Best Dad Ever

This blog was written almost a month ago. Between then and now my computer hard drive failed. There were many hoops to jump through (and one moderately sized check to write), but thanks to my good friend Mark my computer ended up in competent hands and not only were my documents saved, but the six thousand (yes, six thousand) photos were saved as well. Enjoy.

Here is a quote from the father of Zoe’s friend Tallulah (passed along by Tallulah’s mom): "I think David is the best Father. He is so terrific with Zoe, he does an amazing job." Now, I’m not sure how he came to this conclusion, but who am I to contradict him? I plan on using this quote frequently.

Speaking of being the best father, from this same couple I often hear about activities that they are doing with their daughter, and I think that I too should be doing those same activities and wonder why I didn’t think of that as well. For example, they are always talking about the art projects their daughter Tallulah is involved in. Now one problem I have is I don’t like a mess, so I have always avoided those activities that are messy, such as painting. Just the thought of a paintbrush, dripping with bright, wet colors in the hands of Zoe gives me chills. But not to deny her an artistic outlet, this week I purchased a batch of Play-Doh. We have a designated area where we play with the dough, but it’s not surprising that there are now squishy specks of color scattered about the room. And I’m not sure how it is improving her artistic skills, since she mostly likes to just take the dough in and out of their little jars.

This week Zoe came down with a twelve-hour virus that had her throwing up about every twenty minutes for the first half of the day. Our house was scattered with various towels to try to catch the offending outflow, which nevertheless usually ended up on one of us. The only positive to come out of this is that by the end of the day, whenever she saw a towel she would say blah, while sticking out her tongue. I’ve taught her how to make fake throw up sounds; my work is done.

Okay, this is old material, but here it is. The other day I could not get Zoe to try some piece of food that I had prepared. She adamantly refused all my tricks to get her to taste it. However, in the last week I’ve caught her licking the kitchen cabinet handles, licking the dishwasher door, eating Play-Doh, picking up and eating food off the playground, and sticking a crayon in her mouth. Am I just serving her the wrong food? I see lots of trendy baby food at the market. Maybe I should star my own line of food that looks like trash. In the instructions I will direct the parents to either leave it on the floor or smear it across a piece of furniture.