Fatherhood

Once a week a speech therapist goes to daycare to help my daughter with her enunciation and pronunciation and it has really, really helped. I am able to comprehend her a great deal more than I used to be able to.
These days she does get upset if my wife or I do not understand what she is trying to convey. We try really hard and are patient with her.
Once a month the speech therapist comes to our home to do a lesson with us present. Recently she suggested my wife and I help with pronouncing words wit her. I looked at her and said that I couldn’t. She looked at me with a confused expression and asked why not?
I was born in Brooklyn and raised in New York. I currently reside in Indianapolis. I told her that if I helped with words, she would be wrong out here. I pronounce ‘water’ as wauter, ‘talk’ as taulk’ and I can’t even begin to spell how I pronounce coffee. I usually take off the er’s off of words and add an ‘a’. For example I say creama instead of creamer.
So the speech therapist understood. It is up to my wife to help in that department.
I tried to speak the way Hoosiers do and it sounded weird coming from me, not from them. The reciprocal is true too. Sometimes my friends try to imitate the way I speak and it sounds funny coming from them.
Therefore Caris will have an accent from Indiana. It’s all good

This morning I was in a rush to get my daughter to daycare. Her school curriculum starts at nine and we were running late as I had to make her breakfast, change her, and brush her teeth and hair.
She would not be rushed. At almost three, she is taking more of an active role in explaining her emotions. Her comment to me was funny, albeit only to me. She was serious when she uttered, “Daddy, you make me mad.” I tried not to smile. I simply replied, “I told you to do something and you did not listen, should I be mad at you?”
I certainly was not mad at her but was very curious to hear her rebuttal.
“No daddy, you happy. You make me mad.” Then she did something unexpected. She turned away from me and refused to look in my direction! She had never done that before.
It took me almost a full minute to suppress my laughter whilst watching her silhouette. She adamantly refused to look at me!
After the minute passed I spoke to her and asked her if she was ready to get change and go to school. She affirmed and everything was fine after that.
My little girl cracks me up. Almost everyday something new spews from her mouth and I have to take a step back and listen.
Children at that age are a sponge and I hope I can instill positive attributes to her that will create a loving and warm person. I believe she is well on her way.

For the last eight months or so, my wife and I have done just about everything conceivable to entice my daughter to poop in the potty. I even wrote an entry here to voice my frustration on her being obstinate concerning it.
We told her she would get five candies (M&M’s, she loves those) and not one like we did for peeing in the potty, to no avail. We tried explaining to her how big she is and that she should poop in the potty. All of her friends at daycare do it, so why couldn’t she? She told us she was a baby.
I showed her baby pictures we had of her and told her that was her as a baby, and now she is a big girl. That did not work.
Several books my wife and I read suggested leaving her alone and he or she will do it on their terms. That is the strategy we employed. Apparently that paid off.
My girl does things when she is good and ready. She takes her time doing everything. While that may be an admirable trait, when it came to pooping in the toilet, I wanted instant gratification.
I was at work one evening and my wife called me to tell me that Caris went to her and told she had to potty. So my wife put the seat on the toilet. My daughter then told my wife that she was ready to poop in the potty.
When she called me and told me that I was in heaven! It was about time. I was so happy! While at breakfast this morning I told her how happy I was that she pooped in the potty and her face glowed.
Now I hope she continues. I know there will be episodes where she will not make it, but if she applied the effort, then I can’t hold it against her.

I awoke this morning late. It was well past nine and I did not remember my daughter waking my wife and me up. I then realized that she had spent the night at my mother-in-law’s home.
It is always weird when she spends the night at a family member’s home. She is loved by everyone and everyone wants her to stay at their place. Although she hardly ever does, it does seem odd not to be woken up by her.
It is at these times when you learn to appreciate how much she (or he) means to you. Of course I feel blessed to have her, but to really think about it is when there is silence in the house when there is usually playing. She always wants to brush my hair, my wife’s hair and I usually indulge her. Why not? She needs to learn and harness her creative expressions.
I miss her and cannot wait until we pick her up today.
Now it will take a few days to despoil her because, of course, my mother-in-law spoils her. My wife had said several times that her mom was never like that with her. That is a grandma’s prerogative to spoil the child and then they go home.
The smile on my daughter’s face when we see her is priceless.

I received some interesting responses to some of my articles. One of the most responses came from an article I had written about taking my daughter into the men’s restroom.
Most people told me that my fears were unfounded. While I may seem overzealous concerning bringing my daughter into the men’s restroom, I still can’t help feeling the way I feel. It may be wrong, but most of my friends and family agreed with my blog. They said I should be wary. I should feel concerned.
So a balance must be struck. How do you deal with conflicting opinions on a topic that does not come up much? I will go by my opinion, weather it is right or wrong. Despite the feedback I may endure, I feel my daughter’s safety is my primary concern. I may be overreacting, but that is the way it is going to be.
Another response I got was from “The difference between I like you and I love you”. All of the responses, by readers and by family and friends, received positive responses.
All of the articles are written by my observations and my daughter continues to be my source of inspiration.