Dad of the year?

When Kevin and I have our less fine parenting moments, we like to joke that we are looking forward to our nominations for parents/dad/mom of the year award.  Most of those moments are not actually poor parenting, but circumstances that may be perceived by others as poor parenting.  Like chasing a crying toddler down Ohio Street whom also happened to be naked.  The circumstances that led up to that particular instant weren't all that terrible (we had gone to the pool, parked a few blocks away in the shade and were changing her out of her swimsuit when she got upset and took off down the sidewalk), but regardless of how we got there, surely those passing by probably weren't admiring our parenting skills.  Which brings us to Kevin's dad of the year nomination on Saturday.  I had to go in on Saturday for a lab this weekend, so Kevin had Stephanie to himself all day.  He had planned a fun and active day for them, complete with a hike in the woods and a trip to the pool.  She was to be in the carrier for the duration of the hike, so Kevin didn't argue with her on her clothing choice- a [dirty] Jayhawks onesie- size 12 months- you can imagine the wedgie-tastic fit on that one. She also was not wearing shoes, as she was not walking, and when you carry her on your back, it is easier to not have to keep track of shoes.  Just that morning, she had scraped her hand on the sidewalk and, as a person upset at the sight of wounds, she wanted to cover it up.  It really wasn't in a band-aid-able spot, so she elected to wear a mitten on one hand, as to not have to see the offensive cut.  And off they went on their hike.  The day had gotten quite warm, and Kevin hiked around the woods with over 30 pounds on his back.  Sometime later, he emerges, drenched in sweat, and what luck! Stephanie spots the playground.  "I go on slide", she informs him.  He tried to dissuade her, but to no avail.  So, sweaty Kevin and partially dressed Stephanie in no shoes and one mitten joined a well dressed family at the slides.  I like to think that any family witnessing our parent of the year moments laugh as they remember their own, and even if they don't, it really doesn't matter, but I for one got a great laugh when I read the saga by email while I was stuck at work all day.

TLE

Stephanie recently had a TLE (Traumatic Llama Experience).  Only it wasn't a llama, it was a camel.  Actually, it was just a guy dressed as a cartoon camel, but it was a traumatic experience.  We went up to Michigan to visit Kevin's brother and his family last week, and Dave got everyone tickets to a minor league baseball game.  At the game, we saw a llama (okay, camel) wearing a baseball jersey for the home team interacting with the crowd (interestingly, I should note that the local team's mascot is Lou E Loon, a bird, so the whole camel connection to the team is really unclear to me).  Kevin and I were pretty excited to run into a llama (still had not noticed that his jersey read "camel" at this point), and Kevin enthusiastically rushed Stephanie over to say hello.  She was sitting (in a prime position to be targeted by a llama, as it turns out) on Kevin's shoulders.  Kevin approaches llama from behind.  Llama turns and spies Stephanie.  Enthusiastic to meet his fans, llama makes a play grab at Stephanie.  Stephanie's sense of self-preservation kicks in, and she screams and slings herself back as hard as she can (and I still consider it a miracle that Kevin kept a grip on her- he told me later that she squirms so much that he always has a tight grip on her, but who knew he needed it in the event of an unlikely pack animal attack).  It was quite a panicked few minutes for her, and she was fairly traumatized but recovered once we got to the on-site playground.  She had a terrific time at the playground there, watched a little of the game, enjoyed a hot dog and then more playground.  Back at home, we told Stephanie that we would take her to another ball game, but we would make sure there weren't any llamas.  She must have mulled it over all night, because the first words out of her mouth the next morning were "I go to 'nother baseball game, n-yum.  Not any llamas there scare me."  She then launched into rainman mode, repeating it over and over again, even talking about it again the following morning.  She must be dreaming each night of a llama-free baseball experience.  As an additional note, we had a great time in Michigan.  It was about a 13.5 hour trip each way, but we timed it out so that we left as Stephanie was needing a nap, and drove into the wee hours so she also fell asleep for the night in the car.  It helped reduce her length of time awake in the car and wasn't terribly hard on us.  It was really fun to see Dave and Katie and "Baby Alaina".  Alaina is just over one now, so she was really funny and interactive.  She liked to follow Stephanie around, and we got to imagine what nice play mates they will be in another year or two.  Dave and Katie, were, as always, super hosts with great food and fun plans.  Stephanie has always taken to Uncle Dave really well, and this trip was no exception, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't even associate him with the TLE, and I don't think that it would matter if she did.  

Sure, it was raining, but I did insist on posing with the cheese.

Dug this one out from the 2008 archives...

Stephanie and Alaina on an in-house wagon ride.

Fuzzles enjoyed the playground at the ballgame as well.

Umpire must have made a bad call...