Daddy Tree: Tiny Footsteps

Today I owe Willow a trip to the park. Since Tuesday, old Dad has been anchored to the house by a cold (Willow had the same sniffles, but she seemed to muster through it a lot better than I did). I promised Willow yesterday I'd take her to the park today because I was feeling better. And today I'm feeling much better, down to a few nose blows and a small sinus headache. I think it's time to get out the house and go sliding, don't you? We're also going to the library and to the store. Willow will have a whale of a time.

Last week, Willow took a huge step in her quest to become a big girl (she's abiding by her plans, not Mommy's and Daddy's, who want her to stay a baby forever). Willow and I went to the playground for a morning of play and a picnic. Willow's idea of "a morning of play" is usually spending A LOT of time on the swing. Up to last week, if she wanted out of the swing, it was to walk over to another, better swing. Then back again. Last week, things changed. I put Willow at the top of a tot slide and started cheering her to let loose. I readied to keep her from tumbling off the bottom of the slide. She let loose, scooted down the slide and stopped just short of the edge. She shimmied off, smiling and took off after the steps to go back up. She clamored to the top of the slide (this set of slides had one "top" with the option of going down three slides: a straight one, a curvy one and a tunnel one). Willow reached the top, sat down, scooted her bottom t...

Last fall, I wrote several times about taking Willow on long walks with me. Depending on the weather (and it was warm throughout the fall and winter), she'd accompany me on walks in the neighborhood and at parks throughout the Midstate (and even went on a walk or two with me at a nearby mall). She seemed to enjoy the walks and never complained or fussed. She liked seeing the dogs and the ducks and the kids, I think. Sometimes she fell asleep in the stroller (those made for especially long walks for me). As time passed, I walked farther and faster, and Willow was there every step of the way. In March, I graduated into running, and I've been Forrest Gump ever since. Even though I was getting better at running (and enjoying it more and more), I think I lost a simple pleasure of these outdoor jaunts: I had stopped taking Willow with me. I was waking early in the day, sometimes as early as 5:20 a.m., so I could go running "unencumbered" by Willow. I have to admit that...

Willow's vocabulary and friend-making skills took big leaps forward this week. At the zoo on Wednesday when Willow and I hopped in the newly renovated tot mat, she quickly became friends with a toddler boy and girl. Soon they were off an running, zipping back and forth from side to side, plopping their heads in synchronization onto the padded seats on each side. The trio giggled and giggled and ran and fell and got back up and ran and plopped and giggled. I had fun just watching. The toddler girl could talk pretty well, and I think that inspired Willow to talk a little more than she usually does. Of course, most of Willow's talking is gibberish, but sometimes she blurts out a recognizable word or two. Once when she was trying to get up on to the padded seating, she said (I swear to it), "I wan up!" She hasn't said that phrase since then, but she's said, "Up!" several times. Since that visit to the zoo, she's also uttered such words as: Ow-w...

I'm not going to spend much time on this or try to write all fancy and stuff, but sometimes the best moments in your life are the silly ones. And sometimes the best moments you share with loved ones in your connected lives are, yep, the silly ones. Willow and I just had a complete and utter sillyfest of laughing fits during lunch just now. This video shows just 37 seconds of the fun (believe me, we were hooting for a good 15 minutes solid): Precious. Willow had another silly and precious moment over the weekend while I was ziplining at Mammoth Cave Adventures (my family and I are obviously into doing silly things recently). Remnants of Hurricane Isaac were settled over the area, which meant we spent much of the ziplining in a driving downpour of very fat drops of rain. While I was zipping through the woods and the very fat drops of rain, Willow was splashing around in the monsoon. When I got back, she was soaked. I was soaked too, so I joined her in the rain. I couldn...