Daddy Moments

Every once in a while as we make our way through life on planet Finley, there are moments that can only be defined as “daddy” moments. These are things that I most likely would have only experienced after becoming a dad. Things that single dudes probably never experience, let alone think about.

Many times these daddy moments are funny and crazy and others can be very serious or even sad. The perfect example of a daddy moment comes from one of my early blogs when in an early morning stupor, I changed baby Finley but forgot to put on the new diaper. I didn’t discover my error until after a particularly stinky blowout. Needless to say, I haven’t forgotten a diaper since. This past week, I got to experience another daddy moment. This one was almost as messy, but not quite as funny.

Finley had been feeling poorly for a few days and we weren’t exactly sure what it was. She had thrown up in her bed in the middle of the night on Sunday, but seemed fine the next day. Then the diarrhea set in and she threw up during dinner on Tuesday. No fever, no other vomiting episodes, just random sickness.

On Wednesday night, Heather was out and I had daddy duty. We were having a great night together, playing and learning. She ate her whole dinner of mac and cheese followed by pineapple chunks. In fact, I was actually thinking that this sickness bug – or whatever it was – had moved on. Bad mistake.

We were getting ready for bed and as I gave her the nighttime bottle, it hit. One moment she was eagerly awaiting her bottle and the next, we were both covered in mac and cheese and pineapple chunks. No matter what people tell you about what to expect as a parent, there’s not much you can do to prepare for something like this.

First of all, it’s such a surprise that there is this moment where you’re thinking, “did that just happen?” Then, the parenting gene kicks in and before you know it, you’ve somehow gotten everyone and everything to a sink and are wiping down everyone and everything.

This, was a daddy moment. Never in the forty years previous to last Wednesday did I ever think I’d be in this situation. I mean, I knew going into this child gig that kids get sick and I expected to be on the cleanup end of a few trips to the toilet. But, being the recipient of the blast is not quite what I had in mind.

And to her credit – even though she just exhaled her dinner – she was over it in seconds, giggling and playing with her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She wasn’t too terribly annoyed with having to change all of her clothes, either. I figure whatever it was that had been bothering her had been exorcised along with that last meal.

It turns out, after a trip to the doc the next day, that she may have had a touch of the rotavirus, which is why it wasn’t your normal flu or stomach bug. After a really rough Thursday at home with Momma, she made a full recovery and is her normal, walking, babbling self. And I’m happy to say I, too, made a full recovery after a full scrub of the bathroom sink and a change of clothes of my own.

So, I’ll just chalk that one up to another in my growing list of daddy moments. I know my list will get even longer and may include things like trips to the emergency room, the fixing of toys and/or dolls, many scrapes and cuts that will bleed and perhaps some sort of process in which I am the model for a little hairdresser wannabe.

The thing is, as much as some of these daddy moments will make me wince and shake my head, I’d rather be living these moments than wondering what I was missing.