I'm a Hit in Romania

If you are one of the half dozen or so regular readers of this blog, you are probably wondering where I have been for the past month and a half. Certainly something exciting must be happening in the world of Sydney that I have neglected to tell you.

You would be wrong.

I don’t really like to write unless there is something funny to write about. Have you read some of these blogs where people just post braggy stuff about their kids every week? “Johnny got straight A’s this week.” “Millicent was chosen to be the lead in the school play this week.”  “Billy scored two goals in last night’s soccer game.”

Yawn.

I’d much rather read a blow-by-blow account of how Johnny tried to stuff a whole McDonald’s cheeseburger in his mouth at once and ended up puking in the back seat of the mini van. Or how Millicent got in a cat fight with the school bully and dad scolded her in the principal’s office, but high-fived her once they got in the car. Or how Billy scored two goals in a soccer game, but is so directionally clueless he scored them in the other team’s goals.

Those stories, I can laugh at.

Sydney has been quite the joy lately. At 17 months, she’s getting a touch of the Terrible Twos. We will have a melt down every now and then. But nothing major. Just regular kid stuff. Not really any blog stuff.

We have had some milestones. She can count to 20, with a little help. She has about half of the alphabet down. She had a nice first Christmas, where she delicately opened each gift with one hand and one hand only, thereby making Christmas morning a three-hour affair.

We had our first haircut this week. She wasn’t scared. She didn’t throw a tantrum. Cute, but boring.

It is nice that she now can communicate with us, even if it isn’t in words. She can call out for Daddy when Mommy is annoying her and vice versa. I can always count on a “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” when Sydney gets out of the bath tub because she hates when Brooke dries her off. She wants daddy to come to the rescue.

She smiles and laughs a lot, now. She likes to go to the park and swing and slide, shouting “Whee!” as she glides down. Her favorite show is Caillou and she will stop all playing when it comes on, sitting still and watching intently. She likes pizza, hot dogs, yogurt, cottage cheese and cheese and pretty much spits out everything else.

She’s been sick a couple of times, but recovered quickly. She seems to like child care and gets along with the other kids. She can climb a flight of stairs in record time, ensuring mommy and daddy have to be alert at all times. (I once put the gate down and then went to get her glass of milk that sat in the refrigerator. In the time it took me to retrieve it, she was nine steps up and daddy almost had a heart attack.)

None of this makes for real funny blog fodder.  

As I have said before in this blog, we have settled into parenthood. I am sure there will be upheaval in May when Baby Gregg 2 comes along, but, for now, our lives are blissfully unbloggable.

But I realize I have regular readers who may want me to check in every once in a while, so I will try to pick it up.

For the six of you.

(I actually just checked the stats.) I have more than 14,000 page views all time. While the majority of those views are in the U.S., I have nearly 700 from Russia, more than 400 in the United Kingdom and almost 200 in Romania.

Russia? Romania? Apparently my comedy plays well in the Eastern European bloc. I’m glad the Iron Curtain no longer exists.

I’m not sure how my blogging translates in any of the dozen or so foreign countries that have registered more than ten views on my blog. Perhaps I am viewed as an obnoxious father in France. Maybe I’m laugh-out-loud, Benny Hill funny in the UK. I have to believe I am a little scary to the Taiwanese.

But they are reading. So I need to be writing. Sydney needs to start doing more funny things. The pressure is on, child. You might as well learn to deal with it at a young age. Deliver.

Your Romanian fan base is waiting.