Good for you and happy birthday to your daughter. I have a granddaughter that just turned 4. Hold on to every minuet because time really does move fast. The next thing you know she will be walking a stage wearing a cap and gown.
5 going on 15? Yep, probably. Mine turns 14 this September and I don't like it. I want her to be mine forever. But, of course, watching her bloom into the beautiful person she already has become is very rewarding. Sometimes though, I wish I had a pause button.
And fine boys (young men) they are but one of them has a pretty frigged up fandom going on. You converted him yet George?
A man doesn't truly know what fear is until he has children. My son, my only child, was born a few days after I turned 40. He was a month early and spent time in the incubator because his temperature wasn't right and he was way underweight.
I was there when he popped out of the womb and I was the first to touch him. After they had him wrapped up I went out in the hallway and cried like a baby. My mother was shaken because she thought he didn't make it. She had never seen me cry since I was a child.
Up until then I had lived like a reckless, wild man. But then everything changed. It all became about him. Keeping him safe and setting a good example. I watched over him like a hawk. Wouldn't go to sleep at night until he had fallen asleep first. The first two years neither my wife or I ever slept through the night, not once.
I moved us from San Jose, CA to Maryland the day after he turned three because I felt it wasn't a safe place for him to grow up(ironically a couple of years ago, he and his wife moved to California).
I homeschooled him and we were best friends. Taught him how to play guitar and turned him on to all the music that was out there. Then around age 15 I became the enemy. Someone who stood in his way and didn't understand him. His door was always closed and when I went in to see him he would give me that look. It's normal for teenagers to do that but it broke my heart.
Today he's 24 and has a wife, two dogs and a cat. He has two Bachelor's degrees and is going for a Master's degree because he wants to teach in college. He calls me once a week. It all went by in the blink of an eye and I miss those days when he was a little boy greatly but am grateful for the experience of having raised him.
Thanks for the pics everyone. If you have little children, enjoy every minute of it because it goes by faster than you can imagine.
Hey Jugg...show her this pic and wish her a happy birthday from the folks at ROD.
My daughter just went through her first big break up about two months back , first I should say , both my wife and I like the boy and have known him for quite some time , and I guess it was just one of those things that didn't work out , so even though I tried to pretend to be the sympathetic father , there was a big part of me that was grinning from ear to ear , :snicker:
Have you dropped her off at Kindergarten yet? If not, get ready for the most heartbreaking thing you can do. My daughter and I were (and still are) SUPER close. I spent nearly every waking moment with that girl from the time she was born until her first day of Kindergarten. Tellin' ya, that first day was absolute torture. Not as much that I had to let her go, but the fact that she didn't want to leave me and started crying. I had to let the teacher bring her in as I walked away, and all I heard was, "Noooo! I want my daddy!"
