Month: April 2012

Beard the Fourth, December 2011 – April 2012

When it comes to shaving, I hate doing it and I hate not doing it.

Since Christmas, I had a beard (I stopped shaving the day before Christmas Eve), the fourth beard I’ve grown over the past few winters. While it’s not as impressive as the beard Harrison Ford sported in The Fugitive, my beard was quite formidable, a mix of blonde and red.

While it was quite useful over the past few months, I just got sick of it. So I’m clean shaven again. I feel comfortable with how I look either way, but now I’m actually wondering how Hope would react. She has quite a memory (the other day she mentioned drilling pumpkins at school for Halloween, something that hasn’t come up in at least six months), so she surely remembers me without a beard. At the same time, she says she likes it. And I have hinted that it may be going away to no response from her.

As for the other woman in my life, I’m not too worried about how The Civee will react. I’ve been sitting in the same room with her for at least 20 minutes (with her looking right at me four times so far (make that five)) without her saying anything. This is actually normal, as it always takes her some time (and some hinting) to realize the beard is gone.

So I’ll go back to shaving every few days, even considering how much I hate doing so. I just hope when she wakes up tomorrow my daughter knows who I am.

King Tom

Hope at Two

Last night, The Civee and I realized something- we’ve kept our daughter alive for two years.

It’s amazing the progress she’s made over the past 12 months. She’s getting better at understanding what we say, her speech is coming along (something we were concerned about earlier on, with her being born with a cleft lip and palate) and she went from having no hair to having a halo of hair that would make Art Garfunkel jealous. Here she is over the past 12 months:

As with every other stage, Hope is a lot of fun right now. We enjoy having her to ourselves, especially considering in a few months she won’t be the only kid in the house.

I know soon she won’t be as big a Weezer fan as she is. And she won’t repeat everything I say with such enthusiasm (she learned Hello, Newman! last night). But she is an incredible little girl. And The Civee and I are proud to be her parents.

King Tom3 Comments

I Would’ve Gotten Away With It; If It Wasn’t For That Kid

For a few different reasons, The Civee and I rotate Hope’s toys in and out of use. Doing so makes the most of our space and allows her to concentrate on a few items, making the most of her time.

A few months ago, we put Hope’s wagon down in the basement. Like the other items we’ve taken out of the lineup, we don’t make an issue of it. The toy just disappears. Hope has a stroller now, so it’s not like she doesn’t have anything to push around. We all forgot about her orange and blue wagon until last night.

The Civee was at school, so Hope and I were hanging out. We were looking at some cards (her current favorite item) when she spotted one with a little red wagon on it. She started shouting “Wagon…Hope’s wagon. Push. Hope want wagon.” I tried deflecting the issue, moving on to the next card, but that only frustrated her. She started crying, demanding the wagon, but I was determined to keep it where it was. Until we had the following exchange:

Me: The wagon is…being fixed right now. It’s away.

Hope: Wagon…downstairs…basement!

Me (puzzled): Wait…what? Who told you that?

Hope (nodding): WAGON. DOWNSTAIRS. GET NOW!

I couldn’t believe it. This little not-yet-two-year-old had just Scooby-Doo-ed me. I was actually impressed with her figuring it out, so I went and got her the wagon (which made her quite happy). Later, after The Civee came home, I discussed what happened and she told me she had no idea how Hope knew where the wagon was; she had forgotten it was down there.

I don’t know how Hope did it. The next time I’ll have to act less impressed.

King Tom