Friends in Short Places.

I've learned from other parenting Blogs that much of the fun of parenting comes from the friends of our children. I'm kinda hoping to be the “Cool Dad,” even when my kids get to the age when parents are as far from 'cool' as they could possibly. To paraphrase Luke Skywalker, “If there's a cool center to the universe, my parents are on the planet that it's furthest from.” I'm sure that being a SciFi fan will win me some serious Cool Points in the eyes of my children. But if at least their friends think I'm cool, they can convince my kids to call me if they're in a serious jam.

When my sister & I were in elementary school, she had a friend who would come over all the time, and grew quite comfortable with our family. One night, we were getting pizza, and conspired to have a little fun with her. After dishing it out, we paused just a moment so she'd have time to start, then we picked up our knives & forks and after beginning a cut, looked at her like she was some kind of primate. We only let the gag go for long enough for her to be mortified for just a moment, her face falling at her faux pas. Her and my sister are still good friends.

I guess my last post was a little bit of a downer, but I'm sure that it just the first of the difficulties I'll have. I've said it before, and it bears repeating: whatever I'm going through, I'll likely look back and call it 'the easy part.' A perfect example is feeding. Right now, I put a bottle in her mouth (after 3-4 minutes of warming) and watch TV or play on the computer. Soon enough, we'll be spoon-feeding, which I'm sure will be much more focus-intensive. Then we get to deal with dietary pickiness. Whoopee. In the comments of my last post, Candance highlighted this wonderfully. If you haven't been to her Blog at Crazy Texas Mommy, go. Go now. Run, don't walk.She has my vote for Queen of the Silver Lining.