Friday Four

1. My daughter has developed a new interest: dress-up. This started one Saturday when she found some hats in a box of clothes. She had me put one on her, and then pointed to my head and said, "Hat."

It was suddenly crystal clear to me that I had a glaring sartorial deficiency. Needless to say, I corrected it immediately. Pretty soon, Momma Van Horn, too, was wearing a hat. Pumpkin has had me put shoes and clothes on teddy bears, too. Most recently, inspired by her mother's purchase of a box of hair ribbons, she has taken to pointing to our heads and saying, "Bow."

Who knew that fatherhood would come with manhood initiation rites, such as your daughter basically asking, "Are you man enough to wear a bow in your hair?" Of course I am, much to the amusement of my father-in-law, after he heard about this. This week, he asked me over the phone, "What color ribbon did the baby make you wear today?"

2. Fatherhood also comes with numerous small moments of amazement. (When you see what not having instincts -- what having to learn everything -- means on a concrete level, you gain a priceless new sense of wonder.)

My daughter has colors down pretty well now and is becoming aware of numbers, or at least the idea of quantity. So far -- although she has also used the words, "one" and "three" correctly a few times -- she seems to use "two" to mean either two or many. Ask her "how many" of something there is and she'll usually say, "Two!" and sound very pleased with herself. I jokingly call two her favorite number -- and know in no uncertain terms that white is her favorite color. (She was even reaching for the white crayon first, for a while.) It is really amazing what she has figured out or picked up in less than two years of being alive and starting from scratch.

3. One evening this week, with my wife at work very late, I was entertaining the baby and turned away for a moment to straighten out some toys. I soon felt Pumpkin climbing onto my back. She has very good coordination, so I eased myself onto all fours. She sat up well enough that I felt comfortable giving her her first "Daddy-Horse" ride.

4. My daughter has started using the phrase "Bye-bye!" to very amusing effect. She sometimes uses it in the sense of "Go away!"

Usually, this is during diaper changes, which she has grown to hate. A few years back, there had been a wave of saying, "Bye-bye" (as "BUH-bye") sarcastically, and my daughter coincidentally says it almost the same way. I sympathize with the hatred of diaper changes, but it is sometimes almost impossible not to laugh when she does this.

-- CAV