My wife is going on a business trip to Texas for 4 days this week. The longest she’s gone away from Maddie and me is 2 days/2 nights.

This is going to be interesting.

I’ll keep you all in-the-loop and let you know how I made out by Friday. Poppa Penguin will probably need a good break this Memorial Day Weekend.

**UPDATED**

Well the week went great. I totally underestimated my little girl and she was great all week…no problems at all and did not fret that mommy wasn’t at home for an extended amount of time.

My wife and I fully admit we procrastinated on weaning Maddie off the bottle. Maddie loves her bottle of milk. She typically drinks 30 oz. a day, one bottle in the morning after breakfast, then one around lunchtime til her afternoon nap and her last is later in the day sometime before bedtime, never all at once but intermittently as the day progresses. She usually watches TV and sits on the couch, peacefully without a care in the world and it gives me a few moments to do something, laundry, dishes or check email. It was a good albeit faulty system and we knew it had to end. We got only negative feedback from pediatricians and not anyone else but seeing that all our peers with young kids Maddie’s age are either weaning now or are completely on cups, we felt some pressure.

We tried coaxing her to milk in a sippy cup or Dixie cup or even character-licensed cups but milk is only out of her bottles. She drinks juice out of any other receptacle but milk is only from the bottle. In the recent weeks she has been drinking less milk (down to about 1 1/2 or 2 bottles) probably due to us nagging her about drinking milk from a cup. I fully believe she was more or less weaning herself from the bottles. She could have also been humoring us for a short-while and then back to 3 full bottles. She’s crafty that way.

We had a plan after she turned 2. We would tell her that this such date on the calendar we would throw away the bottles. And we would X out each day leading up to the day. We started on a Sunday and by Wednesday she and I would throw out the bottles together. I choose a midweek day because I was foreseeing her cold turkey taking a nasty turn Thursday and Friday and perhaps by Saturday she’d be in a better state of mind. Plus my wife would be home and help the situation.

But…Maddie got a cold on Sunday. So both me and the wife said we’d postpone the cold turkey until she got better. Well the cold turned into an ear infection by Friday and she was in some pain as you can imagine. Saturday and Sunday she wasn’t in much pain at all with the medication.

But…Sunday morning I come out of the bathroom and Maddie’s crying. My wife tells me she told Maddie NO MORE bottles. NEVER! I was a bit taken aback as you can imagine. A little betrayed if that’s the right word but definitely angry at her for not consulting me on this (I was only taking a dump in the other room—She couldn’t wait to ask me? At least ask me through the door for chrissakes!). Well anyway for the main reason that this needed to be done and she fired the first shot let’s fight the battle out and see what happens. (me and the wife had a little “chat” afterwards) Much to my surprise my wife didn’t really think things through planning-wise and was just shooting from the hip. So we had to improvise this new plan. Also surprisingly Maddie didn’t kick and scream as much as we thought she would. We have seen her even-keel temperament and her easily adaptable attitude before but you just never know how your kid will react especially to something held on to for so long and for so dear.

So no bottle the whole morning and afternoon up til her nap. After her nap we did the plan of her helping us throw away her own bottles. SHE DID. Without crying. Well from her. I teared up some not because of me missing her little hands holding her bottles as she watches TV but because, here’s my little girl, my pride and joy, acting way beyond her age and accepting the harsh truth. I fully believe she knew what she was doing. She knows what the garbage is and what happens to trash. So she fully knows what is happening to her bottles. Made me even more proud of her. Then we went to Toys R’ Us and spent over $30 bucks on various new sippy cups to help the transition more.

As of this writing it has been 4 days since no bottles. While her attitude is great and she’s not cranky nor spiteful, her intake of milk is virtually nil. Save for some chocolate milk the past couple of days she’s not touching the new sippy cups with regular milk. And although she has only asked for her “baby bottle” a few times she never cried or had a fit when I reminded her that they are gone for good. So she’s handling this better than I expected but I’m hoping by the weekend she takes to the new cups or any cups for that matter. My other fear besides her raving mad about the cold turkey was that she’d cut out milk completely, which was not our intention at all.

So in conclusion, I’m prouder of my little girl. I’m getting over my annoyance with my impatient and double-crossing wife and taking this cold turkey one day at a time. I would have preferred it until she was healthy and sticking to the original plan we conceived but so far it looks like it’s working out. But if it hadn’t than I’d be one really pissed off Poppa Penguin.

PS: Normally my wife is a wonderful, loving, responsible mother to Maddie every day. She just made this one “little” booboo. She has since apologized and has been upset at her actions all week and I fully forgive her. MWAH!

My previous post was about my daughter’s second birthday. In these past two awesome years I have learned something that only a parent can understand. My Mom would always tell me “You’ll see [or know better] when you become a parent.” She also told me to “have fish” instead of kids. Well, truth is, she’s right on both.

As parents we:
Can’t stand to leave them, but sometimes we have to get away.
Can’t wait to see how they’ll be older, but never want them to grow up.
Want them to speak but also want them to shut up.
Want to see them walk on their own but we always want to hold their hand.
Give them an inch but regret giving them that extra foot.
Want them to sleep as much as possible but worry that they’re sleeping in too long.
Wish they could help themselves but never want them to not need you.
Take delight in seeing them have a favorite kids’ show but hate when the theme song gets stuck in your head everyday.
Like that they love to play with their toys but where did your living room go?
Love watching them eat new foods but miss being able to dine out alone.
Wonder what we’d do without them yet sometimes miss our freedom.

Yesterday was my little pride & joy’s second birthday. I would’ve wrote this post yesterday but I have been exhausted all weekend from a marathon of her party, Sesame Place and The Please Touch Museum [Which I should blog about later, I’ll try to remember] that I couldn’t find brain-power to write.

