Friday Picture Post: Silly Girl

 I tried to practice spinning poi this morning.

Someone else, small and adorable, tried her best to get hit in the head with the poi as she attempted to grab them from me.

She then spent the next 10 minutes or so "spinning" them, which consisted of them bouncing around on the floor. I cheered her on, of course. Some day she'll be able to make them go round and round.

That'll be the day I start wearing a cup every waking moment.

 Lois and I often play "I love you." It's where one of us tells the other "I love you," then the other person says it back louder. We volley back and forth until we're shouting at each other "I LOVE YOU!" Usually it ends in raucous laughter from both sides.

The other day she got to as loud as her little voice would take her and she ended the game with "I LOVE MOMMY!"

I guess mommy wins?

 Lois LOVES this new flooring. She can push herself around on yer Y-Bike without any problem and just glide along.

I still don't feel comfortable bringing her out with it but in here? In here she rides it around like a queen.

Which is to say that she rides right over our feet and expects us to apologize for the bumps in her path.

 I'm glad we kept this large comfy chair in the move. We almost got rid of it but it makes a perfect chair for our reading nook, which Lois uses frequently.

It's not rare that I watch her grab a book and wander over to the chair, pulling herself up into it and getting comfy (which often includes throwing every pillow onto the floor but so be it). She'll settle down with the book for upward of fifteen minutes sometimes!

If that doesn't sound like a long time, you do not have a toddler.

 While waiting for mommy to get out of work the other day Lois found the paper and started reading it.

I knew I needed a picture.

She actually seemed to enjoy looking through the paper and not just the crinkling sound. Smart little daughter of mine.

Keep working on it, daughter of mine! You've almost got it! Just another couple years of growing and they'll stop hitting the floor!

Now stop growing. Thanks.

I'm Fine

Lois lays down on the floor and curls up with her puppy dog doll, Rompy. She says "Goodnight."

Me: "Lois, do you want to go take a nap?"

Lois: "No, I'm fine."

Me: "I think Rompy wants to go take a nap."

She looks at me, looks at Rompy, babbles some words, then looks back at me again.

Lois: "Rompy fine."

---

Last night was a bit rough for the household. For whatever reason Lois just wasn't going to sleep after she woke up around 10:30 or so.

If this happens I very often go sit on the stool next to her bed and just chat with her, rub her back, sing her songs, and whatever else pops into my head to help her go to sleep.

Last night, she decided we were going to chat.

Everything was fine right up until she looked over my shoulder and her eyes went wide.

"Oh, there he is!" she said, pointing directly behind me.

I looked behind me and she immediately said "Him gone."

She then started talking about "Man who not there," laid down, stuck her thumb in her mouth and went to sleep.

Me, on the other hand? I kept looking for the man who wasn't there.

---

Recently Lois has started "reading." She knows "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" as well as "We're Going On A Bear Hunt."

Some days she'll walk up to me and start quoting the book. I take that as a "please go find this book and read it for me, my dearest father."

She's an adorable little bundle of awesome, she is.

An adorable little bundle of hilarity, awesomeness, and creepiness.

Little Monkey Bizness!

Yesterday we needed something to use up all that mischievous energy that someone in our household seems to constantly have.

I can't imagine who I might be talking about.

Television just doesn't cut it and so I decided that we would spend a couple dollars for an hour or two of fun at Little Monkey Bizness.

When I asked if she wanted to go to Monkey Bizness, her reply was "ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh!"

I took it as a "yes."

This place is nice and large with a ton of stuff to do!

She particularly enjoyed this climbing thing full of little hiding areas, platforms, and steering wheels.

There were many other kids playing; it was difficult to snap photos of Lois without getting any of them in it but I try really hard to make sure I'm not taking shots of other people's kids.

We'll definitely be going back. Lois had a great time, tired herself out, and met lots of other kids. It was a lot of fun.

It helped that there were other adults there chatting who didn't mind me wandering in and out of their conversations as I followed my little one around. I tried not to hover but Lois was the youngest one there and needed the most supervision.

The other adults agreed, which was nice. I don't need validation from other people that I'm being a good parent but it's nice to hear other people say we're doing a good job and that I'm not being overprotective, just regular protective, which is good. I don't want to be a helicopter parent, constantly hovering.

At the same time, I don't want her falling off the top of something because I wasn't there to catch her.

It's a difficult balance, sometimes.

