Daddy's Girl

The babiest duck gave me a run for my money today.  I am sure that in the grand scheme of baby issues, she wasn't really that awful.  But since she is my "easy" baby, I have practically forgotten what it looks like to actually have to work to soothe fussiness.  My tolerance for crabby babies is just not what it used to be.  This just goes to show how powerful mommy-nesia really is.  (Mommy-nesia:  noun 1. a partial or total loss of memory directly related to mothers and their ability to forget just how painfully difficult motherhood can be, thus ensuring that the human race will not extinct.)

Baby girl wouldn't nap... in fact for the last couple weeks or so, she is only napping once a day... despite all my best Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child techniques.  She will chill in her crib, happy as a lark for most of her nap, but... she. just. won't. fall. asleep.  UGH.  (I know, poor me.)

This all rather irrelevant to the story.  But sometimes back story is even more fun than the actual story.  Which oddly enough is NOT the case here.

Okay, here is the story...
After a long afternoon of fussy baby, I take her out with me to walk the dogs.  Normally this is a joyous and fun thing for her to do, as she loves jabbering at the dogs while they walk alongside the stroller.  Not the story today.  She cried, fussed and sadly babbled "Da da da da...", the whole walk.

Well, at least I thought she was just babbling on.  I am pretty sure now that she was actually crying for Daddy.  Because as soon as he came home from golf the crabbiness was gone.  In fact she was happy as a stinkin' lark.  Singing while she rolled all over the floor, playing with a big balloon and giggling while Daddy played the "I gotcha belly" game.

This whole business would have been rather annoying if not for the fact that it was painfully beautiful for this momma to watch.  And sometimes, when I see something very beautiful, it makes me think of the other side of things.  Is this because really appreciating the good means that we have to acknowledge the bad?

Tonight, this made me think of all the little girls in this world who were cheated out of a father who delighted in them, little girls who through no fault of their own, may never know what it means to have their father look at them and see beauty, joy, innocence and potential.  Little girls who are now grown and still want a man to see them and see all the good God created them to be.  I don't know why some girls get a dad, and some girls don't.  I don't understand it and I hate it.  I hate it a lot.  And I wish I could make it not be so.

With that in mind, I am choosing to be grateful.  OVER THE MOON grateful that Hadley can trust that when she cries "Da da da da" her daddy will come, and he will stop, and he will see her, and he will try to draw out that beautiful laugh of hers.  It is my hearts prayer that my boys will watch their daddy do this and then, will someday grow into fathers who also delight in their daughters.  What an honorable legacy that would be.