January 4

Happy New Year!

Jennie will be 8 weeks pregnant on Thursday. Her next two ultrasounds occur during the 9th and 11th weeks. The end of March or early April seems like forever away to find out if we are having a brother or sister for Daphne.

If you ask Daphne, she does not have a preference for a brother or sister. But, she has asked for Mommy to deliver five babies.

Last night, Jennie went out on the town with her girlfriends to celebrate a friend's birthday, eat a nice dinner, and watch a movie. I used her time away to have a Daddy/daughter date with Daphne.

Once Daphne woke up from her late afternoon nap, I got her dressed and brushed her frizzy bed-head. I can't seem to master the art of pigtails, so Daphne's hair was a little crazy.

The night began with a kid's meal at our local Chik-Fil-A. Daphne loves "Chick-uh-lay" as she calls it. How can you go wrong with chicken fingers and an over-sized play area for kids?

After half an hour of going down slides and crawling through tunnels, Daphne had the play place to herself. "Daddy, I (grunt grunt) need to (grunt grunt) go poo poo", cried Daphne. Uh oh! She was high above me in an area I could not reach. I bargained and pleaded with Daphne to come down and use the big girl potty.

Finally, bulging diaper and all, Daphne decided to venture down the slide headfirst on her belly. Wouldn't you know? My diaper bag that I carefully packed did not have any wipes. Hmmm...

I grabbed a diaper with one hand and Daphne with the other. Luckily, the back stall of the restroom had one of those fold down diaper changing stations. How can such a petite little princess produce that much shoo shoo when she eats so little? Imagine a stubborn three year old kicking and flailing her legs with pounds of poo dangling from her tush. I bet I used half a roll of toilet paper to clean her hiney.

Needless to say, I felt obligated to give Daphne a bath when we got home. Donning fresh pajamas, we snuggled on the couch to an episode or two of Richard Scarry's Busytown.

As Daphne's eyelids became more heavy and the yawns were plentiful, I carried her upstairs and softly told her a few "Daphne Rose Tilson" stories at her request. She's always the protagonist of her stories (e.g., Princess Daphne slays evil monsters while finding a chest of magic beans, she serves a giant birthday cake to a gracious duck-duck, and rescues a family of birds or fish while operating a runaway train or building a skyscraper out of scrap materials. Phew!) Zzz... goodnight Daphne!

Until tomorrow,
Dave T.