During a dinner party at my parents’ house, my daughter decided to get a water jug and serve everyone at the table a glass of water.  Watching her make her way around the table, I couldn’t help being touched and proud of her thoughtful gesture towards everyone.  I wanted to give her a hug and a kiss to show her how I felt and so, I asked her to come see me when she was done.  At this point, something surprising happened – as soon as I told her to come see me, a big beautiful smile graced her face.

After the briefest moment, it dawned on me why she was smiling after hearing that I wanted to see her – she knew exactly what I was going to do and why.  When she came to my place at the table and got her hug and kiss, along with a whispered comment about how proud I was of her, she went back to her chair, wearing an even bigger shining smile.  Thinking about this moment, I realized that my daughter’s smile was as much a reaction to my gestures and comment as it was a result of her feeling proud that she was right about what she had expected I was going to do.

What’s of particular interest is that Click here to continue reading »”Living Up To Our Own Expectations”

Over this past long weekend, there were two events that had me thinking about the impact being a father has had on my life. The first was the news of a good friend of mine welcoming the birth of his baby daughter while the second was my family celebrating our oldest daughter’s birthday. Although they’re disparate events, they serve to highlight what I’ve experienced so far being a dad and what I expect will come around the corner in the years ahead.

Near the end of last week, my good friend Matt and his wife gave birth to a baby girl. Talking to him mere hours after the birth of his daughter and hearing him struggle for words, I couldn’t help but smile and remember how the birth of my daughters had had the same impact on me, of how seeing my newborn daughter for the very first time brought to light the reality that our family had now grown by one. You see for men, the idea of there now being this new little person sharing our life doesn’t really sink in until that moment when we meet face to face, and especially when we finally cradle this little package in our arms. Sure, thanks to our wives, we’re aware of how the baby is wrecking havoc on their bladder or that the baby’s calisthenics routine is keeping them up at night to prove the incoming change in our lives. There’s also the undeniable growing belly our wives’ start to carry and that unforgettable moment when we can actually feel our baby kicking from inside the womb. But in the end, Click here to continue reading »”Of Fathers and Daughters”