Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Daddy's Girl


I've always been a bit of a Daddy's Girl at heart. There is something special about the relationship a girl has with her father. I'm lucky to have a great Dad and that we have such a good relationship. We had a nice long talk tonight and he helped to lift my spirits during a really down-in-the-dumps week. (Thanks Dad)

I am also married to a great guy so I have no doubt AJ will be just as crazy about her dad when she grows up as she is now. There is a little piece of me that is jealous - moms just can't compete with the daddy-daughter thing. But most of me is just glad for them.


I saw this letter on Tangled and True and I had to share. It made me cry! It is from a Real Simple Magazine family feature called "Read this when..." : Letters written to children by their parents to be read at various milestones. (I'm sooo making Craig do this for AJ.) Grab a tissue...


To Sloane, age one, to be read on your wedding day
by Rob Corddry
{Rob Corddry is an actor is Los Angeles.}


Sloane!
Hey bug! Who's a bug? Who's a bug? Are you a little bug?
I hope that still makes you laugh. In 2007 I kill with that. Sometimes you laugh so hard, I think you're going to turn inside out. But if you are reading this letter, you haven't. You are still right side in, and you are getting married. I wonder what year it is. When do people get married in the future? Your mother and I got married late compared with our parents. I do hope you're not 75. I understand that you may want to have fun and travel, but 75 is way too old to get married for the first time.
Are you happy? Are you the person you want to be? I hope so. If not, don't worry; you still have plenty of time. I hope this person you're marrying helps you out with that.
Here's a good question: Do you still make "the goofy face"? Let me explain. The other morning, I got you out of your crib (are you sleeping past 6:30 A.M. these days?) and brought you into bed with us like I always do. I laid you next to your mother, and you turned and looked at me with the goofy face. It's a very calm yet intentionally piercing gaze, contemplative in the way you cock your head and purse your lips at me. You don't stare at your mom in this fashion. It's almost as if you know I'm going to say something stupid and you are giving me the requisite look, pre-embarrassment.
"She's making that goofy face again," I said to your mom.
"That's not a goofy face," your mom said. "That's a mature face."
And at that moment everything changed. I saw you as you may look today, reading this letter. I saw a flash of the young woman you may become. And in that flash I fell more deeply in love with you, if that's even possible. I reveled for a second in the relationship that we have barely begun to forge. I can't wait.
I hope you enjoy this day. I hope your mother and I weren't impossible and didn't invite too many of our friends or clients. Then again, I am, most likely, paying for this damn thing.
Have a wonder-filled day and a wonder-filled marriage and a wonder-filled life. I'm trying to raise you with love and just the perfect amount of detachment, for as a wise man once said, "You don't belong to me. You belong to God." Tell your partner that when he gets a little too clingy.
Bless you, Sloaney Baloney. My little girl. My little bug.

6 comments:

Rochelleht said...

That was so sweet! And I love the name Sloane. Reminds me of Ferris Buehler's Day Off. ;-)

aurora said...

Sweet, sweet, sweet. I want to do that.

Cherity said...

Thanks for making me cry AFTER I put on my make-up :) Love that idea. So sweet!

candace said...

That is so cute! It makes me think of my dad and it made me cry. That is such a good idea!

Bethany E. said...

How sweet! I hear ya on the daddy-daughter relationship...it's so true! I love your comment on my blog about the elephant ear! LOL!!!

Katrina said...

That's a great letter! A touch of humor with a touch of sentimentality. Perfect.