Hey, That's My Dad...

Maggie's got a new found affection, and it's Dad.  Across the span of two weeks Dad has gone from trusted, comfortable, nice guy that's mostly always around but who I don't really need for anything...to loved, missed, very much worth chasing and obsessing over, and yes, needed.  Yes! There's the magic time...about six or seven months along and suddenly Daddy counts for something more than just an on-deck circle while Mom's at the plate.  I love me some six and seven month action.  After seven, almost 8 months Daddy matters, and there aren't many things that amount to something better than that.

Zoey was the same.  I suspect most babies...breast fed babies...grow slowly into that five or six or seven month window where things begin to transition, and where Dad is a decoration until one day when he suddenly isn't.  That's a good time to be present and accounted for.  It matters.  Here's a quick little parenting tip, not from my own experience of parenting, that's much too limited, but from watching literally thousands of other people parent...when they genuinely come looking for you for love, acceptance, safety, guidance, etc...be there waiting.  It's huge, and not as widely understand as you'd think something so simple might be.  Triple the value of the lesson in adolescence...if they sincerely want to be with you, then you'd better be there waiting for them.  If they can't find you, they'll find somebody else.

Maggie's been learning the ropes of this crawling business for a few weeks now...she's not great, but she's quickly learning the skills, and she's getting better every day.  The importance of that being that now she can follow Dad from room to room on occasion, even up the stairs...that's right...seven months old and tackling stairs unassisted.  Does that freak us out?  A little, but then we do our best to try to translate it into some kind of future Olympic Gold and we're okay with it.  It helps if Dad's at the top of the stairs, which might be a hinderance in most Olympic events.



And now we step eagerly into the next stage of this parenting business...the one where it genuinely is two of us taking it on, not just one with an assistant.  Of course, now we need baby gates but that's a trade off worth making.