Adopting Fatherhood

As any parent of a toddler knows, sleep deprivation is normal. And when people are sleep deprived, they don't always make good choices. So this Avon body soap for kids, which branded as a body paint to entice kids to put it on I guess, looks just like a container of roll-on deodorant. Is this sheer genius by a packaging engineer? Or a brilliant way to make that groggy parent, who mistakenly grabbed this instead of their deodorant, take another shower? I'm glad I read this morning. But I do wonder, why does Avon hate parents enough to think this was a clever idea?  

I made the conscious decision to call myself Papa when we met The Kid. Daddy seemed too common, too pedestrian. Since I enjoy bucking trends, this seemed like a no-brainer kind of a choice. For a long time, The Kid adopted to this pretty well. I've been Papa in this house for the 10 months she's been actively talking, until lately. She hears Daddy a lot at daycare, where I am the only parent who prefers Papa. All of her classmates refer to their father's as Daddy, so I shouldn't be shocked she's picked it up. The transition has been gradual. For a time, when she would be excited and she couldn't decide who to tell first, The Kid would refer to us as "MaPa." It was cute when she would say it, but she has since figured out how to get the correct name out when she's excited. Then we went to "DaddyPapa," which is a mouthful.  I realized Tuesday that she has fully transitioned to "Daddy," when I picked her up from day...

The Kid's vocabulary has exploded lately. Her often non-stop narrative occasionally makes sense now, and she pulls a typical brutish American move when you don't understand her, she repeats what she just said at maximum volume. For the most part, her diction is spot on. She is very clear with the mono-syllabic words she does know, and her ability to string together short sentences is improving (although I think I'll be saying "cankoo" instead of thank you for quite a while). And she absolutely melts her word nerd Papa's heart by using every single word in her vocabulary correctly. But incidents like what transpired Friday are indicative of what can drive the parents of toddlers to an early grave. On my way back from a business trip in Chicago, my windshield wiper fluid lines were frozen. It was a stressful drive, mostly because I had my boss and a co-worker in the car and I could only see when I could tailgate a trucker to get any moisture on my windsh...

My mom watched The Kid for us during the 40th Annual Davemas celebration a few weeks ago. That night, mom witnessed her granddaughter climb out of the crib using the hope chest next to the crib as leverage, and got a little freaked out when The Kid started walking on top of the chest, presumably to find a good landing spot. For the past few weeks, it has become increasingly hard to get her sleep in her crib. And Gladys witnessed her using the chest to get out of the crib last night. When she tried getting our daughter to get back into the crib, she realized it just wasn't happening and let her sleep on a comforter next to her crib, where she was sacked out until 7a.m. We converted her crib into a toddler bed tonight. She was beyond excited and she couldn't wait to go to bed tonight. She sat in her bed for all but one book tonight, and the only reason she sat on my lap for one book is that I convinced her that Papa needed to cuddle with his baby. This all comes at the same...