I love being my daughter's daddy

Today is my daughter's 4th birthday. It's amazing how quickly she's growing up and how much of an individual she is. I must admit, I wasn't sure how I'd handle this whole dad of a girl thing. I mean when we went for the original sonogram, I was quite surprised. Not disappointed or upset, just surprised. In my family we didn't have girls, we imported them. I'm from a line of like five generations of all boys. A girl wasn't even a possibility I expected. And of course I fell in love with her the first time I laid eyes on her.

She's gone from a beautiful crying pooping lump to a beautiful little lady. She puts on her glasses and picks out her clothes in the morning (sometimes they even match!), she goes to nursery school, she tells me about her day when she gets home, and she makes decisions like what she wants for dinner and what to watch on TV.

The most amazing part though is that she is her own person. Despite my wife's attempts at non gender stereotyping, she's a little diva, loves make up, dressing up, and princesses. She's also a daredevil, funny as hell, and cute as a button.

But I love being a dad because I get to enjoy it all. I get to take watch her get dressed up and take her to the ball in the living room, I get to tuck her into bed (often again and again), I get to take her to the park to jump off the swings, take her to run errands, paint her toenails, and change her earrings. I get to curl up with her to watch My Little Pony and get a kiss and hug before sending her off to daycare. I even get to be the favorite once in a great while.

There's still so much to look forward to and I'm excited to get to see it all but right now I wish I could keep her this big forever. And I'm so luckily to love my son and have entirely different experiences with him as well.

Life is pretty good.