DUCKS!

At this age, ANY time with daddy is good time.  And I suppose that will be mostly the case when she gets older.  So that makes it easy to plan things with her.  It takes the pressure off to know that I don't have to come up with a huge elaborate event every time, just some times.  This was one of those times, simple, fun, and memorable.

Before I begin, here is a website devoted to Dads of Daughters, it gives a list of 50 rules every Dad should take seriously.   http://lifetoheryears.com/50rules
Also in this site, are MANY MANY other ideas and awesome tips for Dads of Girls.

The day started off with her wanting to brush my hair, it felt nice, and she enjoyed it....I think.

When I asked her what she wanted to do today, she said she wanted to ride her scooter in the park and see the Tootles.  (Or Turtles).  So easy enough, I loaded her and her scooter up in the van and grabbed a handful of bread and off we went.
On the way a song called Hey The Delilah was playing and I started singing it to her, saying "Hey There Bella'  I was more than overwhelmed by the look on her face.  She LOVED it, she was lighting up and grinning, just listening.  So I took out my phone and turned it to pandora, and luckily many songs played that I knew the words to that I could sing to her, like You & Me by Lifehouse.  She couldn't get enough, despite my actual singing. lol.
We went to Dollar Tree and just like James, she got Mike & Ike's. 
We went to Mill Creek and took out her scooter.  She immediately picked some flowers that she wanted to give to mommy.  Come to think of it, mommy never did receive that gift....sorry mommy :-).

 Then we went on to riding the scooter, and looking for turtles.  The turtles weren't going for the bread, so I told her we would go to GSU and find some ducks.

 Ok, I HAVE to show you this picture, ever the aspiring model, I told Bella to pose next to her scooter, and this pic was snapped catching her in mid-wheredoIputmyarm-pose.  She made this hilarious slow motion gesture with her shoulder and arm while she tried to find a place to put her right hand........loved it.

So we went to GSU, outside of the library is a pond where there are always ducks.

This duck was pitiful funny, it must have something wrong with the oils in its feathers, it has a small afro.  I have noticed this duck before, but I never could get close enough.

 

This pic was weird, and because of this, I had to post it too.  She passed the sign for the Blood Drive and said, 'Daddy, you have to get a picture of me standing next to this'

So I did.

 After that she wanted to play follow the leader on the mini walls.  She said, 'every time we get to the end of the wall, we have to tell a joke, I'll go first.....daddy loves you.....hehe just kidding'.  That was her joke, 'daddy loves you', I love her brain.  The rest of the jokes she said were similar.

Then we went to Dairy Queen and had some ice cream.  She loved that too, of course.  And so did I really, I haven't had a chocolate sundae in a long time.

 

 

 

A Pretty Good Day.

Survivor Bro!

I have recently started following a website called Art of Manliness. This is an awesome website dedicated to the lost art of being a man.  It covers everything from outdoors and play, to ethics, family and relationships.   This website holds the opinion (and so do I) that men have been wussified over the last several decades.  There are a few still out there, but what used to be the norm, is now a niche.  That is sad, because of political correctness we have become afraid to say I am a man and proud of it.  So I started thinking that I would start to really teach my son some man things.  The first thing today is making a small game trap.

We didn't want to actually kill anything today so we used a small piece of a tree trunk just so we can see if anything tripped it.  Since James isn't old enough to use a pocket knife, I do most of the work, but I tried to explain what I was doing to him as I went.  I told him that if was responsible enough he would get a pocket knife on his 10th birthday.  
We began scouting the area for limbs that could work.

Once we found it, I started chopping it up, James was taking pictures.  Halfway through he got cold, because it was very windy that day, so we went back to the house and got him some pants, and a jacket.

We put peanut butter on the stick that trips the trap.  These are called deadfall traps, they are the easiest to make, and don't require any cordage.  So we left the trap alone and started off to the next thing. 

After that we went to the house and watched about 10 episodes of Batman the Animated series, we both LOVE that cartoon.
We also went to the Dollar Tree and got some Mike and Ike's, getting a treat from the Dollar Tree seems to be expect by both children now.
One of the things I wanted to do was introduce James to doing manual labor more intentionally, like cutting the grass.  I told him, that while this wasn't ALWAYS the case, but one of the ways men serve their families is cutting the grass.  Like taking out trash, killing bugs and other dirty things, ;-).  We moved into a new house a few weeks ago and the grass was very rough looking, even though it was winter, it needed to be done.  But I had to borrow a lawn mower from a friend, so we went to his house to get it. 

On the way, James found that if you smoosh all the Mike and Ike's together into a ball, it tastes awesome.  Had to get a picture.
Another thing James made me laugh with was that he said, 'ok Dad, from now on, every time we say something, you have to end it with, haHA!'  So we spent the rest of the day end our sentences with that......haHA!

James actually liked cutting the grass, I would get him lined up, and he would push it in a straight line.  After a while though, we realized this WINDY day was the worst time to cut the grass, the wind was blowing it perfectly back in our faces.

