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I've been back from the hospital for about a month now and I think Lois missed me quite a bit. She still calls for mommy at night but I find that she sits on my lap more often than before.

I don't have a camera right now; I had to send my previous one in for replacement because some little one broke it beyond all repair, which is why I haven't been sharing many pictures of her. I think that anybody who doesn't see her in real life will be more than a little surprised at how much she's change. After a month of being away (and she couldn't visit because I was in ICU) I was amazed at how much she had changed. Hands down she didn't seem like the same toddler.

I'm glad to be home with my family.

Picture Friday! (Wait, What Day Is It?)

Lois took this picture!

I'd write more but I had brain surgery on Thursday and I'm a bit tired today, so I'm going to sleep at 4:45 PM.

Hippy!

 My camera is officially dead (which reminds me that I have to call the warranty people today) so I grabbed a few shots with the laptop camera of my little hippy daughter.

The quality isn't as good but my little one is still just as adorable.

Don't mind the scary-looking guy. He's scary but his heart is gold.

 It only took approximately 57 tries to get her to stand still long enough for each good picture that we took.

I really need to shave.

This is my new favorite picture of her.

She really is absolutely adorable! I love that dress on her and if she'd keep that hairband on for more than a few seconds I'd use it to hold back her hair every day.

Unfortunately, she has a different way that she prefers to wear that particular hairband.

Yeah.

Seriously.

She walks around the room with it like this. She much prefers it this way.

My daughter is ridiculous.

My Head Is Elsewhere

My camera is kind of broken and my head hasn't been in the write place recently. I apologize for the dearth of updates and I'm planning on more coming somewhere down the line. For now I'll just try to say hi every now and then.

"I have no idea how those got there, daddy."

I'd like to take a nap during Lois' nap-time but that's becoming less and less of an actual thing.

As you can see here, she protests her naps rather effectively. She does this while screaming and crying and generally doing things that are not conducive to taking a nap.

She's up now, laying on the couch behind me and watching TV. She's exhausted but I don't have the fight in me to make her stay in her room.

She's being quiet, though, and calm. I'll put that in the win column as soon as she stops kicking the back of my head.

UPDATE:

It is now 5 1/2 hours after she was supposed to take her nap:

Little Bit

It's amazing how much information processes through the little brain in my daughter's head. Today I explained to her that I was going to have brain surgery in a few weeks and that Grammy Pammy is coming here in order to help. I didn't expect that she'd really get what was going on but I still wanted to explain what was going to happen because I want to get into the habit of including her in the planning of our lives.

When I was all done she walked over to me and looked at me, snot running from her little nose (poor girl has a cold), and kissed my arm. She climbed up on the couch, rubbed the back of my head, and said "Daddy's head big owie. It better soon."

I was touched.

She turned around, bent over, and farted on me, then ran away laughing.

Baby's First ER Visit

Oooh, artsy-fartsy blurry picture time!

Going 60 miles per hour in an area zoned for 30 is something I generally frown upon. Doing it around traffic is even worse and I don't recommend anybody do it, even if you're trained.

Now, I'm not saying I did that (because I have no idea if I can get a ticket for something I said on a blog if someone were feeling froggy enough to point it out to my local police) but yesterday as we rushed to the ER it's something I could conceivably have seen myself doing.

Yeah. The ER. Baby's first ER visit.

Of course this would happen during Laura's trip to DC for work training. Isn't that always the way of it? Things like this always happen while one of the parents are away, because life always works out just like a bad TV sitcom.

Lois is okay. She really is. We had an absolutely horrible night of sleep with her waking every hour but that was to be expected, from what the ER doctor told me and if a bad night's sleep is the worst of it then I'm happy to have had such a bad night of sleep.

She spilled the milk on the floor. Opened her cup up and just poured the entire cup of milk right out onto the hardwood-like flooring. I grabbed her away from it as I could see her contemplating playing in the milk puddle and we went to get some paper towels to clean it up.

We both wiped it up but it wasn't quite enough; the floor was still a little wet so I took the paper towels to throw them out in the kitchen and grabbed a couple more to finish up. I turned around and watched Lois jump into the wet section of the floor.

I was too far away.

Her feet went out from under her, up into the air, over her head. Her head. Her head went down below her body. It was the first thing to hit the hardwood-like flooring with a loud cracking noise, then the rest of her hit the floor.

Then silence.

Within a second I had her in my arms. Her mouth was open in a silent scream, her eyes were filled with tears. She was conscious. I looked her over. No blood. The scream became much less silent at this point and she started wailing louder than any banshee ever had.

