Daddy Tree: Tiny Footsteps

Willow has started asking the dreaded "why?". She has been repeating the question over and over and over again for the past day or two, so I won't write about it just yet. "Why?" you ask. Because I don't think I'm an expert on the topic just yet. "Why?" you ask again. It has been only a day or two. "Why?" STOP IT! Anyway, before Willow started asking why, she led up to it by repeating other questions, such as, "Where is my purse?" I don't know. "Where is my purse?" I don't know; we'll look for it. "Where is my purse?" I'm looking for it now; we'll find it. And so on and so forth. I read someplace a parent's best response to repeated questions is to answer as well as you can for the first two or three questions then state, "I already told you the answer. I'm not answering again." Then you ignore the question if it keeps coming. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it do...

Willow's imagination has started taking off. A few months ago, she started treating her Little People Disney princesses like puppets, speaking for them and hopping them around the floor, mingling with other tiny dolls or horses. That was the beginning, really; now she imagines dragons nesting under the dining room table, ready to take flight to steal the food of Lily's tray. Or she piles up wooden train track tiles in a bean bag and folds the bean bag on itself, treating the bean bag (as bulky as it is) like a shopping bag. She drags that shopping bag across the floor, then unloads it on the coffee table in front of me, ready to check out her "groceries." Sometimes, she tugs Lily into her make-believe world, as the second princess locked in a tower built of stacking blocks that is about to be bombarded by the fiery breath of a much meaner dragon than those that reside under the dining room table. Of course Lily has an imagination too. She likes to imagine what tha...

Most of this blog is devoted to Willow the Super-heroine. As you probably guessed way back when, Willow was going to turn 2, eventually, and at that age, all the sparkle came off (in her parents' eyes anyway). A month or two after Willow turned 2, she turned "Terrible Two." The super-hero cape came off, and the devil horns went on. That, along with Wee Baby Sister Lily, meant life got a lot more hectic for Dear Old Dad (and Sweet Pretty Mommy). Yep, Daddy went into a self-pitying (and loathsome) pit (and the blog shriveled up in the corner). The Terrible Twos for us meant super-long bedtime battles and fight-at-every-breath tasks (from teeth-brushing to car-loading). Everything came with a struggle, a long, breathless and soul-sucking struggle. That can wear on a Daddy, and a Mommy. And a Terrible Two. But as my sister prophesied, the utter despair was going to pass (now it's just a smidgen of despair; I kid, I kid; life is much calmer, and quieter). I don't ...

OK! Whew! I took a bit of a looong hiatus there. But, hey, being the stay-at-home dad of two, um, boisterous little girls can take some time to adapt to. But I'm back and focused (and getting some sleep), so here we go! Welcome back to the continuing adventures of Lily and Willow and Daddy.