My Daughter, The Racist

Sara has many friends.

This is, I believe, a direct result of her being on of the nicest people I have ever met.

I also have many friend.  Most of them live far away.

This is, I believe, while not a direct result, certainly related not the fact that I am not nearly as nice.

One of Sara's many friends is having a baby in a month or two.  This past Saturday was the baby shower and my beautiful wife took my gorgeous and well-tempered daughter to the festivities, where she was the only pre-menstral female in the room.

Harper does very well with strangers.  If she's not smiling at them, she looks at them inquisitively and she's most certainly not shy.

Sara's friend is of Mexican heritage.  I tell you this, not because I care about her race.  I, like Stephen Colbert, am color blind and do not see race.  I tell you this because it is vital to the story.

At some point during the party, the grandmother-to-be, also of Mexican lineage, sits down to talk with Harper.  This woman breaks into quick-tongued Spanish, speaking at a pace that would put Speedy Gonzales (how racist was HIS character) to shame.  After a second of looking bewildered, by even-tempered, stranger-friendly daughter bursts into tears.

**edit**
I had half a dozen jokes to be made here, but I couldn't think of one that didn't play into the stereotypes of Mexicans or Mexican culture, so I'll just leave it.

While Sara was having fun and Harper was building up reasons to joins the Republican Party, I was, once again, hurting myself with exercise.

I did great with the punches, but this time, I did squats, too many and too hard.  (hehe...That's what she said!)

I couldn't walk on Sunday.

Or Monday...

Yesterday, I was able to limp, but I wasn't running any marathons, or climbing any stairs.

4 hot showers, 3 long sleeps and 25000 mg of tylenol later, I'm feeling better!  I was able to work about again today, but I took it easy, I promise.

In spite of the pain, I am still loving this workout and I need to start punching people!  As long as they don't punch back, I should be good!

We've been feeding Harper more solid foods lately.  "Solid" meaning mashed and liquified carrots, sweet potatoes and peas.  The contents of her diaper have gone from liquid and unpleasant, to road tar and putrid.

I'm ready to change your diaper now, baby girl!

Her movement has also improved drastically.  She's not crawling yet (which I hear is a good thing for my sanity) but she is rolling all over the place, scootching in circles and shoving herself backwards on the floor.  We also need to start strapping her into seats and she tried to do a forward summersault out of her swing this morning.

I set her in her car seat this morning while I was getting her bag ready for day care, as I do every morning.  I heard an odd thump followed by muffled cries.  My first thought?  You can just imagine, since I can't find a suitable picture on google...

What happened was that she had rolled herself over inside the car seat and was folded the wrong way, one-leg hanging over into oblivion, one arm poking herself in the face.

Luckily for my parenting skills, it appears that raucous laughter calms down a crying baby.

We got re-situated and off the day care without further injury.  She talked to herself the entire way there.

I love being a parent.

In almost unrelated news, I've been hired to teach physics this summer at Duquesne University.  For the month of June, I will be "Professor Aion."  I will still be spending all of July and most of August with Harper, but for June, we will need a babysitter or day care for half days.

My brother may come and stay with us for a while and fill that role, which would be nice.  I'll enjoy having someone else in the house who will push me to work out.

As usual, I love reading people's comments!  Please feel free to share this blog with anyone who you think may find it interesting, provided they don't own a van with tinted windows and candy glued to the outside.