living like a complete pig

I am generally the more domestic one in my partnered relationship. My wife does well and is more than willing to participated, but I tend to actually enjoy cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, small (very small) household repairs, sewing if necessary. But when my wife goes out of town (she is at school in St. Paul for a week), I turn into a pig. My daughter and I had a supper that consisted of tuna fish and ak-mak crackers. We danced to Veggie Tales and Great Big Sea, left crayons all over the floor, dirty dishes in funny places--and then I stay up way too late for my own good. I think my wife saved my life. I am perfectly capable of a respectable existence, but I think I might tire of it after awhile. It has been a breath of fresh air to my daughter and I to not have to worry if we are distracting Mommy from her work. We miss her, but the change of pace is good.

I was doing something downstairs when kks woke up this morning--I came upstairs to find that she was calling out "Mommy" in our bedroom. She was mystified--but not yet scared. She then saw me and sprinted my way, just like she used to when I pick her up from child care.

My wife and I debated whether to post this, but while I was on the phone the other day, kks decided to share. A strange kind of sharing, she said "here." I held out my hand and she said, "See? Poopie." Guess what she placed in my hand?

My life is ruled by poop. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is near. I sure see a lot of poop near me.

I could have predicted this

Just when I write that one of my greatest joys results from kks dropping everything at child care and running to me yelling "Daddy," she barely acknowledges my presence and refuses to leave.

Parenting will never be a purely sentimental venture.

Taking a grandparent's perspective

After two weeks away from home, the idiosyncracies of kks become more vivid. Not that I want to make a frequent habit of going away, but those unique things that form the kks identity. Many grandparents see a grandchild less often and the day to day contact of a parent makes it more difficult to reflect upon the changes. Recent reflections:

Kks finds enjoyment sleeping on the floor--in a pile of blankets and stuffed animals, she makes her nest. Either we need to turn her 3-in-1 sleep place into a twin bed, or get rid of the bed all together.

Kks' latest fashion statement: she wears two headbands like a makeshift tiara, along with a band-aid on her forehead. What makes a little girl's fashion sense? What makes any of our fashion sense? My fashion must as a child had to do with shirts displaying numbers. Stay tuned about kks--she desires a more significant role in clothing and accessory choices.

One thing I will have a hard time getting over when that time passes: picking kks up from child care--the smile, the sprint toward me with outstretched arms shouting "Daddy!" I love that.

Ready to roll--a new way of coming home

In the grand scheme of things, I still could have taken better care of myself on this road trip.

But this time I was ready to roll. Even though my flight was delayed 2 hours because of nasty storms ripping through the Midwest and Southeast, I gladly put a pull-up on kks after her mother informed me she passed out in the car on the way home from child care. This growing trend relates to nap aversion...unfortunately she takes after her father on this one. Can't miss anything...

The pull-application at midnight woke her up--and she was ready to party. Bring it on--I was not exhausted. So we made a little slumber party--juice and cheddar bunny crackers and a Veggie Tales movie with sleeping bags and woobies.

Those times I fail to take care of myself--this would have been a crabby effort on my part that would have rippled through the whole weekend.

We are off to a good start. I guess I have the capacity to mature like kks.