Daddy in training

Sometimes I hear the "Rocky" theme song in my head.  I think it is the soundtrack of my day.  You will understand why shortly.  There is nothing like waking up at 515 am and being wide awake.  The best part about it is that I have to work tonight.  Oh, boy.  I am so excited, can you tell?  There is at least one good thing about being up, so is Riley.  Actually, she is the reason I am up before the roosters.  Riley decided that daddy did not really need to sleep and should be up to entertain her.  So here we sit, eating our morning puffs and coffee.  I need the coffee.

As much as I hate to admit it, this is all my fault.  Were she not so adorable I would let her cry herself back to sleep, but as we all already know, daddy is a "suckaaaaaaa."  Much like Pavlov training his dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, she has trained me to get her from the crib.  When I hear the whining I am motivated to go to the noise and retrieve the little person making it.  My child is a genius.

So here we are enjoying or morning routine.  Riley is now tired of the puffs and has moved on to the yogurt drops and throwing her water and juice mixture on the floor and laughs as daddy retrieves it, over and over.  Later she will enjoy a bottle which she will repeatedly toss to the floor to watch her egg-head daddy pick up while she enjoys a laugh at my expense. 

All of this makes me wonder, when did my children train me?  How is it that someone of superior intelligence and years of education and training is done in by a little person who has been on this earth less than ten months?  How is it that our five year old and nine year old daughters can train me to respond to their whims?  I am the adult here, right?

Realistically I know that my wife and I are in charge.  We run the household, not the heathens.  But every now and again I realize our authority is being chipped away at by the three combatants we share the house with.  Little by little they are training us, well actually training me, to be their puppet.  

In truth, I love it.  I need to enjoy times like these while they last.  One day my children will hate me for running off boyfriends, making them drive the family car instead of buying the car they want, and for generally embarrassing them in public by the way I dress.  So raise a glass folks.  Here is to the other fathers in training out there who wake up to "Gonna Fly Now," bed head and all.  We are off to watch Totally 80's videos on vh1 Classic.  Oh, boy.