Reflections On Fatherhood

Technically, this is my 2nd official Father’s Day. However, last year, I was a rookie dad still soaking in the concept that I was the father of a 2 month old baby girl. My Father's Day then was little more than a continuation of the swirl of events and emotions that I have been riding since the day Victoria entered my life and made me officially a dad. It was an acknowledgment into that wonderful fraternity of father figures, more than a celebration of any paternal accomplishments I've had up to that point. Now that I’ve had well over a year experience at this dad thing, I feel I can better appreciate exactly what it means to be a dad. I look at my daughter now, and reflect on how she was this time last year. In the past year, Victoria has learned:

• to sit up, crawl, pull herself up, stand, and now finally walk
• to climb stairs
• to clap
• to blow kisses
• to high-five
• to feed herself (or at least grasp a spoon and aim for the general direction of her mouth)
• to “talk”
• to open up a cell phone, put it up to her ear, and “talk”
• to identify eyes, ears, mouth, and nose
• to identify me and mommy
• that she can move one smaller object to help her climb onto one much larger
• that keys go in a door
• and others too numerous to list

To us grown people, they’re trivial things we do without thinking. To her, they’re major steps in her growth and development. To me, they’re windows to the person my daughter will be. (Heaven help my cell phone bill when she becomes a pre-teen!) I see how much she’s grown, and it boggles my mind that I have had a significant role in getting her to this point. It hasn’t been easy – the messy diapers, the food thrown on the floor, the tantrums when she doesn’t get her way, the sleepless nights – all of it, completely worthwhile for no other reason than those random moments when I am blessed with a smile, a laugh, a kiss, a hug.

To all my fellow fathers, have a wonderful day. Watch your children with reflective eyes today, see how much they have truly grown since they’ve entered your lives. That, my friends, is our real gift today.

This post has been cross-posted here