Please turn off your cell phones

Annika saw her first movie a few weeks ago. It was a big deal because Annika loves the sound of her own voice. Loves it so much, that during the viewing of most any television program requiring more than 15 minutes of her attention, she asks question after question. Sometimes, I think she cares about the answer, but to be honest - I think she just likes asking. Maybe to get us to participate in the show with her? Maybe just so she can continue to babble?  Who knows...but we never thought she'd make it through a movie.

The movie in question was Kung Fu Panda. We were worried about this movie for two reasons: 1) It was longer than 15 minutes and 2) it had a scary subplot involving a snow leopard. Proving to us how much she's grown up, the length of the movie seemed to be of little consequence to her...but her fear of the danger that Kung Fu Panda and his friends encountered during the course of their journey was almost too much. She asked after the first "scary" scene, "Can I go home now?" And that quickly turned into "Can I leave?"

To paint a picture for you, Annika was sitting on Chris's lap for about 85% of the movie. Her little body is still too light for the 'old school' theater chairs, so she had to sit on one of us. During the height of her fear, I took her and cuddled her and promised her that it would be ok. She would settle for a bit, but then cry out in fear, "Please!  I want to go home!"

It was too much for me to bear, so I told Chris that we needed to leave (having had earlier made the unholy parental pact of  'it's ok to leave if she freaks out even though we're wasting 40 bucks') and he shook his head. I said, "No..seriously."  And he said, "No."

He went to the concession counter and purchased some "incentive." Every time the scary snow leopard came on screen, she was given a piece of candy. I thought it was genius...positive reinforcement to face her fears!

It was rightly pointed out to me later by a friend, "Yeah, now she'll turn to food whenever she needs comfort in the future."

Woops.  

Three reasons why Chris is the best father ever

Father's Day was 3 days ago, Annika is almost 3 and we are a family of 3. So in celebration of Father's Day and consequently, Chris, I present you with the top three greatest things about Chris the Daddy.

1. He loves being with her. Chris isn't the kind of guy that would rather be golfing, out with his really cool friends or driving fast cars; he is a family man. A true family man that wants nothing more than to spend his Saturday with Annika by his side. He wants to tickle her and play The Hungry Caterpillar game and ask her what she did at school that day. He actually wants to know. And when he's not with her, he talks about her all the time.

2. He really knows her. Annika has a habit of giving up rather quickly when something doesn't go her way. Chris and I talked about this at length last night, and he is really concerned that this is something that will be difficult to shake. He notices when she is cranky and when she's hyper and for the most part, knows how to handle it. He also doesn't push her to go poo-poo in the potty because he knows she needs to do it her way when she's ready.

3. He makes her happy. There is no better, stronger, kinder, warmer, softer, funnier, nicer person in the whole wide world for Annika. Chris is Annika's consistent favorite, and there is no other person in the universe who she wants to hold hands with more. Maybe the other caregivers in her life get a little peeved at this, but at the end of the day, Chris and Annika have a bond that makes every person around them smile.

Happy (belated) Father's Day to a truly amazing Daddy and husband.