My father, the baby whisperer...

Phoenix is off learning how to snowboard!!!!  He was so excited last night he couldn't even sleep :)  Superman and Seth ran to the mountain at dawn with a car full of excitement ;)  I think they're hoping P will be proficient for Uncle Ian and Kendra's upcoming visit...  I cannot Wait to hear how it goes...

If Z stays zonked, I can start my catchup here...

My father.  Super sweet guy.  Giving, loving, fun-loving.  Not so smooth with the babies.  And then there was Z.

I think he held her, like, twice, when we were home last year.  I mean, he smiled at her and cooed at her and stuff, but, well, he's better with KIDS.  The kind that talk and make sense and don't seem so breakable.  Z, she didn't know this and, apparently, had different ideas this visit.

You know when you meet someone and it just clicks?  There's no awkward getting to know you stage, no idle chit-chat.  You just swing into friendship smoothly and it feels like breathing.  I love it when my life bumps me into an insta-chum.  It was amazing watching it happen for Z.  She went to my father like a fish to water.  And, just like that, my father became the baby whisperer :)

When Z was at her orneriest (like, how she insists upon drinking the bath water after I mentioned it could be dirty (poopy butt and all...)  (Ewwww)  But she's at that age where the mere whiff of a "no" translates to "do over and over and over and smile impishly while repeating yet again.  And, if thwarted, wail like there is No Tomorrow."  

Well, when the going got tough like this, Z got going to my father.  

And each morning she would clamber onto his lap while he tried to eat his breakfast.  There she would proceed to eat her frozen blueberries and wipe them on his nightshirt.  She would cry when he disappeared to dress for work and give him huge hugs as he left for the day. (And then whine, again, that her bosom bud was gone.)

One particularly lucky day, she got to visit him at the office :)

And while she would occasionally direct him around the house to lift her atop tall stuff, she was just generally more content, happily chilling on his lap in the library for long (to me) periods of time.  She never chills on any of our laps for long periods.  (Just sayin.)  They would chomp ice and she would chat at his face and then kiss him.  My mother and I would just shake our heads.  (And then go make dinner in peace.  It was kinda nice ;)
 

Phoenix was that slow-to-warm kinda baby.  He wanted me and me and only me.  Z is much more sharing.  But the scale leaned waaaaay heavily towards my father, a new thing for SuperGrams.  And my sweet daddy made sure he pointed out to my mother every single hug and kiss he received.  Ha ;)