My brother and I were watching my daughter and a basketball game at the same time. Little Donna Rose asked for some juice, so I made a half juice-half water blend. I gave her the sippy cup and went back to watching my alma mater get thrashed.

Less than five minutes later, Donna came up and asked 'Juice?' Where did her sippy cup go? I began to look. I continued to look. I could not find it. My brother began to looked. He continued to look. I left for play rehearsal, and he could not find the sippy cup of juice all night.

The next morning, I was reading the paper and Donna walked up to her tricycle. She opened the hatch compartment in the back and pulled out her sippy cup with juice. Clever girl.

Of course, the only problem with her being clever is that she doesn’t quite remember what she does. She's two-years old and already stumping us, and she doesn't quite know the answers either.

Yesterday, my wife asked me to taste the milk I had just bought. It had gone sour. This frustrated me because I had just purchased it. I ranted a bit about not being able to trust local milk. Later that night while I was at a play performance, Maria discovered her soy milk had gone bad as well. Looking at the refrigerator, she realized the dials had been turned down to the lowest setting. Once again, our little two year old was the culprit, although she doesn't quite remember.

After the fact, you just sit back and laugh. I hadn't thought about trike trunks and refrigerator dials in a long time, but thanks to my daughter, the elementary concepts are coming back to me.

This is what a child does for your life. You get to see things with a fresh perspective. You get to watch a little someone experience things you took for granted long ago. You get to solve the riddles of the missing juice cup and spoiling milk.

If you're wondering, the rumors are true. Fatherhood gets better the longer you do it (and the more you put into it). The first year of my daughter felt like a lot of damage control for mama & baby. The second year seemed to be a lot of convincing my child that the big beast of a man in the house was actually on her side.

Now that I've entered the third year of fatherdom, all of my discipline and tutorial skills are coming into play. No one has said 'No' to me this much in my life when I told them to do something. No one has made a game about lying in bed so much fun either. There's lots of hiding under covers, pretending to sleep, and scaring each other with little roars. 'Play Bed?' Donna Rose asks on a regular basis now. Sure, let's play bed.

This little critter my wife and I made is getting clever. It is both fun and exasperating. It is also the best thing going in my life.

Chris Jungle is still looking for the other little shoe.