A few weeks ago, while the older kids were doing school work, I was playing blocks on the floor with my one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. After the third tower was built and immediately knocked down, my daughter said in a sweet voice, “Daddy come.”

I leaned over to see what she wanted. As my face moved closer to hers, my daughter called out, “Daddy two eyes.”

I started to answer that I do have two eyes, but I should have paid attention as she lifted her tiny pointer finger and pushed it toward my face. What happened next was a blur. Mainly because my vision became blurry as she rammed her finger like a dart into my eyeball. No blink to stop the blow. Just straight finger on eye contact.

“Ow!” I yelled as I pulled my head back and started rubbing my watery eye.

Being an intuitive toddler, she asked, “Daddy hurt?” Ya think?

“Yes, daddy hurt,” I replied. “You poked me in the eye.”

After a while, my vision came back and I got over the trauma. My daughter, though, never forgot that she had the ability to poke me in the eye.

Every day, whether it’s when I lift her out of the crib, change her diaper, put her in a high chair to eat, or just get close to her face, she asks, “Daddy, poke eye?” It’s a warning of what’s to come.

My answer is always, “Yes, you poked me in eye.”

With that, she gets her tiny pointer finger ready and starts to move it too close to my face. There are times I’m prepared and avoid an eye poke. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case and my daughter makes contact.

My eye has taken a beating lately. The one silver lining is I am getting better at picking up her warning and even better at blinking before the poke happens.