Daddy's Little Girl

There's something to be said of a father/daughter relationship. It's one of those relationships that as a daughter you treasure. When you're young, your Daddy is your hero, he's the only man that you have eyes for. He'll fix your bike when the tire is flat. He'll carry you on his shoulders in a crowd so you can see what is going on. He'll teach you how to play a sport you've never played before a week before the season starts, just so you'll have some of the fundamentals. He'll teach you how to drive in the snow. And, the list goes on...

As you grow older and venture out in the world, and find a special man that you fall in love with, you measure this man to your father. And, even though, you have eyes for another man, your father still holds a very, very special place in your heart, at least my Daddy does. He's an incredibly loving, sensitive man that I'm proud to know and I am so glad I'm his daughter.

Now, that I have a daughter, I get the joy of watching my husband, Kevin interact with Brooklyn. It's priceless. You can see the mutual love they have for one another, and how Kevin would do anything for his little girl. Sometimes, I find myself just sitting back and watching as they laugh and play. They are truly building an amazing relationship and I can't wait to see how much it will continue to blossom over the years.

Kevin is a reporter for a local newspaper. Here's a column that he wrote when Brooklyn was only a few weeks old. It is so clear how much he loves our lil' princess...

Diapers, diapers and other bundles of joy
Call it a whole new level of last-minute shopping.
But at 10 p.m. on Christmas night, I was standing in a line at an astonishingly busy Walgreens buying a pack of pampers for the cutest girl I’ve ever met.Leave it to me to find something gently romantic about buying diapers. Because anyone who has changed one smelly diaper knows its contents are hardly the substance of Shakespearean sonnets.
But no one needed to tell me these were no ordinary diapers, these were for the precious heinie of the 7-pound, 7-ounce, 19 ½ inch princess who entered my life on a Monday afternoon six days before Christmas – forever changing a day that had always been swept up in the busy hubbub of the holiday season.
Just hours earlier, I had scoffed at a Walgreens TV commercial advertising they would be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for those “last-minute shopping needs.”
“Who goes to Walgreens on Christmas?” I bellowed.
“Let your picked-upon employees have the day off, you heartless Scrooges,” I screamed at the TV.
But there I stood, gratefully buying Pampers from a picked-upon employee. See, we had a pail full of diapers, how were we supposed to know that only one specific brand would fit?
I’ve been learning a lot of new things in the past few weeks. Things that all other parents already knew and tried to warn me about.
I’ve been introduced to times that I hardly knew existed.
What does 2:08 a.m. look like? It looks really similar to 3:49 a.m. or 5:55 a.m. These aren’t times of the day when human beings are supposed to function, these look more like prices at Wal-Mart.
And babies give no A’s for effort, either.
I can’t count how many times I’ve proudly walked down the stairs after changing a diaper only to hear that woosh of putrid air and ensuing gurgle – back up the stairs to do it all over again. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m being secretly filmed as part of a training video.
It’s then I realize this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to being part of an Indy 500 pit crew. Throw on the spare diaper, gas her up and send her out there to poop again.
She cries, she cries, she cries indiscriminately. I haven’t seen this much wailing since the last time I was temporarily transfixed by one of those TV evangelists. We’ve even thought about getting earplugs for the dog.
And the craziest part of all?
I wouldn’t miss any of it for the world. Because, when I look into those rich, blue eyes, I’m transfixed by something greater than any bawling or breaking of wind.
Are the chances of me making another late night store run sometime soon really good?
You bet. And for this little girl, I’d go to the moon.
Just hopefully not at 2:08 a.m.

Where has the time gone?

My lil' princess, Brooklyn Marie, is going to be 5 months old Friday. I'm in shock. How can this little girl whom I've loved since the day I found out I was pregnant be 5 months old in a few days? Where has the time gone?

While it feels like she has been apart of our family forever, I still vividly remember the day she was born. I'll never forget the first time I held this precious bundle in my arms and as she cried, I kept saying "It's alright, Mommy's here." And, I will never forget my husband's face when he first saw this little girl that we created. That smile and look still lingers on his face.

I remember when she struggled to hold her own head up, and now she is learning to sit all by herself. She's given up on rolling over. Even though she can roll both from her back to her tummy and her tummy to her back, she's not interested. Rolling over doesn't prove to be worthwhile, where as sitting up has its advantages.

Brooklyn has got such an independent spirit. It's such a joy to be able to call myself her Mommy!