Skip to main content

What I've learned from my daughter

My daughter turns 1 today.
She's been in my life for a year, and as I've shared with many of you already, this has been the best year of my life (just ahead of the five years of marriage I've shared with my wife, she likes to remind me, and the 37 years of life I owe to my angel mother; I can never forget the women in my life because they have forged who I am and who I will be).
And in the year I've been graced with Willow, I've learned a tremendous amount from my daughter.
Without Willow I wouldn't know:
  • That I should light up with joy whenever I see a dog or horse or bird. Such creatures are a marvel, and I owe them my good mood and admiration.
  • That I should point at something and tell others to look.
  • That I should shake with excitement when I see something that excites me. This is worth celebrating, folks.
  • That I should celebrate my happiness with the world.
  • That I should rejoice when a stranger approaches me (especially an ugly old man) because everyone deserves my smile and my time. And I deserve theirs.
  • That I should wake up with a smile.
  • That I should enjoy the time I have to play because play time is fleeting. Not enough of us play enough. Besides, playing strengthens the soul.
  • That I should play because how else can I explore.
  • That I should play because how else can I learn.
  • That I should pursue every chance to explore and to learn.
  • That I should find the pleasure in the simple things (banging on a pot CAN be fun just as sitting under a tree in a green meadow can open up the world to you).
  • That I should see the entertainment that's in the world around me, and that I am a part of that.
  • That I should accept that it's OK to concentrate on the things I like.
  • That I should take a nap when I can because naps rejuvenate the soul and brighten your day.
  • That I should laugh often and heartily because laughs make the world a happier place.
  • That I can never have enough kisses. They give you a spark of energy and happiness.
  • That I can never have enough hugs. They calm your fretfulness and worry.
  • That sometimes I need to cry over spilled milk (then promptly accept a hug).
  • That sometimes I should not cry over spilled milk because messes aren't worth the stress (and sometimes they can be downright fun).
  • That I should pace myself.
  • That I should expect to fall sometimes and be ready for it and ready to dust off.
  • That I won't be ready for falls all the time, so I'll need my friends and family to help me up.
  • That I should cherish my time with friends and family because I owe them the love they give to me, and I owe them my happiness.
  • That I am happy.
  • And lastly, that I cannot love Willow's mother too much. She is the angel who brought light to my world, and she brought Willow to my life, and to yours.
All this, and more, I've learned from my baby girl.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Willow's morning of play, play, play exhausts poor, old Dad

Willow's playtime universe continues to grow. Rapidly. Witness. In the midsummer heat, I take Willow out to our shaded backyard in the morning to play. And play she does. She climbed into her swing first. After I pushed her for a while, I got her out of the swing and put her in her wagon so she could help me convey bags of sand from the garage to the backyard to fill her sandbox (part of her new swing set) and her water table sandbox. She took rake and shovel and played in the sandbox for a bit. Then she waddled over to the deck and started to climb the steps to get to the water table. She played in the sand a bit, but most of her time was used dipping water up and out of the water part of the water table. Most the water ended up all over her. After that she wanted off the deck to go back to swinging. Instead I retrieved the new tricycle Cherish procured from a Franklin recycle center and cleaned it up. Willow loved the trike, holding on to the handle bars while I pushed her...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow hones her friend-making skills

Up until now Willow has enjoyed the company of other tots her age only in the sense that where they are is where the fun and the toys are. That is to say she likes the toys and the gyms and the swings and if she has to be around these other toddlers, so be it. That's with kids her own age. She LOVES older kids, but they don't care much for her (other than "she's a baby," and Willow can't keep up with them, though she tries). Her older cousin, Rett, for example, hung the stars and moon in her opinion, so she'll just about do anything he does, including cozying up with him on the chair to watch a movie. And he does like her more than the typical older kid does. But as far as all the toddlers and babies roughly in Willow's age range, she doesn't have much use for them. She's not mean to them. She'll let them take a ball from her hand, for example (as some say, she plays well with others). But I can tell you, most definitely, she just doesn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow's tooth-brushing goes from rocky to rocking

Willow has been giving us fits for months now about brushing her teeth before bed. She's usually better brushing her teeth in the morning, meaning it's less like wrestling an alligator for me, but at night before bed, she turns into the Tasmanian Devil. We've tried making the tooth-brushing as fun as possible for her, but I usually end up holding her against her will while I try, mostly in vain, to pry the toothbrush into her clamped-shut mouth. Sometimes we give up. We've tried singing to her. Dancing. Story-telling. Tickling. Nothing has really worked. But Mommy might have hit on the solution. A singing toothbrush. Yesterday Mommy brought home a toothbrush that belts out Queen singing "We Will Rock You." This toothbrush ROCKS! And Willow loves it. We tried it out last night, and on the inaugural brushing, Willow brushed her teeth successfully all by herself. She danced the whole time too. And I stayed bruise free (I also, surprisingly, had more energ...
Post a Comment
Read more