There are fleeting moments- they are few and far between- where it would appear this parenting thing is working out pretty darn good. The other night, I had one of those moments stretch itself out for the better part of a couple of hours.
I've been recovering from a broken collarbone, and then surgery thereafter, so to preface this story, I've been feeling like a parent in absentia, between not physically being able to do stuff and being loopy on pain meds. My trooper of a wife has been working overtime, and had the opportunity to enjoy an evening at the theatre- so I am implored her to take it, we'd be fine.
On a normal Daddy-Daughter night at home, we'd order pizza for dinner end of story no discussion. But, due to the aforementioned pain meds, my stomach had not been all that great and therefore ramen noddles were on the menu. She's tried ramen before and has liked it, but that's no guarantee she'll agree to eat it, especially since it is what I am having for dinner. But when I brought it up, she seemed almost excited to have it. Boom, score one for Dad - preparing ONE thing for dinner for the two of us. Unusual, but awesome.
I start to get things situated for dinner, and we have an awesome conversation that could have been ripped from a script of Friends or Seinfeld:
Her: Dad you know what's weird?
Me: What's that?
Her: Donald Duck, he doesn't wear pants- everyone else, Mickey, Minnie they wear pants, and Daisy doesn't either.
Me: Yeah, must be a duck thing- their tail feathers or something.
Her: Yeah it's weird.
Me: Wanna know something else strange?
Her: What?
Me: Goofy and Pluto are both dogs, but only Goofy talks and wears clothes, Pluto doesn't- he's Micky's pet.
Her: Yeah, wait- Goofy's a dog??? How did you know??
And so on. I seriously could have been sitting in a bar over-hearing this conversation. It's like I was talking to a person- not my little baby. No you're getting emotional.
I hadn't been wearing my sling for a couple hour, I thought I better put it on so I don't hurt myself in the kitchen. As I struggled a little to get it on, she asked me, "Do you need help?" WHAT? Is that... EMPATHY? This is new for my six-year old. My wife or I could be carrying six massive bags of groceries and she'll decide she doesn't want to wear her jacket and can't understand why we won't hold it for her. Needless to say, I accepted her help, and made a point of expressing my gratification.
Moments later, as I "cook" - she's wasting time and burning brain cells on the iPad, then all of a sudden she puts it down and says, "Dad, can we do homework?" She doesn't get her enjoyment of doing homework from me, but she really does like it. But since this occurrence happened on my watch, I'm putting it in the good dad karma jar.
She offers to carry not only her own dish to the table, but insists on going back to the kitchen get mine as well. Who is this kid? We sit down to dinner, and not only did she agree beforehand to the ramen, but when in front of her she actually ate the ramen as well. Again, not normal- she's a legendary terrible eater for us. Boom.
After dinner we get our PJs on, pile onto the couch to watch the movie "Annie" (the Carol Burnett, Tim Curry one from the 80's, not any of the impostors that have arrived on the seen since). My kid. She requests I take my sling off, and switch sides so she can snuggle up close to me. I mean, honestly- it can't get more slam dunk as a father than that. And with the state of the world and my own body these past few weeks, I am going to claim victory when I can.