Learning From My Baby

Eight months and twenty days. That's how long I've been a father, Jen's been a mother, and Evelyn June has been our amazingly beautiful daughter. I've learned a lot about parenting during that time from others ("Make sure she's ALWAYS WEARING SOCKS!"), mistakes ("What? You mean these 15 snaps on her pj's that I just spent 20 minutes snapping are supposed to be in the back?"), trial and error ("Apples? Love 'em. Carrots? Love 'em. Butternut squash? Spats 'em. What adults actually eat that goop anyway?"), accidental discoveries ("Rock her back and forth slowly like a metronome and she'll belch huge!"), and parental instincts ("Hmmm...that's definitely a 'feed me till I pass out' cry...")

I expected these sources of wisdom and knowledge from the get go, but what I wasn't prepared for was how much my daughter has to teach me. For instance, how much fun going in the wrong direction can actually be.


Evie loved to scootch herself backwards and wedge herself under any available furniture for a while. She seemed to enjoy going in reverse. Of course now....


she managed to find first gear and is now a full-fledged FORWARD crawler. She's both clueless and carefree about gaining this new skill. No pride, just the pure enjoyment of being able to get to the edge of the rug faster to start munching on it.

Often when I'm giving her a bottle, she'll grab the bottle, smile and push it up to my lips for a slurpy sip. And then again, and then again. She likes sharing, especially when I make all the funny noises.

Or take pain for example. If she bonks her head accidentally, has a runny nose, or serious gas pain, she doesn't dwell on it once it's past. Once it's over, it's over. No belaboring the issue, 'cause hey, there's a stuffed giraffe to play with.

Everything is worth a taste. Although finger dexterity may take a while to develop for babies, mouth dexterity does not. Huge puzzle pieces, mommy's hair, plastic balls, couch cushions, anything on a spoon, and her sleeves are just a few of the infinite things she likes to put in her mouth. She prefers a rougher grit for gnawing now as her FIRST TOOTH is starting to bloom through. Even though her bottom front left tooth is barely peeking up, Evie's already practicing biting metal lids in half.


She digs parades. I've never been much of a parade watching guy until now. Squating down next to her during our town's Veteran's day parade, I got to see things from her perspective. Big red fire engines, a towering marching band, people yelling at you from the floats to tell you how cute you are (Evie, not me), and bold, colorful flags captured both our eyes.


Though the overprotective father in me thought the 2000 decibel roar of the two A-6 Prowler jets flying overhead was a bit TOO much for both our ears to capture.


Since we do have an English teacher in the house, Evie has no shortage of books to choose from for her eating, I mean, reading pleasure. While she may be a little slow in picking up the theme, irony, and plotlines from our readings, she's always willing to help turn and taste the next page. She loves getting to help turn the pages for mommy, especially when they aren't her pages.


"What? Where's the pictures here? Those poor juniors have no sense of imagination..."

And speaking of a page turner...

Come spring 2008, Evie will be able to slobber on a book written by her very own English teachin' mom! That's right, Jen has written a young adult novel and is being published by Atheneum, the teen division of Simon & Schuster this coming year. A writing agent was really interested in Jen's book about the same time Evie came along, so...the book got forgotten. When we got back to Washington, Jen sent it away and immediately got an agent. When Jen excitedly shared this with our daughter, Evie simply gave her a raspberry "pltthththth." Within a week, the agent had multiple offers, accepted the best one, and Jen went wild at the zoo. Literally, that's where she was when she found out that she was going to soon be a real-life published author.


Here's my extremely lovely and talented wife signing the contracts for her book which will hopefully make us enough money to pay for Evie's braces in the event that those lid chomping escapades get a little out of hand.

I'm not sure how much I can say about the book here, so you'd better get a hold of Jen if you want the scoop. I can tell you it's NOT about Evie. She's already got her own webpage and fan club. Am I right fans?

A very proud husband and learning father,
Jimmy