I\u2019m sort of ashamed of how much more engaging I find my ten month old daughter Cordelia these days. I feel like it should not have taken actual evidence of a brain existing inside her skull to make me feel so warm towards her, but here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I never found babies that likable to begin with. Having an actual, helpless, oozing infant around did not give me any evidence that my initial opinion was unjustified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now Cordelia is understanding (in a painfully limited way) some things I say. She can also say \u201cDa Da\u201d. I\u2019m sure she doesn\u2019t understand what it means. But, instead of going \u201cDaDaDaDaDaDaDaDaeeeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhh\u201d, she says \u201cDa. Da. (full stop)\u201d. This is a big and endearing improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, she stood up on her own. She only did it once, pulling herself up using her toy box. My wife didn\u2019t see it actually happen. She just caught Cordelia standing. This creates the uneasy suspicion in my mind that Cordelia is capable of doing lots of interesting things, and she just stops whenever we\u2019re around. She might not be dopey. She might just be really, really devious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, she seems to be trying hard to meet me halfway on this whole father-daughter thing, so I feel I should be trying to bring something of my own to the table. I\u2019m considering feeding her more sugar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our New Parental Low Point<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So the other night, just after a late dinner, I had a sudden, overwhelming craving to go out to my favorite ice cream place. There was a problem, though. It was a fifteen minute drive away, and, if we went, we would be gone during Cordelia\u2019s feeding time. The potential happiness of fulfilling my cravings would not survive being in a public place with a child suffering Noisy Infinite Woe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So my wife, who is normally the fount of parental wisdom and sanity in our relationship, suggested that we go out and simply feed Cordelia ice cream for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out that this works well. Very, very well. Dangerously well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How Did Cordelia Like Ice Cream?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How well do you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Awe-Inspiring Justification My Normally Responsible Wife Gave For Feeding Cordelia Ice Cream For Dinner<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell it\u2019s just like yogurt, only without the bacteria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other Adventures In Feeding Cordelia Badly<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The next night, we discovered that tiny bits of fortune cookie, rationed and carefully parceled out, will keep our daughter quietly happy during dinner at a Chinese restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boy, and I thought the television was a dangerous temptation to the labor-saving parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s Deduction About the Baby’s Thought Process<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe must not want to have any brothers and sisters. That\u2019s why she tries to kick me in the testicles so often.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHello, baby. Blah blah blah blah blah.\u201d<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As hard as it is to believe now, there was once a time when my wife Mariann and I didn\u2019t have offspring. But our friends did. And, sometimes, as is the practice of childfree couples everywhere, we would make fun of our parent friends behind their backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once, one couple we knew had their toddler over, and they insisted on speaking to it. A lot. In complex sentences in a quiet, reasonable tone. As in \u201cNow, honey, you know that you aren\u2019t supposed to jab forks into other peoples\u2019 bodies unless they say that you can. Also, while I\u2019m on the topic, you know mommy appreciates it when you don\u2019t light matches you find. Please stop. Please stop. Stop. Stop. Please stop. Please stop. Please stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the toddler reacted exactly as if it was being spoken to in one of those parent voices from an old Peanuts special. \u201cMwah mwah, mwah mwah mwah, mwah mwah.\u201d It continued to try to light matches with all body parts that weren\u2019t holding forks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mariann and I thought this was HILARIOUS. We\u2019d endlessly play the scene out ourselves, always ending by saying \u201cWHO DID THEY THINK THEY WERE TALKING TO!?!?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things non-parents say about children can always be ignored freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other day, when looking after my TEN MONTH OLD, I said, in all seriousness, \u201cNow honey, you\u2019ll have to be patient. I\u2019ll take you out for a walk in a second, but I have to get stuff together first.\u201d And then I said \u201cWHO AM I TALKING TO!?!?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, sometimes, other people say \u201cWhy are you saying those things to her? She can\u2019t understand a word you\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I say \u201cYes, you\u2019re right. She can\u2019t understand. And she\u2019ll go on not understanding, up until the day when she does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Use Of Skinnerian Conditioning To Mold My Child\u2019s Brain<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, she can understand now. She can understand one thing. Through repeated testing in controlled circumstances, I have determined that Cordelia understands \u201cPat-a-Cake.\u201d When I say it, she starts clapping her hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mariann feels that this is a pretty lame first thing for Cordelia to learn. I, on the other hand, am grasping desperately at any signs of non-infant personhood. So I have been trying to use positive reinforcement to train Cordelia and convince her that language has actual, practical uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the family unit is out for lunch the other day, and it\u2019s time for us to leave. I go over to Cordelia, in her high chair, and say \u201cPat-a-Cake.\u201d I planned to pick her up when she clapped. It\u2019s how I train her, you see, and I don\u2019t want to just pick her up without making it a reward for something. I don\u2019t want to waste a pick up, as my back won\u2019t stand too much baby hoisting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So anyway, she doesn\u2019t clap. So I say \u201cPat-a-Cake,\u201d and keep saying it, and Mariann asked what I was doing, and I explained that I was waiting for Cordelia to clap so I could reward her. And then, the next try, she clapped, and I picked her up, and she was happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that point, I notice the three young people, probably college students, sitting at the next table staring at me with horror. It was as if, instead of having a perfectly reasonable education-based training session, I\u2019d spilled some coke and used Cordelia\u2019s hair to mop it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, I placed their look of censure in the bin in my mind I reserve for parenting feedback from non-parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So anyway, she can comprehend a word now. It\u2019s not \u201cGo boot up daddy\u2019s computer.\u201d But it\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m sort of ashamed of how much more engaging I find my ten month old daughter Cordelia these days. I feel like it should not have taken actual evidence of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storyaboutthebaby","tag-baby","wpcat-3-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ironycentral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}