Collecting my thoughts, or I'm too tired to make any of these ideas a full blog post

-
Sometimes it is better to just get thoughts out on paper, or in this case, on my blog, even when they are not fully developed. This is one of those times.

Here are some of the random observations I've made lately:
  • Every kid grows differently, and disproportionately. The Kid, and her hands, are no exception.
  • The Kid loves snuggling after a bath, and I love snuggling with her, but I'm always nervous that the only thing standing between me and a bunch of urine is a towel. 
  • She still mixes up Mama and Papa when she's excited, and I find the MaPa combination to be incredibly cute.
  • My friend Max says he doesn't think the "terrible twos" are all that terrible, mostly because it is exciting to watch children develop independence. I want to agree with him, but I do struggle with the concept when she's half-dressed and planking while I'm running late to work. 
  • The Kid's favorite sentence in the world is, "I did it!"
  • We still argue the nuances of what constitutes a truck versus a bus. 
  • She loves trains more than I expected. 
  • I relish the look of accomplishment on her face.
  • Ema The Great gave us the tuition for swim lessons, which was the best use of her money I could think of, especially when The Kid is smiling from ear-to-ear in the pool. 
  • I'm hoping she learns to enunciate the letters B and L soon. It is cute to have her yell manana instead of banana, but it is a bit disturbing to have her talk about the clock in her room.
  • I am, and will always be, the parent who posts way too many pictures of his daughter on Facebook. Deal with it. 
  • Mama's shoes are The Kid's go-to lounging around the house footwear.
  • Few things are as startling at 3 a.m. as your two-year old walking up to your side of the bed and yelling, "wakey wake!"
  • She knows that if I tell her we're only going to read three books before night night, she can hop off my lap after book three, grab book four, and I'll probably read it. 
  • At least once a week when I drop her off at daycare, she watches me leave her classroom and gives me an assuring look when I peek through the window. 
  • I've never been this tired in my life. 
  • Being a parent is more incredible than I ever imagined. 

Popular posts from this blog

Marching for hope in our neighborhood

-
Image
The Kid and I walked our neighborhood this evening, but with a different purpose than usual. Many in our neighborhood gathered at Gesu Catholic Church to March for Hope . Roughly this time last year, a federal judge who lives a few streets over, was shot on his front porch in a botched robbery attempt. His physical recovery from the single bullet to the knee took the better part of a year and extensive rehabilitation, and his emotional recovery was sped by his church community and immediate neighbors. I don't know the judge, nor am I a member of his church Gesu Catholic. I'm not much of a protest guy either, I prefer to work behind the scenes. I read about the walk this morning , and almost forgot about it until Gladys started to do some work for a class she's taking. So we bundled up The Kid, and the two of us walked over to the church to support our neighborhood. When we walked into the church, I was struck immediately with the knowledge that this was not a protes...
Read more

Yet another blog of parenting advice

-
Image
A friend whose wife is expecting their first child was asking me for advice today. He's going to be a new dad, so he was asking in general terms because until you're in it, you really don't know what to ask for. My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him to get rest. Lots of it, whenever you can from now until the kids are adults. Forget the idea of work/life balance too, because balance is a myth. Sometimes work will take priority, sometimes the kids will, and sometimes dad has to be a priority. If you're too concerned about hitting a false measure of balance, you're going to miss something. The End of the Beginning And that was it. That's all I could come up with until I got in the car and scarfed down one of the sugar cookies I bought for myself as a treat that I had no intention of sharing. Here's what I came up with. Avoid watching Caillou at all costs. For some reason, kids are absolutely mesmerized by him. No adult on that show holds the kid acc...
Read more

The one question you can ask that is guaranteed to offend an adoptee

-
Image
The more I open up about my personal experience trying to find my birth father, the more convinced I become that people talk about adoptee experiences from the wrong lens. There is an implicit bias toward the adoptive parent perspective that can, and often does, negate the experience of the adoptee. I started really paying attention when people were asking me why I waited so long to reach out to my birth father. That is a legitimate question for his family to ask me, especially when considering he was in the last stages of his life. For the general public, I have a different standard and I would hope they would also ask me a second question, but few ever do. Did your birth family ever come looking for you? The only people that ask are my dearest friends. For the most part, I try to answer the first question sincerely and directly. Usually, I land on something like it took a long time to make the decision because I did not want to hurt anyone but eventually I realized I was ...
Read more