The Beginning of the End

We’re down to one week left before Finley’s first birthday and a couple of things happened last week to signal the beginning of the end. What I mean by that is that the past twelve months have been pretty laid back, as far as Poppahood goes. There have been the occasional sicknesses and owies one can come to expect when raising a newborn. There have been long nights and short tempers. There have been a few sad faces, but even more happy faces, which is nice. But last week Finley did two things that signal to this Poppa that things are about to be different.

Both of these turns of events are inevitable. They are the things you see other kids do and wonder when your kid will get there. But, both of these things are on opposite sides of the Poppa Approval Scale(PAS).

The PAS contains many, many items and behaviors and events that I expect my kids to experience and many of them I hope they don’t. And in between are the other things and people and experiences that may or may not appear, but are not surprises.

For instance, at the high-end - the good-end - of the PAS are things like good grades, good sportsmanship, graduations and charity work. From the middle of the PAS and up are things like excelling in team sports, doing chores, saving money and family events.

At the low-end - the bad-end of the PAS - are things like boys, smoking, boys, reckless driving, talking back and boys. Fill in the rest of the bottom half of the PAS with things like trashy clothes, bad grades, and Britney Spears.

Our first event of the week lands somewhere near the top of the PAS. As you may recall from last week’s post, Finley has started taking more and more steps on her way to becoming fully mobile. Well, she’s officially fully mobile, now (See below).

What amazes me is not just the fact that she can zoom around the house at her own speed, but that she figured out how to stand up from a sitting position. This time last week, I figured that would be the last piece in her being a mobile munchkin and that it would take her some time to get there, but she figured it out and she’s off and running… Well, walking hurriedly, anyway.

The downside to her being a toddler is that now she’s a toddler. One blink of an eye, one turned head and she’s gone. We have to be especially vigilant when Finley is upright. It maybe high on the PAS, but in a slightly sad way, it signals the end of the infant stage.

Our second event lands on the high-end of the cuteness scale, but is the beginning of a slow march to the bottom of the PAS. I saw it first-hand a week earlier, but when Heather was witness to it and described to me the event in full detail, I knew it wasn’t just a fluke.

The infant room at Finley’s daycare holds up to eight kids. Right now, the oldest kid and the only girl, is Finley. She is definitely the Queen of the infant room… Especially since she can get around better than the rest. But, it turns out there is one little dude that can keep up with her. In fact they are buddies. The week before, when I dropped her off and last week, when it was Heather’s turn, we both noticed something interesting. As soon as we placed our little girl on the floor, she was off and crawling toward the little boy and he, in turn, was crawling toward her. Replace the padded carpet and toys with a field of flowers and you get the idea.

They met half way and began pawing at each other, like a couple of puppies checking each other out. Then it happened. Finley, not the little boy, leaned over and kissed him! Okay, so it was one of those open-mouthed-on-the-cheek baby kisses, but I knew what she was doing. Then she took off over to one of the cribs and he followed right behind, just like boys do.

All I kept thinking was, “You’re not even one!” All the teachers in the room and Heather the next week were saying, “CUTE!” Okay, so it was kind of cute, but not something I want to start thinking about, right now! Let’s go back to working on walking. Maybe I should buy that ball and glove a little earlier than planned.

The reality is that it’s all just a cute little playmate thing and I’m glad she can make friends. But deep in the back of my daddy mind, visions of boys at the door start to creep up into my consciousness. “It’s way too early for you!” I yell, and send them back to the part of my brain where I keep Air Supply lyrics.

At the end of they day, Finley is back home, waddling around the house, playing with Momma and Poppa and the world is right again. And just as sure as I am that she will go from walking to running, I’m sure there will be a day when she will ask me if she can go on a date. But until then, I’ll work on being top guy in her life. I’ll wipe her mouth, her rear end and her tears. I’ll tickle her and toss her and take her to daycare. And when she goes over to that boy, I’ll just smile and agree that it’s cute and when none of the teachers are looking, point at the boy and mouth the words “I’m watching you.” His infant brain doesn’t have a clue what I’m saying, but it makes me feel better. It must be a Dad thing.