And then stopped. She whimpered. Looked away. Her jaw went slack, her pupils went huge. Her eyes went glassy. I tried to get her attention and got no response.

I asked her if she wanted a cookie and she didn't even look at me.

We got in the car and that's when I either did or did not break just about every moving violation law in existence. The ER is a 20 minute drive from home without traffic. Interestingly it seems to be possible to make it a 15 minute drive during prime traffic time. I don't think an ambulance could have made better time (especially considering they'd have to have had gotten to the apartment first).

When I got her out of the car at the ER I knew she was going to be okay because she started talking and acknowledging the world around her. She had held my hand several times on the way there but now she was saying things like "Daddy, truck!" and "Hi man!"

We still went into the ER, though. We still saw the doctor. The doctor said she was fine, told me what to look out for, and sent me home with some discharge papers that essentially said "If she throws up, break the law and get here in 10 minutes, otherwise she's okay. Give her some children's motrin for the headache she WILL have."

Last night was a bad night of sleep with her getting up every hour. Every. Hour.

If that's the worst that comes of this, though, I'll take it. No question about that.

My Daughter The Artist

 The interplay of the light against the darkness of my pants really shows the transitory state of life as the dark fades into the light.

See? Art. Lois doesn't take pictures, she makes art.

 This shot is called "Daddy is a big scary looking guy sometimes but I love him."

She really got my nostrils quite well.

This shot is either an up-close blurred picture of the rug that showcases that being too close to something can cause you to be unable to see it properly (a perfect view of life)

OR

this is a picture of alien ships.

This picture is called "Daddy's a goofball."

I do not approve.

She is now forbidden from handling the camera ever again.

That's the price of her art.

The Mighty, Mighty Mini One!

 She found my foam latex sword and started carrying it everywhere. When she was standing still and not really thinking about it she held it behind her back, at the ready.

 I think the old saying goes "when all you have is a hammer, all problems look like a nail."

Here you can see Lois problem-solving with her sword by stabbing the problem.

 "By the power of Greyskull!"

"I HAVE THE POWER!"

She even has her faithful steed!

Now, if only I could get her to stop trying to eat her sword, things would be awesome.

Being a Toddler is Serious Business!

 Sometimes my little girl is so serious as she looks around at this world surrounding us.

Contemplative. Serious. Thoughtful.

 I said "Smile, honey!"

Instead, she tilted her head at me slightly, put the leaf down, and just looked at me, waiting for the picture to be taken.

Also, someone should brush this child's hair.

Dancing, she glared at me when I tried to join in.

 What she's staring at right now is a spider.

It's very difficult not to project my fears onto her. I'm scared of spiders but she's fearless. She just watched it as it crawled around. It left her alone, she left it alone.

I quietly freaked out without showing it because if she's not afraid of them I'm not going to give her reason to be.

Seriousness has its place but sometimes you just have to eat all the green beans!

Tunnels. Tubes. Toddler.

 I believe Grammy Pammy bought Lois this colorful chair except that it's not a chair: It's a tunnel! It springs open when we undo the velcro and forms a very long toddler tunnel that Lois loves to play in.

It gets a little large for the living room so it's normally folded up. It's only recently that Lois decided she didn't care what shape it was in as long as it has an opening that she can crawl through.

 She wore it like this for about an hour, running around the house, barely avoiding killing herself on table corners and the like by pure luck (and her daddy stopping her from time to time).

 She really had a lot of fun and thought it was funnier than anything else she's seen in her life.

She loves that tunnel, no matter whether it's folded up or three times her size.

She used it like this for quite a while, finding a comfortable position and then refusing to leave it until she got hungry.

 One day Lois decided that her legs were a tunnel and so she tried to climb through them upside-down.

I think it got her very dizzy because she laughed like a maniac the entire time.

Ridiculous baby!

Speaking of a ridiculous baby, here you can see one in her natural habitat: The laundry bin.

She was having some trouble getting in, crying because it was blocking her entry.

As a good daddy I absolutely helped her figure it out.

Right after taking a few pictures.

I don't even know what to say.

My daughter's a dork.

Dance With Me!

"Dance with me, daddy! Dance with me!" She ran across the room as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song played and grabbed me by the front of the shirt, trying to haul me to my feet.

Laughing, I stood up and joined her on the carpet. She spun in circles yelling "Dance! Dance!" I pulled out my best dance moves, perfectly in sync with the AWESOME music. After a moment I realized she had stopped spinning and was watching me. I thought maybe she was going to start mimicking my dance moves.

