Bonding

Yesterday was unusual. Mommy had plans to take the four  big kids to the aquarium for the day, leaving me with the littlest one. I didn't actually keep her all day since I still had to work, instead I did what lots of dads do everyday - I took her to grandma's house on the way to work. Going to Grandma's house is pretty normal. It's how we got there that strayed from that a little. If you read this blog very much, you will know that I tend to ride my bike to work several times a week and why should today be any different? 

After loading up my bike with a change of clothes and a lunch, I hooked up the bike trailer and went to find Ellie. She loves to see me ride my bike. As a matter of fact, she gets upset when I drive the car. "Bide bike," she likes to say as I leave every morning. "Ellie, do you want to ride bike with Daddy today?'" I asked. She replied with her usual single nod of the head and took off for the garage. 

With her little bag packed for Grandma's house, I pedaled down the road as she smiled and took in the scenery with a slight breeze blowing in her face. We arrived a few minutes later and I unloaded her and took off for school. 

After school, I picked her up the same way and headed home for an evening of one-on-one time with my little girl. I can't recall this happening with any of the kids for quite some time, so it was an unusual feeling to have only a two-year-old. First thing we did when we got home was to mow the lawn. That's a little problem, however, since she's scared of the lawnmower. Instead of helping, she chose to sit in a chair by the window and watch from the inside, which was fine with me since I could still keep an eye on her while I worked. 

What I didn't realize was that from my angle I could only see from about her waist up. That's why I didn't notice that she was naked from the waist down until I finished the lawn and caught her with a wipe standing on the couch saying, "Poo-poo." Lucky for me it turned out to be a simple vocabulary error and what she actually meant was that she had just peed in her diaper and was ready to change into a dry one. 

With that disaster averted I decided to call my brother and find out about his day in the hospital. As we talked, I heard the distinct sound of spitting coming from the bathroom so I got up to check it out. Yup, she was brushing her teeth. I knew that because there were mysterious blue speckles on the counter and bubbles in the sink. And her breath smelled like toothpaste and there was a toothbrush in her hand, but at least she had pants on. 

After we ate dinner and cleaned up the kitchen we went for a walk with the dogs then got Ellie ready for bed. She went down amazingly easy, provided I put her in Sissy's bed. She didn't even ask for a bottle, she just laid right down... for 15 minutes. Then she came out and found me, turned around and pointed her little, round tooshie my direction and said, "Poo-poo" and this time she was right as confirmed by both the sniff test and visual examination. 

I dutifully took care of the mess and returned her to bed without another peep. An hour later, my phone rang. I answered it and was greeted with a strange request. "Hi, this is Zach," I heard my oldest son say. He was in the car with Mommy on the way home from the aquarium while the other three slept in the back seat. "Can you saute Mommy some green beans?" 

"Mommy wants me to saute her some green beans? At 9:00 at night? Are you guys getting close to home?" 

"We're about 20 minutes away," he said. 

"Okay," I said. "But tell Mommy she's weird." What an odd thing to crave late at night.