Later that night, we made a fire for the family in the fireplace, and started our normal devotional, then movie night.  But before we did that, we went out to the trap to see if anything tripped it.  And something did!  These traps fall on there own sometimes, so the only real evidence we had was that the peanut butter was mostly gone.  Must have scared the crap out of whatever was eating it.

                                                               
                                                                  A Pretty Good Day

Daddy Daughter Dance!

This was also an easy Daddy Date, because I didn't really have to plan anything.  I just had to buy the tickets two weeks in advance. 

This is important for a number of reasons, one is that she LOVES it, that's pretty simple.  The other is that she is going to create expectations of what she looks for in a man, based on her relationship with me.  Statistics (Christian AND Secular) are proving more and more that women who seek out bad relationships with men that are abusive or neglectful, often have a common past with how their father related to them.  The quality of a girl's relationship with her father has a huge impact on the formation of her personality, her level of self-esteem, confidence and happiness, and therefore on the choices she makes in life, not to mention how she will view God.  God has given me a HUGE responsibility with Bella, in that I am her first male relationship.  I am the male relationship that is no doubt going to dictate her relationships in the future.  I have to show her how she should be treated, I have to have her heart, so that she can trust me and her mother to guide her.  If I give her the relationship that God has designed, then her self-esteem will not rest on what other boys think of her, she will have a firm foundation of love and leadership.  So while the concept of taking her out on the date is new to me, it is going to be a regular thing, not just 'days out' but actual dates, where we connect and she trusts me.  I am by no means saying I will be the model dad, I am going to fail, I am going to get it wrong and I am going to stumble.  but my intention is clear in my heart, and I know what God has charged me with, and that is the growth and nurturing of this little lamb of God that some day I am going to have to walk down the aisle and trust the man at the end of the short walk.

  

It was immediately apparent what was going through her brain ALL day Friday.  All she could talk about was 'going on a date with daddy to a dance'.  About every 10 minutes she said 'Daddy, when we wake up tomorrow, we are going on a date, right?'  And I had to explain every time, 'it won't be when we wake up baby, it'll be at night'.  But that went in one ear and out the other.  She was SO excited.  She would talk about what dress she was going to wear, etc.  And of course in the midst of this I realized, I can't find any of my nice clothes, I had to dig for some stuff and still had to buy a tie.  I also shaved and trimmed my beard the night before, needed to look sharp!

Kathryn spent a while with her making her hair pretty and actually putting on makeup.

First thing we did was go to Applebee's.  I had a gift card I won at work, so that was as cheap as it gets.  We got in the door and the waitress ooh'd and ahh'd over Bella, and Bella shouted out for everyone to hear 'Daddy is taking me to a dance class!'.  We sat down and colored together and talked, we only ordered an appetizer because we were in a hurry.

When we go to the Belle house she started giggling, she was so pumped up.  We got to the front table at the door and we Bella got her Corsage, but her wrist was too small, and she didn't like having to wear it so high, so she just held it. We walked in and got our picture taken right away.  There was a professional Photographer there that had a full portrait setup.  Not sure when we will get those pictures but they took our address down, hopefully it will show up soon.  

We had about 30 min to kill after the pictures and the Belle house has a cool pond out back.  Most of the couples haven't arrived yet.  So we walked around, she didn't want to stay still too long.  It was around this time I realized that my phone was about to die, and the last thing I needed was to not be able to take pictures.  So we walked back to the car and plugged it in and let it sit.  I was getting so excited, because the gravity of the moment was hitting me, I was taking my daughter out on her first date.  

Once the doors opened and lots of couples had showed up (it had to be over 200 couples) we went over to the food table cause she wanted something to eat.  You can tell she was getting a little shy and nervous, she was, however, talkative enough to comment on other girls dresses, she would point out which ones she liked.  We ate, and then the DJ started playing upbeat music.  Bella actually grabbed my hand and said 'dance with me daddy', I was getting tears.  We danced, and man did we ever dance, she was jumping, and moving all over the place, and laughing, and smiling so huge.  Some of the Dads were just sending their daughters onto the dance floor while they talked with other dads, but luckily I wasn't the only dad with the realization that I was here for HER.  The dance floor quickly filled up.  Then she wore herself out and wanted more chicken fingers.  We did this back and forth for about 5 more times, then she said she wanted to go home.  It was only 30 min into the dance, I couldn't give up that easy, so I drug her out some more.  It was funny, she would be ALL about leaving, but as soon as I got her moving to the music, she would pick it right back up and start wiggling all over the place.  At one point there was a train of little girls walking all over the dance floor, she looked at me and I said 'go ahead' and she ran over to them and marched around. 

After a while I could tell that she was actually tired and we started dancing slow songs while I was holding her and her head on my shoulder.  We actually danced a lot with her standing on my feet, that was fun.  Once we started out we realized that she lost her Corsage, so we got another one, and she also got a T-Shirt that said 2012 Father Daughter Dance.  It had pretty flowers and such on it.  Then we got in the car and went home.  

Bella, I had the most awesome time with you that night, and I know it is a long shot, but I hope you remember it, because it was one of my favorite events in life.  Not just the dance, but everything leading up to it, seeing you get excited, telling people about it, asking about it, and getting dressed.  I hope we have many many more like it.  I love you.