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.

Photo Placeholder Post

Oh. Dear. Lord

Lois messed her diaper while napping today.

It must have been uncomfortable because she removed it and went back to sleep.

Toddlers Live on Air and Sunshine

I'm pretty certain that toddlers can live off of sunshine and air.

I gave Lois her breakfast this morning, Chex cereal that she normally really enjoys, and within five minutes more than half of it was on the floor and maybe two or three pieces had gone down her gullet. Laura had given her some cheese earlier but she had only eaten a few bites of that.

Lois assures me that she's not hungry, both in word ("No, daddy. No hungee.") as well as in deed when she takes any food offered her and throws it on the ground or puts it directly into the garbage. Even her favorite foods are of no interest to her.

We gave drunk baby whisky for her birthday, as evidence by this picture.

In other news, I should have posted on the 3rd to wish my little one a happy birthday and to let you all know that she is officially 2 years old now.

That's right. It's been 2 whole years. And that's insane.

I'll do a retrospective this Friday. Maybe. If she allows me to; she's in charge of my time these days.