On BJ and His Lydia

A year ago, I made this prediction on my blog:

"BJ is often thought of as a harsher personality.  This is in fact not true at all when it comes to being a husband and father.  I predict that when he holds this little girl, he will basically turn into a giant bowl of mush."

So, I was mostly right.  BJ has a hard time with the newborn stage.  All the crying and neediness is terrifying for him.  But as the newborn phase quickly passed and Lydia's little personality started to shine through, I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting back and watching BJ fall in love with his daughter.

When Lydia was about 2 months old, I caught BJ walking around with Lydia in his arms and an uncertain smile on his face.  I asked him what he was grinning about, and he responded, "I just realized she's kind of cute."  They've been making googly eyes ever since.

Here is BJ and Lydia's relationship summarized down to a few points, all of which offer ample evidence for the mush that Lydia has planted inside of BJ:

-During meal times, they have staring contests.  Intermittently throughout the games, she offers BJ bits of her food which she quickly retracts when he leans in to get a bite.

-When Lydia hears BJ come in the front from work, she immediately starts crawling in that direction while making an odd, whining, needy sound.  BJ eats it up.

-BJ spends 7:00 to 8:00 every night in the bathroom giving Lydia and Shepherd their baths.  During Lydia's bath time, Lydia sings while BJ rapidly flicks his finger over her mouth making vibrating noises.  Every time we are around people, BJ tries to get Lydia to do their little trick, but she is too shy to do it for anyone but BJ in the privacy of our bathroom.

-BJ likes to hold Lydia while he greets people after his sermon.  I'm not sure if it is so that he can show her off or if it is because it is so entertaining watching her stare people down.  (I believe I've mentioned her impressive social skills before.)

-They do baby acrobats all of the time:

-BJ loves to make her mad by picking on her.  Last night, he dipped her feet for a milla-second into Shepherd's frigid kiddy pool, and she just about had a conniption.  BJ often shows his affection through mischief.

-But perhaps the greatest proof of BJ having been turned into mush by the very existence of Lydia is this: He now uses the word "cute" on a regular basis.  And seriously, who can blame him.