Counting and Melting Hearts

Last night I heard my 18-month old daughter count to 10 for the first time. She's a genius. OK, so she skipped from 6 to 10, but still. She just jumped from not counting at all to counting to 10. I'm no expert, but I think that's pretty impressive. She grabbed a box of manila envelopes and dumped them on the floor, then picked them up and started counting. She's partial to the numbers 1 and 2, of course, and repeats those ones over and over while she holds up her index finger. Her fingers aren't sophisticated enough, yet, to show me all the numbers she's counting, so I count by holding up my various fingers while she holds up her single finger. Last night I followed her lead and we counted together. She would get to 6 and then say "ten, yay!"

Even more amazing is that when I got home from work and sat down next to her on her miniature Pooh couch she grabbed my thumb and started pulling me around the house. Running to the window. Running through the kitchen. Running to the blow-up mattress on the floor. Running back to the couch. Sitting down. Getting back up and running around again. Both of us laughing the whole time. It was amazing. That's the first time she's actively pulled me around as if to say "Daddy, I want to show you something. Come on!"

The thing that makes it particularly touching for me is that I just got back from a 4-day business trip and had a lot of fear about how she would react to me being gone that long. Would she be sad? Would she be angry? Would she be distant when I returned? It's the first time I've been away from her for so long. I talked to her everyday on the phone, but I know that a 10-minute phone call just isn't the same as in-person one-on-one time. So when she grabbed my thumb and pulled me around the house, it just affirmed that our strong bond was still intact and that nothing had changed.

I was still her Papa and she was still my little Buggy Bear.

-t.

The New Dad Diet

Just like moms, most new dads gain weight before/after the baby is born. Well, for those of you who are insecure about it, don't fret because the New Dad Diet is here. And the best part is that you don't have to do anything!

Our baby is now over 1 year old (yay, we made it!) and she's not only eating solid food but she only wants to eat what daddy is eating. So I've found that what happens is that as soon as I start eating, she reaches out to get my food. Inevitably (because everyone knows I'm a pushover when it comes to my daughter), I end up feeding her my food while I'm eating it. This ends up cutting my portions in half. And everyone knows that when you reduce the portions, you lose the weight. I'm still waiting for the extra pounds to drop off, but I'm sure it'll start happening any day now...

So try the New Dad Diet and let me know how it works for you!

("The New Dad Diet" is a Trademark of Two New Dads, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.)

xo
-t.

Learning Vs. Frustration

Our daughter is right on the verge of walking (yay!) which means she's standing on her own, pulling herself up and pushing things around. She loves to grab certain things and push them around the house. Although sometimes she gets frustrated because she'll run into a wall or the couch and it stops her forward progress. She doesn't understand that she can't just keep pushing it right through the wall and she hasn't figured out that it's more effective to just turn around and go the other way.

So this morning she was pushing the laundry basket and was getting frustrated that she couldn't push it through the hallway because she wanted to push it through at an angle that didn't quite work. She kept getting stuck. Mom shifted the angle of the basket so that our daughter could push it through, but she insisted on pushing it HER way and the basket kept getting stuck. This lead to frustration and crying. Mom wanted to keep adjusting the basket until our daughter figured it out. I scooped up our daughter and comforted her so that she would stop crying (which, of course, she did).

Mommy's argument was that she needs to keep trying until she learns, even if she gets frustrated in the process. Daddy's argument was that there's value in teaching our daughter to take a break from something if it's getting too frustrating. This is something I've had to learn over the years: If you leave something alone and come back to it with fresh eyes, often you'll have a different perspective and it's more effective than trying to plow through something that's not working.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Input is more than welcome...

Thanks!
-t.

Bonus Episode #1: Sex!

The last two episodes of Two New Dads (Year One) are bonus episodes that we weren't originally planning to launch, but people told us they were just too funny to keep to ourselves. So check out Bonus Ep. #1: "Sex", now online: