Daddy Tree: Tiny Footsteps

I'm like most people, I suppose. Or many people anyway. I'm good at setting out on new projects (mostly of the self-improvement kind), but I'm poor at following through on them. And, like other folks, I make new year's resolutions that fail a few strides out of the gate (my resolutions have a lot of energy, but it's spent in the first furlong). I also make resolutions throughout the year that have a similar effect: They peter out. I like to resolve, but I don't have resolve. In the past few years, I've launched into a yoga lifestyle, I've started the next great novel and I've stepped toward running a 5k race. All have been folly (so far, I guess I should say). But let me step back a few sentences. It's pretty extreme to say I lack resolve. I have plenty. Sometimes my ideas are a bit too impractical, too ill-fitting. Yoga? Me? Really? I have some success stories: I resolved to become a vegetarian, and I've been one for more than 10 yea...

Willow's first Christmas was a blast! She had lots of time with friends and family, in Henderson and Springfield, Tenn., and in Bowling Green, Ky. She enjoyed her time with grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and cousins. We spent the weekend before Christmas in Henderson, where we celebrated Christmas at Mo's house and at Mamaw's and Pop's house. I think Willow's favorite gift from there was her rocking horse (see pictures below). Then during Christmas weekend, we spent Saturday at Aunt Jan's house in Bowling Green, where Willow netted "Peanut," one of her new and most favorite toys. And on Sunday, Christmas came! We hosted Christmas for my side of the family this year, which meant Uncle Jeff and Aunt Bethany, and Mimi and Papaw and cousins Rett and Bristol spent Christmas Eve and Day at our house. Willow loved being with her cousins as they came into the living room to see what Santa had left (including a light saber that Willow took a keen...

I recall talking to my close friend Rob about babies when Willow was a newborn. Rob has two of his own, including one who had her first birthday in September. During our conversation, Rob was cast in the support role; he was leveling with me about the reality of having a newborn as opposed to the romantic notions I had at the time. You see, Newborn Willow wasn't doing much other than sleeping, and I told Rob that, expecting him to say, "Oh, sleep today, play tomorrow!" Instead he said with a chuckle, "The Gerber baby doesn't arrive until she's 6 or 7 months old." And so I waited, and I continued to carry along my romantic notions of the Gerber baby. As time passed, I began to wonder if the visions were too dreamy. It's the same for all first-time parents, I suspect, harboring Hollywood dreaminess of what having a baby is going to be like. Take, for example, the eagerness first-timers have about taking baby home a day or two after birth then real...

Oh, the places you'll go!  There is fun to be done!   There are points to be scored.  There are games to be won.   And the magical things you can do with that ball   will make you the winning-est winner of all.   And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)   KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!   You're off the Great Places! Today is your day!   Your mountain is waiting.   So ... get on your way! Text from Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go" (of course) 

Willow and I ventured to the Rivergate mall on Thursday, and she had the time of her life. I graduated her from the carseat into the stroller seat that had been hiding underneath. And she loved it. As I whirled from department store to department store hunting for a particular gift, Willow grabbed the tray and pulled herself as far to the front as she could. From that vantage point, with the mall kiosks and storefronts zooming by, Willow laughed and screamed (her little baby screams of joy). This little 6-month-old girl spread more joy doing this than I have in many years. I was flying, folks (well, I was walking at a brisk pace), because the faster I went, the more fun Willow was having. As the pretzel-smell wind rushed through Willow's hair, she raised her arms and declared (I'm sure of it, though I'm not an expert baby-scream translator), "I am king of the world!" This trip to the mall was a blast. Other highlights: Willow loved zig-zagging through the cl...

One of Willow's favorites things to do is to hop in her Cadillac-style walker in Henderson and cruise around the room. Here she is while we set up the surprise birthday party for Mo, Willow's great-grandmother on Che's side.

"Kith and kin." I didn't know what that meant until watching a recent "Jeopardy" then reading the same phrase in one of my knights and dragons books a few days later. I know the phrase now, and I know another way of saying it: "friends and family." And even if I hadn't known the phrase before, I'm quite aware the concept had taken deep root in my and Che's lives when Willow arrived. Kith and kin was well rooted in our lives before Willow's birth, but her life has brought the importance of friends and family into better perspective for me. I can't speak for Che, but I'm pretty sure the kith-and-kin focus has sharpened for her too. We want Willow to have a strong foundation set in friends and family, and we've put extra effort into keeping those ties as strong as we have power to. A large part of that effort was our decision to have a stay-at-home parent, and we thank God every day that we were able to make that change in...

Willow is almost 7 months old. Most babies at that age have a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Cherish and I know most babies have settled into two naps by now. We've read it in books. We've read it online. Our doctor has told us. Willow does not get two naps. Up to last weekend, she was getting four a day, a 20-minute nap at 8 a.m., a 40-minute nap at 11:30 a.m., a 40-minute nap at 3 p.m. and a 20-minute nap around 6:30 p.m. As you can see, she had a nap regimen. She usually slept for these lengths, but sometimes she'd clock a 1-hour nap, and occassionally she'd settle in for two or three hours. Willow's doctor told us this nap routine was fine, but she wondered how OUR schedules were holding up to it. I'm staying home, so I adapt reasonably enough. Cherish and I also have read that although most babies have settled into two naps at this point, it's normal for a few babies to be frequent catnappers, just like Willow. Cherish and I haven't sweated ...