The Cry of All Parents, Everywhere

"I was only gone for a minute!"

Every parent says it. Every parent means it. Every child takes advantage of that one minute of alone time.

In the past I would put Lois safely in her crib any time I had to go to the bathroom. This often ended in tears, screaming, crying, and me feeling bad about putting her there but knowing it was the only way to keep her safe. I knew that if I left her out, even for the 30 seconds it took me to do my thing, then the 10 seconds to wash my hands, horrible things would happen.

I just knew it was true and so I did everything I could to make sure that she had absolutely zero freedom if my eyes weren't actively on her. I had to use the bathroom? She had to go into her crib. No exceptions.

Until today.

Today I figured "It's about a minute. She's watching TV. I allow her out of my sight all the time now when she wants to go play in her room or in the den area. It'll be fine. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"

She ordered HBO.

No, seriously.

I walked in and there was a prompt on my TV: "Your order for HBO has been processed. It will show up on your account in a few days. Thank you." She was watching Man of Steel.

I was only gone for a minute!

My New Favorite Picture of Her

This is my new favorite picture of her. Please ignore the mess in the background; for those who don't know, we just moved into our new apartment and we're recovering from the move with a messy house.

I'm not sure where this particular outfit came from (probably our friends Heather and Greg and their daughter, Hope) but it's adorable and Lois really liked it when she picked it out this morning.

Our morning routine when I dress her consists of me picking out three outfits and her choosing between the three. I'd let her just choose something from her drawer but that would quickly end in everything in the drawer being out of the drawer and on the floor.*

One of the best things about unpacking is that I found a ton of new outfits for Lois that we didn't know we had. I thought we were running out of outfits and might have to (*gasp*) buy clothes for her, which the generosity of friends and family has staved off for at least this long. But no! Whole boxes of clothing in the appropriate sizes came with us! Yay!

When I try to get pictures of Lois now I have to sneak them or she'll come running as soon as she sees the camera; she wants to see the pictures of her on the camera. Not that she's self-centered or anything; she just likes to look at herself. Perfectly normal. (Dork baby.) I have to sneak the photos or what I get is a picture of her running toward me. Like this one.

Silly baby. Wonderful, amazing, and silly.

*Everybody walk the dinosaur.

Friday Picture Post: Happy Friday the 13th!

Lois is lost in thought while playing in the water at the DuPage Children's Museum.

What is she thinking about?

I'm not sure but right after this she picked up a cupful of water and poured it over herself.

I guess she needed a bath?

Let me tell you, watching her climb down these stairs on her own was an act in pure bravery on my part. I had to stop myself every moment from running up and grabbing her hand or carrying her down myself.

She made it safely and didn't even stumble once.

I thought she would love this room but honestly she just wanted to run out as fast as humanly possible.

I guess she doesn't like mirrors.

We're starting her geekdom early. Don't judge me.

A Thing I Never Expected

That's right. I took a selfie. You're welcome.

This very handsome man you see here looking stoic, war-weathered, and weather-worn, is me.

Me is currently celebrating another human being pooping in the toilet, singing silly songs that go "Poopoo in the pot-ty, poopoo in the pot-ty!" to the ever-awesome salsa beat. (1 And 2 And 3, 4 for anyone unsure.)

Being a dad makes me celebrate the weirdest things.

I also never thought I'd be holding another person over a toilet, waiting in anxious anticipation for them to do their business. It's really weird. Rewarding in the most gross way possible, and also very weird.

IT'S STILL FRIDAY WHERE I AM: Friday (Last Minute) Picture Post

A picture of Lois being Gollum.

 Please pardon the lack of any real descriptions to these pictures as I'm posting this at 11:19 PM Central Time so that I can say I got my Friday Picture Post up "on time."

This was Lois in the apartment before the movers came. There was a LOT of space to run around and play.

A (bad) picture of daddy being really, really creepy.

Those are my socks.

They look better on her, though.

She says "See my pretty socks?"

Okay, Lilly Tomlin.

I try really hard not to look creepy in pictures. What I mean by that is I avoid pictures of myself at all costs and here's a picture to show why.

Thursday Picture Post!

Sittin' in a box, playin' with my blocks!

Runrunrunrunrun!

Acres of field, and she goes right for the nearby parking lot.

I'm flying, Jack!

Whee!

Love the hair. Big, fluffy hair.

Not excited.

GIANT BABY!

Who is that big angry-looking guy?