Well Maddie had a great weekend and so did we and my wife and I are extremely proud of all she has accomplished so far and how delightful a little lady she’s becoming. I, myself, cannot believe that something so beautiful and intelligent was co-created by me. I’m overwhelmed with happiness and pride in the mere short 2 years of her life. I’m certain, more than certain really, that she will become an outstanding and highly regarded young lady. She impresses and puts a smile on everyone who crosses her path.

I’m looking very forward [But it can be as slow as it can be] to seeing how much more happiness and wonder she’ll bring to my life. I am and as always honored to be her Stay-At-Home Dad.

Happy Birthday Madeleine!!! XOXOXOXOXO∞

Recently I was at the doctors [Allergist] and the nurse asked me a whole bunch of questions, mostly relevant to my allergies [is your house carpeted?, do you have pets?, are you on any medication?, etc.]. The last question was what was my occupation. I immediately said “Stay-At-Home Dad.” She replied “Luckeeeeee.”

What’s profound about this is that this was the first time I told someone, especially a complete stranger that my occupation is a Stay-At-Home Dad. Usually I would first say Graphic Designer or Freelance Graphic Designer and then would slip in SAHD afterwards but this time I immediately said SAHD without blinking. No shame or awkwardness nor weird or puzzled look from the person asking the question.

I think the role is taking over completely. 😉

I cannot believe that people still mistake Maddie for a boy. She’s just about 2 years old and more so now she is mistaken for a boy. Here are some reasons I think this happens:

HAIR: It took her a while to grow a decent head of hair. Fine. But now she has a great mane of flowing curly locks. Sure this isn’t a dead-ringer for what gender she is but more often than not you would think long hair = girl. I would think a boy with very long hair would be mistaken for a girl more often than the opposite.

COLOR: This past winter she wore a brown colored coat. Since when is brown a gender-centric color. I thought it was Blue = Boy, Pink = Girl. That was the only gender rule I ever heard of. But I dress her in jeans or cords when she goes out in cold weather to the playground and most parents tell their kids to watch out for that boy referring to my Maddie. I thought brown was a neutral color. Plus we got that jacket at the GAP and I’m pretty certain that it was in the girls’ section with the only other color choice was white.

PANTS: As I mentioned earlier I usually dress her in pants, especially in winter. And call me crazy or a fashion-minded fool but I cannot stand those tight-skinned sweat pant-like leggings that are only geared for the girls. I’m not 100% sure why but I don’t like her wearing them. Maybe its because they look like sweat pants but I think they look silly especially in the butt area. They are tight in the rump and with a diaper it looks dumb. Plus they are usually very loud and bright colors and I prefer a decent yet cute and even girly blue jean or corduroy pants. So I basically only dress her in jeans and cords and this may fool most people in thinking she’s a boy. But when they have flowers and butterflies on them [which all of them have some girl-centric icon on them] this baffles my intellect. AND she’s wearing pink sneakers!

I don’t mind you asking if she’s a boy or a girl if you’re not sure. Hell, I’ve looked at some toddlers and questioned their gender but I never assumed and just spit out the first guess to the the parent. But take the time to look down at her attire for more than a second to see if you can make a good educated guess. And brown is not a boy color.

I had to discipline Maddie today. I’ve yelled at her before and even showed some force when she has disobeyed but today was different. It was the first time she outright defied me. I had asked her to pick up pretzels off the floor that she dropped and she repeatedly told me “No.” But because she told me no I had to put on my disciplinary parent hat even though I didn’t think the pretzels on the floor was a big deal. I even had to try really hard not to smile or laugh at her saying her cute little No’s. She would even roll around the floor and laugh after saying No. And here I am trying not to think this is cute [even though it really is] and trying to get her to listen to me and pick up these pretzels. I would ask please. I would raise my voice even to short screams. She would just laugh. [Glad to see I’m not too scary for her] I even slammed my fist on the table. Nothing. I then started to tell her that she cannot play with the iPad [her favorite ‘toy’ in the world]. She still ignored my command. I then told her that she couldn’t go outside and/or down the basement [new fun ventures in her life]. Again laughing and having a good time being defiant. She then went to a book that she’s really into this week and I immediately took it away from her and told her she can’t read it unless she cleans up the pretzels. Now I got a little reaction but still not picking up the pretzels. When she finally went over to the pretzels I asked her again. She said NO.

And then I grabbed her wrist, squeezed and spoke lightly in her ear with a horrible serious stern mean Daddy tone. She then started to cry. After I consoled her a bit she then picked up the 9 pieces of pretzels on the floor and put them in the dish on the table. Atta girl. Was that so hard?

It was a momentous occasion as I had to stand my ground and be the bad guy for a few minutes but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel pride that she is thinking on her own and rebelling a bit. She’s growing up and this is far from the last time I will have to be the bad guy to her. But it was a quick little tiff and we quickly were best friends again shortly afterwards.

BUT I will try this little trick that I tried a few times that worked on her when she just wouldn’t listen or pay attention to me when I asked her something in the past. Repetitive commands. Instead of asking and asking and then raising my voice and then getting annoyed and getting all bent out of shape I would repeat my command in a somewhat robot voice quickly in such an annoying way until she listened and then she would do what I asked her to. For example: “Maddie pick up the blocks. Pick up the blocks Sweetie [no response]. Pick up the blocks. Pick up the blocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. [finally she’d then pick up the blocks.] It doesn’t take too long usually and it’s better than getting stressed out and yelling. I didn’t try it for the pretzel incident because the No’s took me by surprise and I usually do the Repetition Method when she’s off in her own little world and just not listening. But today she was listening and just being a cute little punk.