The Joys of Fatherhood

I never wanted to be a Father. My wife knew this before we ever got married. I guess she new it would just take time, so ten years later, my daughter was born. Coincidentally enough, almost two years after that, another daughter was born. Turns out, kids are pretty cool, if they are your own kids. I still don't particularly care for other people's kids, but I do love my girls.

That not to say that Fatherhood doesn't have it's downside. Last night for example, my youngest, at just one month old, decided she wanted to cry until about 1 AM this morning before she settled down to sleep. My wife takes care of the youngest at night, so theoretically, I can sleep before I have to go to work in the morning. However, last night, I was unable to sleep through the crying. So when she finally drops off, I'm thinking "sweet, I can still squeeze in five hours of sleep before I have to get up!" Twenty minutes later, enter daughter number one, who is about twenty-two months old, and apparently had some sort of nightmare. After several tries, I finally get her settled back in to sleep, and stumble off to bed myself, noticing that the evil alarm clock puts the time at almost 3 AM. Wonderful, three whole hours of sleep if I collapse on the spot.

So, I get up at around six, stumble through the shower/shave/pull on the uniform routine, and head into the kitchen for some coffee. My wife has already gotten the oldest up and dressed for daycare so that I can drop her off on my way to work. As I exit the bedroom, my daughter catches sight of me. Her face lights up, he hands go into the air, and she says "YAY! DaDa!!"

Two words, and all the headaches from last night evaporate like fog on a spring morning. Funny how something I never wanted can become such a vital part of my life, and bring such happiness as to almost eradicate any bad memories.

Now, I just have to get the youngest to say "DaDa!", but I guess I've got a few months to work on that :)


Casey