DaddySaidSo.com

Alright, this is where I’m going to sound like a bit of a jerk.  

Lil’ tiny babies are lame.  

There I said it.  Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s a guy thing, I don’t know.  One of the PAs I work with in the ER jokes around that looking at pictures of other peoples babies is like looking at a toaster.  To a certain extent he’s right.  They don’t do anything, they’re just there.  

Aubrey was an especially difficult newborn. Let me re-phrase - Aubrey was more difficult than McKenna.  McKenna was easy and she almost certainly spoiled us.  Aubrey on the other hand earned a rather dubious nickname in her first few months.  I used to call her my “Lil’ Black Hole of Need.”  Take take take take take take.  ”When are you going to do something useful!!??!,” I would think. 
Well over the past few months, she’s finally starting to get cool.  She’s starting to walk while holding onto furniture.  She’s feeding herself.  Her vocabulary has gone beyond monosyllabic shrieks.   She says Dada and Nana and Ripey (Ripley is our dog).  Tonight was first time I really noticed that she can play in the tub now.

I used to hate bath time with her.  She hates to be still and she is a real wiggle worm.  Bath time for me was 10 minutes of near constant fear that she was going spin around quickly and swallow half the tub in one gulp.

Now she sits there and plays with her toys.  She enjoys being splashed and I’ve started the “dump-the-cup-of-water-over-my-head” game that McKenna still enjoys to this day.  I can’t wait until next month when she starts swim class.
My little girl is growing up.  My little girl is starting to get cool.

Drying off in the mirror.

I have to mention that my wife and I react very differently to Aubrey’s growth and development.  I get excited.  Every time she does something new, I think about how much closer we are to teaching her to ski, to enrolling her in gymnastics, to seeing her chase her first soccer ball or deliver her first one liner in the school play.  My wife sees these things too, but she also gets a little wistful.  Her whole face changes.  She contemplates how Aubrey is our last baby and that these “firsts” will be our “last firsts.”  I can see her point, but I’d rather think about how much fun we’re having now.