Daddy's Girl...

I stood outside the kitchen listening. Dave was cooking dinner and Bella was beside him trying to help out. She’s almost as tall as him now, the top of her head above his shoulders. They are standing exactly the same way – feet apart, back straight, heads down with the countertop the right height for them both to work comfortably. They were side by side; he was handling the hot stuff over the stove while she worked beside him away from the heat. They were talking about nothing…and everything, nudging each others’ elbows when they’ve said something funny that they want the other to acknowledge. Dave stopped to look at her at one point and smile, mesmerized by how she’s grown and the young lady she has become. And I think Bella was getting a lot more out of this time alone with her dad than tips on grating cheese.

These are the moments that build relationships. That bring people closer and while it’s comforting to know that my girls have a dad that not only loves them but likes them as well, for just a moment it also makes me sad. I was a daddy’s girl too and it’s the little seemingly unimportant moments with my dad that I remember the most now. Like when he would turn on all my music boxes so that I would wake up and spend the day with him. Or arguing with mom because he agreed that I just had to have that yellow sweater and then taking me out shopping to get it. Playing baseball in the back yard, watching him run the bases while hating every second of it but doing it anyway because it’s what I wanted to do. Running out to pick me up a heating pad to make my cramps bearable enough to watch a movie with him and the way his laugh could always make me smile. He had one helluva laugh, the kind that could make just about anyone giggle. Bella inherited his laugh and I’m grateful that I get to hear it from her every day.

I wish I had spent more time while he was here thinking about these moments. Remembering how much he loved me and how much I loved him and I want Bella to remember the way she felt that night grating cheese with her dad – to know how lucky she is that her dad adores her. I want her to remember it now and tomorrow and the next day and the day after that…