Not Yet!

I decided to check on the little one when I heard her crying at the end of a too-short nap. I turned the corner into her room and there she was:

One leg dangling out of her crib, her arms levering her to go all the way over.

Now allow me to cry out the lament of all parents everywhere:

"She's too little!"

"It's too early!"

"I'M NOT READY!"

Lazy Baby!

She doesn't comb her own hair.

The other morning I made Lois a cheese omelette for breakfast. I cut it into small pieces, put her highchair in the doorway to the kitchen where I could see her/she could see me, and I went about my business of cleaning up the kitchen.

When I next turned to see how she was doing I noticed that she had heard eggs were good for her hair and had decided to smear some in hers.

She added the cheese for good measure.

*A fight I won on principle since she still has the socks ON.

After a midday bath and an argument on how to properly wear socks*, she lazed about a bit more, doing absolutely nothing to clean up the mess she had made on her high chair when she flipped her plate and smashed her cheese into the table.

That's okay though; she continued her job of being absolutely adorable. I have to admit that she's quite good at that job. It's almost like it comes naturally to her.

What? I'm comfortable, daddy.

Laura and I left later on, leaving the little one with grandma and grandpa who agreed to watch her for us overnight while we enjoyed a rare night out to ourselves. We were very grateful, especially when we were actually able to sleep all night, even sleeping in past 7 AM.

Grandma, grandpa, and Lois unfortunately, were not quite as lucky. Unfortunately Lois didn't go to sleep on time for grandma and grandpa, then woke up in the middle of the night for an hour or so and then even woke up earlier than normal.

Here she is, insisting she is not tired at all.

The poor girl was exhausted the next day from keeping grandma and grandpa awake all night!

It's amazing how off-kilter a day can be for a toddler who is off their sleep. I think that the next day was the grumpiest I have ever seen the little one and that's even including the days that she got shots at the doctor's office.

She's back into her schedule though; one night wasn't too bad and she went right back to her usual nap time today, as well as her usual bed time last night. 

Her and Rompy enjoying some quality TV.

She even let us sleep in a little bit as she caught up on the lack of sleep.

She's so cute though, even when she's in a bad mood. As she starts to throw a bit of a fit I begin singing the Alphabet Song and she immediately stops wailing, turning to watch me do the ASL signs for each letter, then dancing slightly side-to-side when I get to the ever-favorite "L, M, N, O, P."

Forgetting why she was upset she goes out and finds a new reason to get upset, then the process repeats itself but this time with "Old MacDonald" and her trying to sing the "E-I-E-I-O," which sounds vaguely like a hooting monkey, in the most adorable way possible.

Lois really is a good kid. I mean, my attempts to teach her to load the dishwasher properly have amounted to nothing so far, and her inability to operate the vacuum cleaner can be a bit frustrating but she does "cute" very well. I think it's a fair trade at this point. Later, though?

Later she'll have to learn how to dust. Because I hate dusting. That's why you have kids, right? To do the chores you hate?

If At First You Don't Succeed, You'll Have a Mess to Clean

"No, I will not 'smile for the camera,' daddy. That trick is so last month."

We've decided to jump into the next step when it comes to feeding the little one and are trying to have her feed herself!

Are we early for that? Late? Should we hand feed her for the rest of her life and never teach her how to use utensils?

I have no idea except that I'm pretty sure that last one is not an option. Pretty sure.

So far we've taught her that once food is on the spoon or fork she can help us guide it into her mouth. She will sometimes try to guide it into her hair or lap but mostly she's gotten this whole "food goes into the mouth" thing.

What we haven't been able to teach her (yet) is that if we hand her the spoon and put the suction-cupped bowl on her tray, she should eat the food from the bowl using the spoon. I am fairly certain that at this point she believes that handing her the spoon with the food means that she should fling the food at the cat, via some catapult-like spoon maneuvers, then put the spoon down and eat the remaining food with her fingers.

The cats are unsure whether to be happy or upset. It often seems to depend on what we're trying to feed Lois. Bacon or ham products are a happy occurrence, whereas oatmeal seems to be a bit of a downer.

Actually, as the one who cleans it up? I agree with the cats.

When The Baby Sleeps

Today was a normal day at the beginning. Begrudgingly getting up. Some coffee for Laura, some breakfast for Lois, and me sitting in the chair going "Blergh."

Eventually Laura went to work. Lois lay down for a nap. And I came to life.

It started out pretty normal. I wanted to take a picture for my Green Mountain Coffee BzzCampaign and I thought that a picture of me balancing a hot cup of coffee on my head while juggling would suffice. As you do.

I thought the photo was kind of funny so after sending it off through the series of tubes that is the internet I posted it up on Facebook, labeling it "What I do when Laura is at work and Lois is asleep.*"

Laura wrote back "Well done. Now balance a second cup on the first one and do it again."

Because that's difficult?

Not content with me showing off my awesomeness, instead of praising me she responded "Now do it on one foot."

Thank you very much.




















Now if you'll just pardon me, the sound of coffee cups crashing to the floor seems to have woken the baby.






*Let's pretend this label is less accurate than it actually is, okay?

Zombies vs. Toddlers by ChaosLife

I Have Some Great Friends

Click to make bigger and read. I have great friends.

As you may or may not know, I have officially adopted my little girl and have legal papers that name me daddy.

This doesn't change anything at all except from a legal standpoint, which is a huge change all at the same time.

We had a party over the weekend with some of our closest friends to celebrate and I was surprised to see that they had shown up with presents.

Lois notices the important thing in the room; the camera.

They all laughed at me when I said that I was disappointed most of the presents were for Lois. I forgot the most important thing of being a parent: even if it's MY party, everyone's actually here for the baby.

I forgot that I am no longer a singular entity, I am a dad. It is always all about her.

And that's pretty great, really. She deserves the world.

Plus, my friends don't know my size at ALL.

Suddenly I Feel A Bit Better

It's not often that I just link to something written by someone else but today I'm going to do just that. Take a moment and feel better, my friends and inexperienced parents.