Fatherhood: Chapter 1?

So normally I don’t use this format to get all mushy about my kid, but I’m going to take a minute and “be that guy.” Also, you can tell from the title, I’m probably going to be that guy a few more times. sorry….

My son, Tripp, is now 2 and some change. He’s been the biggest blessing of my life. He’s a very impressive child. He picks things up so well! Now at the risk of being the guy that says “ohhh my kids so smart! he can…” insert some innocuous thing that either every kid can do or that no kid should EVER do, I think my kid is pretty bright.

He learns things seemingly very easily, but he’s very coy about it. He doesn’t appear to try to do things. I, who have spent no time with children in my entire life, imagined that kids usually just try things over and over and over again until they learn how to do it. Or they try until they’re strong enough to do it. I was unaware that there are kids that basically hide the fact that their learning things until they know they can succeed.

This guy looks at you like you have completely lost your ever-lovin’ mind if you try to get him to do something new. Then, once you’ve entirely moved on with something else, he’ll stroll right up to you and do it! More interestingly, he always saves his big tricks for when his mother or I go out of town.

We went to Hawaii: came home and he could walk (and I don’t mean stumble a few steps. He went from barely standing with help, to doing the Gangnam Style on skates. clearly an exaggeration, but seriously!)

In the times his mother has gone out of town on business trips we’ve come home and: he went from saying 1 or 2 letters to recognizing every letter in the alphabet; learned all the colors; he counted to 12; and he started drinking milk from a sippy cup (after MONTHS of failed attempts.)

I don’t know what his grandparents are doing with him when we drop him off, but it’s working! Also, oddly every time he comes home from my parents house he’s added a new food to his Room Service orders. (chicken, pancakes, popcorn, and I assume soda is coming soon but IT BETTER NOT BE, MOM!)

Well one thing he keeps trying to do whether he can succeed or not is have a conversation. Now again, he’s barely 2 so the bar has not been set really high on his oratory skills yet. The problem is, he doesn’t KNOW he isn’t speaking real words. He and I have had 5 minute long conversations in pure gibberish. He loves to talk, but recently he’s been getting kind of irritated when we don’t know what the gibberish means.

Now to his credit, he’s gotten really good at throwing the most important noun in his sentences so we can figure him out. (You’re on your own for verbs). For example:

“dugga dugga dugga chicken. dugga dugga dugga bean pea” means “I want to eat chicken, and I want to eat green beans.”

“dugga badugga Broby dubb see Melmo” means “Me and Brody are going to go see Elmo!”

He’s also pretty consistent with what his fake words mean so we can speak his language to him. For example:

Ga = iPad; Goga = blankie; ducka-ducka-dee = Thomas the Train; Ne-ne = Hungry; and my favorite: him scratching his head = sign language for “i want to eat some gummy fruit snacks” (I’m not fluent in sign language, but I’m pretty sure he’s doing it wrong)

Well we get home from Mexico this past weekend and now, apparently, he speaks in full sentences. We still have our gibberish chats of course, and we still speak Tripp-lish but he’s very clearly said the following to me in the past 2 days:

1.) “Is Momma coming/Can we go see Momma?” (cause ummm Dada ain’t cutting it apparently)

2.) “But I don’t waaant to share with you.” (he got a talking to for that one)

3.) “I want another cookie please.” (at least he’ll be polite and chubby right?)

The funny part is, when I heard him say these sentences, I took me a minute to realize he was using real words and it wasn’t just me understanding the gibberish anymore. HAHA! I thought I was getting pretty good for a second!

Anyway, it’s fun to see how a little person progresses when you had no expectations coming in to it. I think he’s doing great and he’s a blast to get to know. He has also decided to start mimicking me, so there’s even more incentive to be a better man now.

(Speaking of, you should ask me to show you the video of our “patio drinking” or the “strawberry video.” I’ll pretend like Im the guy that doesn’t have photos or videos of his kid on his phone at first, but I always seem to find then one I just so happened to be looking for.)

Anyway, back to not being that guy…