BenAnna Blog

Every night, Daddy has to be there when it's time for Anna's bath. Daddy is responsible for getting her out of hte bath, wrapping her up tightly in a towel, and holding her like a baby for several minutes while she snuggles close and makes baby sounds.

Then, after drying off and brushing teeth, a robe-clad Anna runs into her bedroom where Daddy is not allowed to watch while she picks out a diaper and pajamas and then climbs on top of the blanket chest at the foot of her bed.

When Daddy enters, he is expected to sit on the floor next to the PJs and say "You'd better come see Daddy!". At that point, Anna climbs down and tries (not too much) to get past Daddy into the hallway. Daddy always catches her as she runs past and tickles her in his lap for several minutes. Then, Daddy helps Anna get dressed.

Anna picks out three books, and on many nights Daddy gets to read to her for a while in the bed. (Sometimes Mommy is the preferred storyteller.)

Both Anna and Daddy look forward to this nightly ritual, and both are in bad moods when they miss it.

Tonight's bedtime story from Ben went something like this. Upon discovering cotton balls stuffed into his dresser, he explained:

These are from a sheep. The sheep is dead. It died in a hotel where it was sick and there was a fire and the ambulances were all in the repair place and they couldn't come.

There were more details, but that's the general gist. Daddy loves Ben's sense of imagination, and he's never sure what will come out of his mouth next.

[Update] Apparently the sheep is ok now. The "wool" now came from a sheep that he saw at a farm in New Jersey.

Now that Anna is 3, she has started giving fashion and appearance advice to Daddy.

She likes to stand beside Daddy on the rim of the tub while Daddy is shaving. When Daddy leaned down to show her how smooth his face was, she pointed out a spot that he had missed. Emboldened by this discovery, she went on to point out that Daddy's arms and tummy need shaving, too.

Later, when dressing for church, Daddy put on a nice green shirt. Anna looked at Daddy critically and announced that he needed to wear a blue shirt instead.

Only 3, and she already has better fashion sense than Daddy.

Anna turned 3 today, and Daddy spent it in Anaheim, California. We'll celebrate on Saturday, so Daddy didn't miss any of the festivities. But Daddy hopes not to miss any more birthdays and will do his best to be home for Anna's and Ben's from now on.

(From Japan)

Anna was having one of her bedtime tantrums on the Saturday before Daddy had to leave for Japan. Daddy tried to read to her, but she was insisting (loudly) that only Mommy would do. So, Daddy handed her over, then said "See you in a week".

At that, Anna stopped crying, stood up and held out her arms to her Daddy. She clutched him tightly for a good 5 minutes before calmly getting back into bed.

It's very hard to leave after that. Daddy will be home very soon.