Superdad and His Trusty Sidekick, The Noodler

In our house, we make up superhero names for each other. I'm sure you do in your house too. And if you don't, humor me. We're card-carrying Geeks here.

I do not yet have a nickname. Although I suppose "The Librarian" is as close as I will ever get to one. Chris actually thinks his should be Ultra-Super-Megadad, but as great as a dad as he is, and as fitting as that may be, that's going a bit too far, don't you think? Indubitably. So Superdad it is.

Athena has already come into a name of her own... The Noodler. She has earned this nickname from her eating habits, of course. This is a child that will eat just about anything... raw onions, whole lemons - rind and all, and who can forget the tartar sauce? But... put a noodle of any sort in front of her... egg noodles, spaghetti, macaroni, tortellini... you name it, and she will devour them. She eats other stuff. She inhales noodles.

Now, you may think that being The Noodler is only a mealtime job, but no. It requires vigorous training. So Superdad has been teaching her to wrestle the enemy to the ground at any time. We suspect this may be why she tosses an occasional noodle to the floor with such force that if that noodle were a nail, we would need pliers to get it back out of the floor.

But what I really wish to describe for you is her training regimen. This strenuous program can really happen at any spontaneous time of the day, but many times, it happens after bath time and before bed time. It is at this time that The Noodler is appropriately dressed for wrestling in a stylish footed pajama and she is ready to work of the last bit of energy she has before collapsing into her crib. Tonight, I had the pleasure of watching as she moved through the difficult and taxing exercises. And when I say difficult and taxing... I am really referring to their effect on her trainer, Superdad.

First, Superdad worked on The Noodler's flying skills. Unfortunately for Superdad, The Noodler very much enjoyed being held over Daddy as if she were flying... so much so that she began to drool quite unexpectedly. This is not the unfortunate part. What was unfortunate was that she was positioned just over Superdad's nose, and... well... the drool has to go somewhere, yes?!

So as Superdad tried to recover from the sudden reverse nasal drip, he put The Noodler on the floor beside him. He continued to lie on his back, however, and I got to see The Noodler's patented move... the Rotini Butt Smoosh. She backed her bottom right onto Superdad's face, catching him completely unaware. She sat at the perfect angle to break Superdad's nose... but of course they were just sparring... so she didn't go for the kill. However, she did wish to assert that she had won the contest, so she proceeded to bounce on Superdad's face, as if he were her excercise ball.

And what did The Librarian do? Well, I have to ask, dear readers, what would YOU do? Hmmm? Exactly. I laughed my little librarian butt off. Who knew exercise could be so much fun?