The Fabulous World of VK: June 2005

Exploring

Fun in the yard!

Danger Baby Bites the Dust!

Yesterday was a big day for Danger Baby (that is Victoria the Stunt Baby's working name), first while jumping on the bed she bit her tongue and got blood all over the clean sheets. It didn't phase her in the least, but came as quite a shock to Mom and Dad.

Little more than an hour later she ran across the guest bed toward the window, tripped and did a face plant on the wall. Moments later she was sporting a bloody and swollen nose, enough to prompt a call to the doctor.

It turns out that she is fine aside from a little bruise on the bridge of her nose, but it seems like she is on a similar path to self-destruction and risk taking as her dad.

I need to jack up my medical insurance.

2nd Annual Baby-Fest

This weekend we had the 2nd annual Mom's group BBQ at our house. It was a lot of fun, and nice to see all the kids in their toddler forms. These kids have been playing together at Mom's groups for more than a year and a half and it is fun to get the parents all together to hang out. This year was even more fun than last year as the kids pretty much played together in the yard and the parents had a little more relaxing time than last year. In fact the evening ended with an impromptu jam in the garage with 3 of us playing music for the remaining families. VK was a gracious hostess sharing her toys and stealing everyones water (apparently she has a bit of a reputation for that).

Nothing is more fun than an empty swimming pool!

Here are links to last years group pictures:
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/290/1193/640/IMG_0070.jpg
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/290/1193/640/IMG_0072.jpg

VK and friends enjoy a Baby Einstein DVD

Aren't I cute?

What are YOU lookin at?!?!

Dinner with VK - Always an adventure

A passport for Victoria

VK sent in her passport application today. To think I was over 30 when I got my passport.
The pictures below are the candidates for her passport picture (we chose the 1st one in the 2nd row), but sadly we couldn't use them because I didn't read the directions thoroughly enough. It turns out that her face can only be 1" - 1 3/8" in the 2" picture. The nice man at the Post Office was kind enough to take some new pictures for us for $15.00.
This puts VK on track to be an international traveler before her 2nd birthday when she travels to Costa Rica in September.

Passport Photo Candidates

A busy Fathers Day morning . . .

Had VK asleep in her highchair just prior to her nap.

Zzzzz.

Asleep at the wheel.

Dad's day & tumbles

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and was spent doing a variety of chores and lots of playing with VK in the yard. While playing outside late in the day VK took a couple of tumbles . . . one involved a wheelbarrow and some stone steps and she semi-gracefully caught herself as she did a headstand just before she would have plowed headfirst into the step. No harm no foul, she seemed slightly scared for a second but no crying and 30 seconds later was racing across the backyard as if nothing happened (that's my girl!). 10 minutes later she was at the far end of the yard "helping" Andrea do some weeding. By helping what I really mean is she was standing on top of Andrea's gardening stool dancing and generally raising a "look at me" ruckus when she tipped the whole thing over and landed head first in the mud. Again this resulted in what appeared to be a little damaged pride and nothing more. The pictures below are proof of that.

Where am I going with all this? Well it being Fathers Day and all, I am reflecting on the 2 years since our daughter came into our lives and how it has changed me, and continues to change me. I look back to when she was threatening to start walking (which seems ages ago!!) and how afraid I was about that first wipeout. I constantly asked my friends and co-workers how they handled it. My brain couldn't get past the fact that my little girl was fragile, and new enough to the world that taking a spill while trying something as significant as walking could set her back and/or actually hurt her. How was she going to handle that? How was I going to handle that? How was her mother going to handle that?

If you take a quick scan through any baby type catalogue you will find all sorts of child-proofing supplies including huge bumpers for things like fireplace mantles and coffee table corners. I imagine that at some point I might have worried less about VK hurting herself if we had padded the house, but after she took her first spill and got right back up and tried again I was OK. Clearly she was OK with it and her personality was such that a little gravity wasn't going to get in her way.

Now 6 months later that personality drives her to be the little daredevil that she is. She runs across the hardwood floors with her socks on (no traction) she climbs on anything that she can, she slides down the stair on her belly (often times at breakneck speeds) and generally acts like a little stunt baby.

As Andrea and I giggled at the hurt pride that comes with falling head first in the mud I found myself being grateful that first and foremost we were there to make sure that she was OK, and secondly that we are able to be OK with letting our daughter push her limits ever so slightly and experience life's little bumps and bruises (and occasional mudbath) at her own pace.

Being a Dad is good, everyday not just Fathers Day. Fathers Day is a wonderful time to take a look around and realize how lucky you are to be a Dad.