No.

After a minute of watching me she stepped up, grabbed my shirt, and lead me back to the couch. She pushed me back into the seat, leaned in so that we were almost nose-to-nose, and quietly whispered, "Lay down, daddy. Lay down. Me dance. You lay down."

"Daddy is so embarrassing I'll just live in this tunnel forever."

Second Second Birthday!

A few gifts were a little late in coming to the little one's birthday and so last night we opened a bunch of presents from my parents! Lois had a great time and repeated (several times) "Presents for Lois birthday!" I just hope it hasn't gone to her head again.

Clothes and an adorable bracelet!

Doc McStuffins outfit!

An adorable hat!

Lamby from Doc McStuffins!

She really likes Lamby!

Bright, colorful pants!

She's an adorable little girl.

Oh, Wonderful. Yay. Whoo.

We've hit a very special stage. A stage I've been "looking forward to." A stage that I was "waiting for." And we've hit it. Oh boy.

And boy did she start it in such a great way.

Is the sarcasm coming through?

Today Lois came over to me and smiled. "Milk?" she asked plaintively. "Milk milk, please please?" She does this thing where she doubles words when she wants something. It's adorable.

"Sure, honey! Where's your cup?"

We looked around for a while (or rather, she followed me around as I looked for it). I knew it was here somewhere. She just had it an hour or so ago and it's not that large of an apartment. It couldn't have gone far, I told myself 10 minutes later, still not having found it.

"Lois, honey? Where's your milk cup?"

She grinned up at me. Grinned. Her eyes widened innocently. She whispered something.

"I'm sorry, honey, I didn't hear you. Where's your milk cup?"

Smile. A grin even. A smirk, maybe.

"I hide it."

Deal with it, daddy. Deal with it.

Today I Messed Up

I was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, my laptop on the table in front of me and the couch behind me. I was comfortable. I was writing a story.

Lois got up from the toys she was playing with, crawled under my arm, and sat on my lap, keeping my right arm away from the laptop, making me type only with my left.

I was in the writing zone and ideas were flowing. I didn't want to stop; I just needed a couple more minutes.

I picked her up and put her on the couch behind me, figuring she'd be comfortable there, and I went back to writing.

I looked back at her quickly to make sure she was comfortable and okay only to see tears pouring out of those pretty blue eyes, coursing down her little cheeks. She wasn't just sad; the look on her face was one of genuine hurt.

She had wanted a cuddle. Nothing more. She just wanted to sit with her daddy. Her daddy put her aside.

I felt like a monster. An absolutely horrible monster.

We cuddled for the next hour or so on the couch and then played.

I still feel like a monster a little bit.

Our Family Weekend

This weekend we went out as a family to enjoy the Bristol Renaissance Fair and it was fantastic! We all enjoyed ourselves in our own way, and at the end of the day, Lois slept like a rock.

She got to see and experience new things, we got to enjoy sights old and new to us, and generally it was just a great day.

These aren't pictures of Lois (except this first one) but they're things that we all, including Lois, enjoyed. I hope you enjoy them too!

 Lois saw this cosplayer walking toward us and yelled out "Tiger! C'mere tiger!" I asked if I could take the "tiger's" picture and they stopped to pose. Lois yelled from her seat in her stroller (tired of walking - this was a few hours into the day) and I asked if they'd mind coming to say hello. They did and it was awesome.

The picture above here was actually taken by a complete stranger and I gave the gentleman my card, asking him to email it to me. I'm honestly surprised he did, and very happy.

Side note: As I'm writing this Lois saw the picture and yelled "Hi tiger!" Then she started petting the screen.

 This young lady sat by the tree enjoying the shade. I asked if I could take a photograph and she posed. I tend to ask everyone, even if in costume, if I can take their picture. I'd rather ask than offend.

 A falconry demonstration. Lois really loved seeing the birds swoop and dive! She yelled at them every time one came into view.

The people around us didn't seem to mind too much; she was more entertaining than one of the presenters.

 I went over to the hooded birds and grabbed a picture of them. As I snapped this one I heard Lois scream in delight from behind me.

Apparently the falcon had just swooped directly overhead and I had missed it but she hadn't.

Thankfully it didn't try to take her with it!

 There's a bridge (called "The Queen's Bridge") across a swamp at the fair and it's filled with turtles, minnows, and Koi.

A nice swamp, as far as swamps go. Lois liked the turtles quite a bit!

Goodnight, Lois. Sleep tight. It seems that 6 hours out in the sun walking, riding, and experiencing new things is a bit tiring.