Being a father is a privilege, and a joy. Its demanding, engaging, stressful, yet rewarding. My daughter is now 2 years old (she will be 3 in June), full of energy, wit, and attitude. She is intelligent, and seems to get more hyper daily! Yet I often find myself wondering, “when did this kid become a teenager?” Telling me things like, “Dad, stop calling me!” or trying to talk on the phone constantly to whomever will listen. She’s become so descriptive and decisive about things she does and doesn’t want, from food to shoes, hair bows, and outfits!
My hair is gradually being sprinkled with grey strands… and I’m convinced that my daughter is stealing my energy whilst I sleep! My knees are achy, yet I gladly play and dance through the pain to see her smile. I find myself missing our daughter, Alexzandria, more quickly and easily. I crave her attention, nearly as much as she seems to crave mine. Sometimes I wonder what exactly I was doing before fatherhood! Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy I became a father in my late 20’s, rather than in my teens. I was more prepared for the sacrifices required, my wife and I were more established, and we were more financially prepared, definitely more mature and structured!
Alexzandria now knows her alphabet, is counting to 20, knows all of her colors and shapes (to include trapezoids, pentagons, and the like.) she knows all of her letter sounds, and is an excellent conversationalist. Zan is now in school, and is on a higher curriculum than the rest of her class, she seems to be excelling quickly and is rather advanced. Compared to the rest of the children, she is having difficulty with her fine motor skills such as coloring in the lines and tracing, as well as cutting with scissors. (To be quite honest, I could care less about coloring inside the lines or cutting straight. She is 2, not 6. However, I understand that this is part of her curriculum, so I do my best not to show how negatively I feel about that portion of schooling. I think I just struggle with the idea of Alexzandria losing creativity as a result of being made to color within the lines at 2, what can I say? I am an artistic soul.)
My daughter is rather social, and is well known by many people. My wife and I will go to restaurants and waitresses (whom my wife and I don’t know) know Zandri by name! We have come to the conclusion that Alexzandria is famous compared to us. After all, she does seem to have her fair share of fans.
She makes me laugh constantly. I can’t walk through the house without a shirt on, without her yelling, “HEY! Cover your boobies!” She yells “green means go Dad!” at stoplights, and just today told me “go to sleep, Daddy!” To which my response was, “Zan, I am driving…I can’t go to sleep right now.” Not long ago she cheered me on loudly in a restaurant as I came out of the restroom saying, “YAY Daddy! You PEEPEED!” To which my response was “Thank you, thank you. I’d like to thank the academy, and all of the little people I had to step on to pee here!” I’m sure the people in the restaurant thought I was crazy.
My house is looking more and more like a school daily. EVERYTHING is labelled (we are teaching her how to read) There are educational posters hanging, workbooks lying around, and Zan seems to have enough story books to start her own library. She gets read to normally 3 times daily, and we love the bonding time it creates, as well as how it creates a desire to read within Alexzandria. Alexzandria is now asking us questions as though she’s the teacher, and then responds with “very good!” when we offer her the correct responses.
Alexzandria LOVES to sing, and dance. She likes nearly all forms of music. Our daughter even leads us in family prayer, both for dinner as well as nightly prayer. Of course we follow up with prayer also, ensuring that everyone partakes in prayer. Alexzandria truly enjoys going to church, and is quickly learning scriptures.
Altogether Zan is an excellent child, she has her more temperamental days, yet overall she is very even tempered. She loves to learn, and absorbs information like a sponge. She is highly active and outgoing, loves to dress up, and is always complimenting others on their attire, hair, makeup, facial hair, even their eyebrows! I do my best to offer my child stability, balance, manners, self respect, and an overall good example to follow. I can only pray that it impacts her in the most positive of ways. My child is a miracle, and a blessing, and I refuse to take her for granted.
Lately I’ve been hearing of so many people close to me losing children to sickness, tragedy, miscarriage, even divorce. To tell the truth, it grieves me to hear of such things. Yet I am reminded to be thankful for my daughter EVERYDAY whether she is on her best behavior or not, because someone today hugged their baby for the last time. I’d gladly give up nearly everything for this opportunity of fatherhood, because being a parent is the most important and rewarding job I’ve ever had. Every moment of sleep lost, every meal I’ve had to share (or give up to my greedy child), every stressful moment, it’s all worth it. This entire entry can be summed up in one sentence: “I love being a dad.”
Thanks for reading,
Linwood~
