fatherly foibles

While I am often amazed by Katie's attention to detail, Katie is frequently bewildered by what I fail to notice.

Take tonight, for example.

Katie was out for the evening, so it was my responsibility to put Colette to bed. I dutifully got her ready. First, I dressed her in nice warm one-piece pajamas, which was a pain because there were a million snaps and Colette, being the busy 13-month-old that she is, was far too squirmy. I finally managed to get her to calm down by giving her a small doll to play with. Things went more smoothly after that. I got her blankie and her duckie, read her a bedtime story, sang her a couple songs, and put her in her crib. Instead of screaming and wailing like she usually does, she simply turned on her side and drifted off to sleep.

For the rest of the tranquil evening, I congratulated myself on a job well done. At about 11:30 p.m., Colette woke up crying. Katie picked her up and changed her diaper. While thus engaged, she felt something lumpy under Colette's back. So she reached inside the PJs, fumbled around, and pulled out a . . . doll. Well, no wonder the poor kid woke up! How on earth did I miss seeing that as I finished snapping up her pajamas?