie lost her grip on the monkey bars. While she had landed on the ground a few times already, this time she managed to fall forwards in the air, ultimately landing on her face. Fortunately for Ellie, nothing was hurt but her pride, although there were definitely tears streaming down her face.

In case you're wondering how I handled this situation, i.e. standing in a park with two screaming children, it was easy. I simply loaded both up and headed for home. After all, Bethany was on her way home from the office and I figured she could calm them if they were still angry when we got home. Spoiler alert: they were not. #DaddyWrite