I remember when my wife told me that she was pregnant. She handed me the pregnancy test and I looked at it. I didn't know if it was an ipod or some kind of technological thing I could use to play with (I was pretty spoiled until the kids came along, but still am slightly). I asked "What's this?" and my wife said it meant that we were going to have a baby. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Then from that moment on all I wanted was a boy, a son. When we went to the doctor to find out the gender and they told us it was a girl, I was a little disappointed. It was like that present you get that you don't want, but you don't want to look ungrateful. You put on that smile that everyone knows is fake, but you do it and act excited. Over the course of the next six months, I not only became "ok" with having a daughter, it really looked forward to it. In fact, when we got pregnant with our son, I sorta wanted to have another girl because the relationship is so special to me with our daughter.
Maddie was born and I had zero experience dealing with a baby. My wife would leave the house and leave me in control of her and I was afraid for Kristi to be gone too long. What if a diaper had to be changed? Or she got hungry? Or she started crying and I didn't know what to do? But I remember surviving and being so proud of her when we would take her out in public.
In these seven years, she has grown up and is probably more like me than she is like my wife. We have developed that father/daughter relationship where she has me wrapped around her little finger and I am her hero. She is truly my little princess and I understand why parents talk about giving up everything for their children because she and her brother are that special to me. She told me once recently that she loved me so much, she would break her arm for me. She was trying to convey how much I mean to her, so that has become our little joke..."I love you so much, I would break my arm for you."
In these seven years, she has grown and developed into quite the little athlete. We shall see if she does anything with it and if she is even that good compared to other kids. I just want her to grow up and be happy. She can do whatever she likes and I will always be there for her...always. I look forward to her growing up because I like the person she is becoming, but I also look to it with some agony. I realize that life is hard and she is going to have to endure pain to become a better person. I think the difference is that I understand that, I will not shelter her from all pain, but will be there to help in those situations.
My wish is that every day she lives she feels the excitement of her birthday. I hope that I do a good job as a dad to help her lead a healthy, happy life. 7 years old....Wow!
