Top 10 Unexpected Joys of Parenting

There's a lot that's great about being a dad. The joy and pride you feel when your daughter learns a new skill; the heart-swelling awesomeness of hearing her first "I love you, Daddy." You take your lumps as a parent, to be sure, but almost every day there's something that reminds you how freakin' cool this gig really is. But a lot of it is, really, kind of predictable. That doesn't take away from it's power, mind you, but it's sort of ... cliche. 

Which makes the items on the following list even more remarkable. Not only are the following things amazingly cool, they are — for the most part — unexpected joys of parenting. The stuff they don't tell you in prenatal class.

1. Arrowroot cookies - Remember, how much you used to love these? No. You don't. Because if you did, you never would've stopped eating them. We spend our first years stuffing our faces with these then for some reason we move on — as though there's something better out there. There isn't. These cookies are amazing. And when you have a kid, you get to discover that all over again.
    
2. Having an excuse to make an ass of yourself in public - This probably needs no further explanation.
    
3. Discovering new kids' shows - I don't care how old you are, the Backyardigans is a great show. Music! Adventure! Classic stories with a new twist! Notwithstanding Austin's confusing and unspoken backstory (why is he so often not outside playing with the rest?), the characters are interesting and the writing is sharp. 
    
4. Rediscovering old kids' shows - Did you know Disney's Duck Tales (oooh-woo-woo!) is available On Demand? Of course not, you have no reason to be looking through the Disney channel's listings. BUT I DO. 
    
5. Lying to your kids - Yea, I know, I wrote about this before, but seriously — shampoo is the poo of a strange animal called the sham? That story still cracks me up. The best I've done so far is to convince my kid that giraffes say "Hello, I'm a giraffe" just as cows say "moo" but I've still got time to improve on that.
    
6. Play-Doh moustaches
    
7. Not correcting the cuter mispronounciations - For the most part, we try to correct our daughter when she mispronounces a word or uses a word wrong. But calling any sort of lid or cap a "hood?" That's adorable. "Can I have my milk in a cup with a hood?" "Where's the hood for this marker?" Ditto for pronouncing the day after today as "to-MORE-yo." Where'd that 'y' sound come from? Who cares, it's awesome. 
    
8. Foisting your tastes on an unsuspecting mind - "Hey kiddo, who's your favourite band? "Bouncing Souls, Daddy!" 
    
9. Wet naps - Much like arrowroot cookies, what makes these bad boys truly remarkable is that these things are everywhere when you're a baby. And yet, as adults, we relegate them to tiny packages that get tossed haphazardly into take-out bags and first-aid kits. WHY? These things are awesome! Long before we had tiny packets of hand sanitizers we had wet naps. Why did we ever stray?
    
10. Becoming friends with Erica Ehm - (Your experience of parenthood may vary) #HumbleBrag.