Fiddle Music

[Curly]

Fiddle Music!

Last night Cathy went to a Christmas dinner for some of the ladies at church so Katie and I had to fend for ourselves. Katie had a fever earlier and was really a handful. The day before we had put up our Christmas tree during Katie's nap and when she got up she cried and wanted us to take the tree back to the store. So now as Cathy was preparing to leave, Katie was just standing there beside the tree crying...yes, a really bad mood. Sometimes you just have to get them into a good mood, so I was doing all I could to stop the crying, I tried my noises, my faces, everything...none of which worked. So I said, "Katie, do you want to touch the top of the tree?", and her crying slowed down a bit as she said OK. I held her up as far as I could and she touched the very top of the tree...she was so impressed with herself! I then asked her to hold me up so I could touch the top. As she pseudo-lifted one of my feet, I stretched and groaned and panted...and finally told her that she was the only one who could ever touch that high. We even asked mommy to try...who we both knew had no chance at all! Well, I manipulated Katie's mood exactly as planned, or you could say, I played her like a fiddle. But I didn't feel guilty because the evening went fine from there on out, her bad mood had all but disappeared. Sometimes it just takes a little parental genius to turn a whole evening around. And to think, before Cathy left for the dinner she wanted to know if she should stay home as if I might not be able to handle Katie in such an ornery mood...huh!

As Katie and I sat around cutting the fool and watching a little TV, I asked her if she wanted to pop some popcorn...of course she did. So I stood her on the counter and we watched the microwave as the bag swelled and we listened to the popping...I was absolutely amazed at the level of entertainment we were getting, she was smiling and giggling and asking, "all done dada". No baby, not yet, almost though.

So when it finished popping, we poured it in a bowl and took it to the den with a glass of sweet-tea almost as big as Katie. She doesn't get to eat in the den and we don't often give her tea, so this in itself was a big treat. We were eating, laughing, guzzling tea and having a great time when she looked up with that sweet little innocent face and said, "you did good dada", to which I smiled knowingly and nodded my head in agreement! After a minute or two of her feeding me, me feeding her, and us feeding ourselves, I glanced over as she reverently closed her eyes and said "Dear God, tank you for my dada...amen", she then opened her eyes and gave me the absolute biggest, warmest, best hug I've ever had! As I write this, the tears well up...again, just like they did when I told Cathy last night and just like they did when I told my friends at work this morning. Wow, what a feeling!

Needless to say, I ruled the night. We finished our popcorn and watched more TV with Katie sitting on my belly...and then it was time for bed. So up the stairs we went to her new big girl bed and I plopped her down and began to tuck her in. She gave me that heart melting look, held up one tiny little finger and said, "Dada, can I watch one more telebision?", cocking her head to the side just a little…somehow I think she already knew the answer. Hey, I'm all for rules and schedules and such, but we had an exceptionally great night, what's it gonna hurt to let the little angel stay up a while longer just this once? So back down the stairs we went laughing and tickling and most importantly listening out for mommy...we don't want her to know about these late hours now do we?

What a good little girl she was tonight...now wait a minute....who just got played like a fiddle?

Dec 4, 2001