Facial Recognition

I took the day off today to watch Lily so Jen could spend the whole day in her classroom working to get things ready for when she has to go back to work.  Don’t ask.

Anyway, days of just Lily and I are too few and far between so I decided to take advantage by taking her to the park.  When we arrived I was chagrined to find that the Boy Scouts had taken over the half of the park with all the good stuff–playground, picnic tables, most of the shade–for their summer day camp.  So, Lily and I picked out one of the few, nice shady patches of grass left, not fair from the path, and made camp there.  Even without the playground she kept herself pretty well entertained.  There were plenty of leaves to pick up, flowers to smell, grass to be pulled, and twigs to be stuck in her mouth.

The best part of the afternoon came when she walked over to a nearby tree and just started rubbing her hand very intently over the bark.  She moved it slow and deliberate, really studying it, like a blind person would feel someones face in order to recognize them.  She looked very serious.  She’s seen and touched other trees of course, but I’d never seen her really study one like this before.  It was like she was feeling one for the first time.  Then she pulled a piece off and ate it.

As I watched her I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to remember all these kinds of firsts?  Since we start our lives so young and immature, those first experiences of life are either forgotten or not appreciated.  Lily is 18 months old, and whatever she found so fascinating about that tree and whatever baby thoughts were going through her little mind, all of that will be lost in a matter of months.  Maybe sooner.  But imagine that you’re 31 (my age) and you’re feeling tree bark for the first time.  Would that be amazing?  Having had the privilege of being born in California, I have no idea when the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean was.  I was probably a very little kid and at the time didn’t think much of it.  I envy someone who was born and lived their whole life  in Indiana or Kansas or Missouri and the feeling they got when they finally made that long awaited trip to the coast and saw the mighty Pacific for the first time, and the awe and wonder that filled their soul.

I’ve had my moments (first time to Yosemite, Lily’s birth) and know I have more ahead of me (still waiting on that Grand Canyon trip), but wouldn’t it be cool if you could somehow go back and remember how facsinating it was the first time you saw a drawer work?  Or the wonderful terror the first time a dog ran up and licked your face?  Or the first time you tasted ice cream?  Or why a cardboard box is so doggone wonderful?

I’m probably crazy, but I think it would be pretty neat.  Just a thought rolling around in my head on an afternoon at the park.  Could be the bee sting.

Dogs Will Be Dogs

Jen and I have had our dog Jackson for a little over six years.  He was a pound puppy that we rescued from the local shelter .  The first time we saw him he was about four months old and he was lying down in his kennel, gnawing on the metal gate.  We were actually looking at the pup in the kennel next to him, a little black curly haird pooch of some sort, that seemed very reserved and maybe even a bit skittish.  But we kept looking over at that goofy dog in the next kennel that seemed to have a taste for iron.  We came back to the shelter several days that week to see if the black dog we’d been eyeing was available for adoption yet, and everytime we couldn’t help but laugh at the puppy next door.  One day he was chewing on metal, the next time he was leaping straight up in the air repeatedly for no particular reason, and the next time he must have just finished his bounding exercises because he was passed out of the floor looking at us with one sleepy eye.  The little black dog we had been looking at ended up being adopted by the person that found it (finders get first dibs) so we decided to roll the dice on the manicly spastic dog next door, who we quickly christened Action Jackson.

He’s never been the most well behaved of dogs.  He’s always had a penchant for thievery, especially napkins and kleenex (used only), dirty socks, food wrappers, and consumables of every kind.  Over the years he’s stolen off the counter, the table, and occasionally right off our plates.  A few of the more memorable items, which were usually inhaled in the space of about 15 seconds max, are a box of Jr. Mints, a dozen chocolate chip cookies, half a loaf of garlic bread, a stick of butter, some Hershey’s kisses (foil still on), several slices of pizza, and the infamous wedge of Christmas brie.

He’s mellowed a little with age, but not too terribly much.  He knows how to sit, stay, come, get out, and get off, but whether he actually does it or not is always a surprise.  Actually, he is pretty good about following commands, just not sustaining them.  It’s like when we give him a command his little doggy brain adds “for three seconds” to everything.  So if we say, “Jackson, go sit on your chair,” he hears, “Jackson, go sit on your chair for three seconds.”  He’ll go sit on his chair, but only long enough for you to turn around.  Every night we go through the same bedtime routine, “Jackson, get off the bed.”  He hears, “Jackson, get off the bed for three seconds.”  We end up playing this game five or six times before he finally gives up and goes to his bed.

Of course, we are to blame for some of this.  We did take him to obedience school, but we haven’t always been the most diligent of trainers.  Part of it is that, as much as it frustrates us sometimes, we kind of like his mischieviousness.  We’re like those parents with the slightly bratty five year old that everyone else knows is almost out of control, but we just smile, shake our heads, and say, “Well, boys will be boys.”

We were a little concerned about how he would take to Lily’s arrival.  He’s hard to read on new people.  Some he loves instantly, some he warms up to eventually, and some he will bark at constantly until they leave.  There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.  At first he just kind of ignored Lily, but within a few weeks all he wanted to do was lick her face off.  Lily loves him just as much.  Lately she’s been starting her mornings saying something approximating, “Hi, J,” as soon as she sees him.  Its enough to make a dad’s heart melt.

The other evening Jen and I were both in Lily’s room getting her ready for bed, when I heard the clanging of dishes out in the living room.  I rushed out to find Jackson standing on two legs at the dining room table eating the leftover peas off Lily’s dinner plate.  I was ticked.  I scolded him and sent him to his chair.  I may have even broken out the squirt bottle and gave him a wet barrage (he hates that).  A few minutes later (actually longer than three seconds) he slinked off his chair and walked over to where I was sitting on the couch.  He sat down and looked up at me with those big, sad, brown eyes.  Oh well, dogs will be dogs.

Lily On Film

For all of those interested in babies in general and/or my baby specifically, here’s a little video to help satisfy your need for cuteness.  For the rest of you, click here for a video of people getting punched in the face.

Tongue Tied

I feel like I haven’t had much to say lately.  I guess that’s mostly because I haven’t had much to say.  But on the other hand, there are a few things I’d like to say, but I just haven’t had the energy to say them.  This may seem like just plain old laziness.  But that makes sense because that’s pretty much what it is.

The thing about having a free-form blog such as Life of Ando, is that there isn’t any established structure to speak of which can help guide the writer when ideas are lacking.  If this was a celebrity gossip blog I would have no problem throwing up a juicy tid-bit about Brad and Angelina to fill the space until I could come up with some fresh new rumor, like which one of the Jonas Brothers Miley Cyrus is dating. (What?!  Miley Cyrus is dating one of the Jonas Brothers?  OMGosh!)

Speaking of throwing up juicy tid-bits, that’s what I spent the bulk of Monday night doing.  I’m really glad Lily is learning to share at such an early age, I just wish it wasn’t always her sicknesses she chooses to be unselfish with.  For the second time in three months Lily has started the barf train rolling in our house.  Monday night Jen and I were on rotating shifts to the bathroom for about five straight hours.  We handed Lily off to Grandma and Grandpa Tuesday morning so we could recover without relapsing at the smell of dirty diapers.

See what happens when I get writers block?  Fake celebrity news and vomit.  Hmmm, those two things seem strangely appropriate together.  Come back soon!

YouTube Friday: Game Changer

As a new parent I’m learning more and more that even what seems like the smallest thing can make you happier in that one tiny moment than you ever thought possible.  Things like traversing a foot and a half on hands and knees.  Jen appologizes for the screaming.

Here’s another video.  Less milestoney, but pretty funny and definitely cute.  But then, I am a little partial.