A Father's Perspective

Hi all - here's a perspective from my husband Bill on the joys of parenting.

"I sure hope I'm not doing permanent damage to little Mackay. We all have heard the jokes about being dropped on our heads when we were babies. It turns out that in many cases, this probably isn't a joke - and it is definitely not funny when you see it happen. Given that Michele is mostly a stay-at-home Mom for the moment, my "mister mom" days have been limited to just a few. The first time I cared for Mackay on my own everything went fine - at least from her perspective. From my perspective, that large backside blowout she had was quite frightening. So much so, that I was compelled to take a picture to document it. As Michele is the keeper of this blog, I presume that picture will not show up to the right.

The second time I got to care for Mackay on my own was when Michele went to Las Vegas for a Bachelorette Party. This left me in control for over 2 full days. Well, at least I thought I would be in control. It turns out that Mackay was in control. By the afternoon of day 2, I started to feel like I had the hang of things as Mackay had gotten used to being with me alone, and we were having some quality father-daughter time together. Soooo .... when I was on the phone with my brother and Mackay started screaming at me that she was hungry, I didn't think too much (obviously) of leaving her on the couch for a moment while I got a bottle from the kitchen (all of 10 feet away). Well, you know what happened next. As soon as I got to the sink, I heard (and felt) and large thunk followed by silence. I moved quickly and found Mackay face down on the floor. She was not moving or even whimpering. Still on the phone with my brother, who is currently a full time Dad caring for 2 young boys, I told him what had happened and asked for his advice. "Well, pick her up. Is she crying, does she look o.k.....?"

Mackay survived that little fall, but for me it was nerve wracking and gut wrenching and guilt inducing and - well, you get the point. So one might ask (and one would be right to do so), why the hell did you let her fall off the bed a few weeks later? Good question - no good answer. Last Thursday, Michele had to leave early (I mean really early) for a trade show and I had Mackay for the morning until our part time nanny showed up. Apparently I am not very bright, as I thought it was o.k. to leave Mackay on the bed for a moment while I got a shirt from the closet. She was in the middle of a king size bed playing with our cat, so I thought she was fine (I mean you would think that the cat would watch out for her). This time I was within a foot of her when she fell - probably a good 30 inches - straight down onto her forehead.

As I write this, I see her falling in slow motion over and over again, as I have for the last 5 days. She seems to be fine - although she did scream at me for a good 20 - 30 minutes while I called her doctor and her Mom. The large lump on her head, and a small black eye are still there. I guess I will have to wait till 2009 for my father of the year nomination."

Edit: I wanted to call this post "Bonk. Wahhh. Repeat." as Mackay seems hell-bent on giving herself a concussion before she turns one. I wonder where she got such single-minded determination??