My Afternoon with Daddy

by Selah

I am so lucky to have a daddy that works part-time. Every day we get to play, play, play when he gets home from work. Typically daddy gets home around noon and we eat lunch and play before my afternoon nap. Today, daddy got home late because he was getting the car worked on so mommy put me down for my afternoon nap. She loves it when I fall asleep in her arms.

While I was sleeping daddy was working hard on our van. He's been working about an hour every day this week on figuring out why the battery wouldn't charge and installing a battery isolator so we can better run lights and charge stuff like laptops and phones in the van. I love our van and can't wait for our next road trip. It's been a long time since I've slept in it but mommy and daddy keep trying to make plans for a desert trip. I hope we do that soon. Daddy said he would have been done a lot sooner with the project but these stupid GM vans are crammed together and the electrical is way too complicated. Luckily he knows how to read the instructions but I still see him scratching his head a lot.

When I woke up from my nap my daddy was there waiting for me. I always smile when my daddy walks in after my nap and picks me up. I love seeing his face after a good, long nap. He had the car all packed up and ready to go. Once a week daddy goes to school in the afternoon to help kids with schoolwork and he often brings me along. I used to be really shy with the big high school kids but now I love to explore around the school. I can climb up and down the big stairs and I love crawling fast through the hallways and looking at the lockers. When the kids get out of class, daddy makes sure they don't step on me because they sure are tall. I can barely see their faces way up there!

Today daddy shut the door to his classroom because I kept leaving to go through the hallways. He put a sign on the door that said, "Please Come In. Door closed so the baby won't escape!" A lot of the high school kids like to come in and play with me. I don't know if they always get much work done but they love taking turns holding me and playing with me and I like to show off for them. Daddy says I "ham it up" for the kids by showing them how daddy and I play - he throws me in the air, bounces me on his knee like a horse and plays hide-and-seek.

After school we went to the community college for daddy's high school climbing club. Daddy has a bunch of kids that climb every week and they really like it. I like going because I get to "run" around a big gym and climb up and down on the climbing pads. I also like to eat the chalk the climbers use on their hands. Today I took one girl's chalk bag and dug my hand in deep, pulling the chalk out. Then, I put it in my mouth by the handful. Why? Because that's what babies do. Then, daddy tried to clean up all the chalk and he closed the chalk bag so I couldn't get anymore out. That's okay because I just licked it off the floor.

Daddy usually feeds me a snack and today I ate a whole banana and then some of daddy's Clif bar. I was hungry! Daddy brings toys for me but I mostly like to climb on the wall, reach in between the mats and touch the velcro with my fingertips and eat chalk. Oh, did I mention that already? Well, I really like to eat it. I also like to dump out people's chalk bags when they leave them unattended. It's kind of a funny joke but don't tell daddy - I like to pretend I'm just an innocent baby.

After climbing we went home. Mommy was at the hospital with a sick kid from her work so daddy and I got to play some more. I got a neat present the other day - a big bag of Mega Blocks. I like chewing on them, dumping them out and taking apart whatever daddy puts together. My other favorite thing to do right now is to chew on my books. I like to take whole bites out of them and eat it. I don't know why I like it, it's just something babies do I guess.

Daddy made me dinner but before dinner he tried to wash my face. I hate washing my face! Daddy said I looked like a coal miner because my face was all black with dirt from the climbing wall. I don't know what a coal miner is but I don't understand what the big deal is. I mean, God made dirt, so dirt can't hurt, right? For dinner I ate green beans with oatmeal, apple sauce and cheese. One of my latest things is to try to grab the spoon from daddy or mommy when it's full of food and then suddenly release it, spraying food all over the place. I don't really mean to do it but it just happens. I mean, can't a kid just use her own spoon?

After dinner daddy gave me a bath. I love playing with my rubber duckies, boats and a wind-up frog that swims in the tub. I don't like it when daddy tries to wash my face. Did I mention already that I don't like having my face washed? Well, I don't like it! Daddy does a good job of washing me and he likes to play games to trick me into letting him rinse me off. Just when I think he's playing boats with me he fills it up with water and dumps it over my head. Geez, the nerve of that guy! First, he insists on putting soap on me and then he tries to take if off. I tell you what, I just don't understand these adults sometimes.

One of my favorite things is when daddy takes me out of the bath and bundles me up in a fresh towel. It's one of the few times I ever sit still and cuddle with my dad. Daddy always warms up my room with the space heater before my bath is over so when he takes me in my room he lets me crawl around naked and finish drying off. I love being naked and being goofy! Then, he puts lotion all over. He says he wants me to have sweet, baby-soft skin. Then, it's into my pajamas. Tonight he put me in my dinosaur pajamas. Do you know what sound a dinosaur makes? I do: "Roar!" He he, I like that.

Daddy always lets me burn off some energy for bed so we play with toys, crawl around and be goofy. I love giggling. It's one of my new favorite things. Eventually, even I start to get tired so I let daddy read me some books. I love turning the pages and I'm very good at making sure we don't miss any pages. Daddy reads really fast, which is good, because I like turning the pages fast. After a while, I get tired of reading and daddy gives me a bottle. He dims the lights and rocks me while I drink. Daddy loves cuddling up with me in the chair and I love falling asleep in his arms. Sometimes he puts me to bed awake but he often likes to rock me all the way asleep and to keep rocking me for many, many minutes. Mommy told me he catches daddy just sitting there rocking me as I sleep, touching my cheeks, looking at me and feeling my hair. I like it that my daddy loves me so much, it's a pretty sweet thing.

Well, that was my afternoon with my dad. It was a pretty typical afternoon but maybe I'll tell you about other things we do later. Just the other day my daddy cleaned out and filled up the sandbox in the yard so I've been having a great time playing in the sun, feeling the sand in my hands and of course, eating it! Well, more on that later!