Fast Forward

I've started having flash forwards.

This weekend your allergies were really bothering you and you kept getting white goop in your eyes. Its sticky stuff and hard to get out and you hated the whole process. So there you are screaming no and kicking and waving your arms and holding your breath while I repeatedly try to get white goop out of your eyes.

At that moment there was no doubt that I was going to get the goop out despite your protests to the contrary. I know you didn't like it and got upset by it, but it had to come out and you weren't going to like that no matter how it happened. When your two, your parents get to make these kinds of decisions.

In fact, we'll get to make these kinds of decisions without your input for a while now. Right up until you declare "I'm not a baby anymore!" because you wanted to take the car out that night and we said no for no particularly good reason and then we suddenly realize that you aren't 2 any more and we don't just make all your decisions for you because you can't really be trusted to make them yourself. Its not because we're evil, its because we know we really need to get that goop out of your eyes even though you disagree.

First Joke

Last night you told your first joke.

We were out to dinner with Aunt Heather, Uncle Scott, and most importantly Cousin Mitchie at the beach. Mitch was telling jokes, some of his favorites being knock-knock jokes.

Then you decide to get into the act: "ding dong"

"Who's there?"

"Moooo." You say.

"Moo who?"

"That's a cow."

Pretty funny, first joke.

Snow Globes

So your mom has a collection of snow globes. When you were really little and crying, I'd play a snow globe and spin you around the living room. Music always seemed to help.

Its been a while, but you have rediscovered them. Not only do they play music, but some of them spin and they have bears or castles or princesses or turtles or horses and snow inside.

Unfortunately you want to touch them too and hold them, and then one evening you took the castle snow globe and pushed it across and off the end table I had set it on. Some how it did not break.

Of course the funny little secret here is that your mom's snow globe collection is very close to accidental. Somewhere along the line she got a couple as gifts and then everyone else noticed them and figured she had a collection and now she has 10 or so. I gave her a couple when we were dating. But she never really asked for them, they just started showing up.

Don't think that means you can break them though.

Being the Second Parent

Lots of people talk about mothers fighting to strike a balance between their desire to be involved in their child's upbringing and their increasingly common need to earn a living. I know its something your mom has tried to strike a balance with. While I think she has found a compromise that works for her, she probably make different choices if she could. I suspect very few people are completely happy with the balance they have.

My balance is very different. While there are certain advantages to swooping in an hour before bed-time to save you from an entire day with the parent you may have grown tired of interacting with (or who has grown tired of disciplining you on your bad days). In the end, that adds up to a whopping 5 hours during the week?

There are definitely days that I wish for more. You are growing up so fast and there are so many good stories your mom has from her time with you -- "Stop it Elmo!" -- that I would share here but they aren't really my stories.

I certainly do not begrudge your time with your mom. I'm glad it works out. But I'm also looking forward to the long 4-day weekend coming up.

Of course there are also days when you are showing off your 2-year-old credentials that I do not envy your mom.

First Milk Shake

This actually happened a while ago, for some reason I thought about it this morning.

You had a sore throat and weren't eating so your doctor suggested that we should feed you a milk shake so we went down to the crepe's place in the Kentlands. You didn't even want to try it. Somewhere along the line we decided to let you run around a little in the plaza there. With me chasing around behind you trying to get you to eat milk shake. You finally decided to have some and decided you liked it. By that time the milkshake had turned into soup. Combined with your instance on running around while eating the milkshake, you ended up with half of it on your shirt.

Don't get any bright ideas from this though. No precedent is intended by letting a sick 18 month old run around eating a milk shake. Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do.

Business Meetings

You are 2 plus a couple months old. So this is certainly not the first time I've been away for a long stretch of time since you've been born. In fact its the third time I've been gone for a week long business trip (BIO's annual meeting each time). But this one was harder.

Partly because you change so much now -- behaviors and mannerisms and language. Mostly its because I think you realized I was gone. That was hard. You are old enough to know I'm missing, but not old enough to understand explanations or to be aware of when I'm coming back.

I really missed your adventures -- especially climbing the ladder to the bunk bed at the Struass beach house while your mom was in the bathroom. But I know there are more to come.

Sorry, You're Going to Have to Get Used to This

We took a short jaunt to the playground last night. You had a good time on the equipment, especially the slides.

You normally only use the larger slide on our playground, but last night you used the shorter one a couple of times. The only draw back to that one is that the "door way" you have to go through to slide on the slide is about an inch shorter then you are. So you just plowed ahead and conked your head on it.

You looked at me with the surprised look on your face and a hand on your head, like 'why did that happen?'

For what it means, you're trending taller then I am. So this just might have to be something you get used to. Sorry.