Daddy's Girl

My husband is an outstanding father. Throughout our pregnancy, he was the doting spouse running to get me whatever treats the "baby" desired. He went to every appointment. He cried when we saw Grace's heart beating during our first ultrasound. I thought he would crush my hand when we first heard her little heart beating. He bawled like a baby when they said in the delivery room, "You have a beautiful little girl." But I had a distinct advantage over him. Grace was in my tummy so I was intimately familiar with her firecracker ways long before "T" met her. Not that feeling a baby move inside of you is a bad thing. On the contrary, it's exceptionally reassuring. But to be honest, towards the end of the pregnancy, it did get pretty annoying. Grace was never happy with the side I had chosen to sleep on and kept me awake for nights on end. Every morning I awoke to my belly jumping up and down from Grace's incessant hiccups. T really liked that.

For the past year, Grace has been a mama's girl. This is no surprise as we spend every waking hour together. T was certainly there with the bottles and changes. He paced the floors just as much as I did. He even slept on the floor next to her crib when she was really sick. But I was the one she wanted when she needed comfort. Slowly things are changing. Grace is becoming daddy's girl.

Grace doesn't say much. Correction, Grace doesn't say much that is intelligible. She says "glecht" when she's excited, "mamamamamama" (very dramatically when I don't immediately respond), and "da! da!da!." When T leaves for work she now stands at the door banging and yelling "da!" When we walk past his office during the day she screeches "da!" When I hear the car pull into the driveway, I tell her daddy's home and she comes running. Why the shift in allegiances? Well, I'm apparently not very funny. I don't honk my nose like he does when she presses on it. Usually I pull away because I know where those hands have been. I don't make silly faces as good as he does. And I'm a bit more conservative (shall we say) with playtime. And I don't buy her ice cream on a regular basis.

We've started a new system of dad and Grace time so I can get to the Y more and have more me time. My spouse seems to think this is the best time to endear himself to Grace's good wishes. Trips for ice cream and to the beloved Jenkintown playground. I haven't really taken Grace there because I thought she was too small. T, always more adventurous than I, has had her there 2 times this week. Apparently she loves it! I confess that my heart is in my throat when he tells me what she does--basically here, there, and everywhere. I thought maybe she was a little too small and not quite ready for it. I guess in that sense we're like yin and yang parents, which, I would hope, most parents are. It doesn't make me mad or anything like that. I usually think, "Well why didn't I do that?" Down the road, I have to wonder if this means T will be the one pushing to get her on a bike, rollerblades, behind the wheel of a car. I know he won't be on board with dating so Grace and I will have to forge an alliance for that one. While slightly miffed that I'm not the definitive #1 parent in her book anymore, nothing makes me happier than to see the two of them together, screeching, laughing, playing games that only they know the rules.