I've Got a Little Daddy's Girl...and I thank my lucky stars

One of the drawbacks to running on auto-pilot is sometimes I forget to let the nice emotions out too.  So, since this is what I created this blog for, today’s post lets you in on the sappy side.

I can almost see my husband rolling his eyes now as he reads this – being gushed about or thanked on any sort of social network is certainly not high on his list

There has been one big bright shining spark throughout the last year and that has been my husband.  He has loved our little girl with his whole being, from the moment he met her. If you watch them together or listen to him talk about her, you can almost see the love resonating through him. I don’t know how to explain it because I don’t know how it is for the rest of you but loving my little girl did not came naturally. I loved her with my mind first (of course I loved her, she was my daughter) but loving her with my heart came later. I can tell just by watching Andrew that it is not the same for him. He definitely loves her with his heart and I’m pretty sure he does not need logic to know he wants to laugh and play with her as he does. 

She lights up when he walks in the room. “Daddy?” is often the first thing she asks about in the morning, pitter-pattering into the bedroom to make sure he’s up too. Their love is palpable and it has warmed my heart even on my darkest days to see the two of them together. She is a Daddy’s girl to the highest degree and it has been my saving grace.

In those first few days when she was so scared of the big wide world, the only place she would sleep was in the crook of Daddy’s arm. During the awful times when I couldn’t bear to have her near me when she wasn’t feeding, he would take her from me, and give her endless amounts of cuddles and attention so her world knew nothing but love. 

Surprisingly, we settled into quite “traditional” roles for a while with me doing a lot of the ‘mothering’ but while I was feeding our little lady and teaching her how to soothe herself to sleep, he did everything else from balancing our budget to making meals in bulk so all I had to do was operate a microwave. I’m sure some of these things seemed miniscule to him (like noticing I was nearing the end of a book in a certain aforementioned series, and coming home with the next one) but they meant the world to me, especially when I was struggling so much to adapt myself. 

Now she gets to spend two days a week with him. You’d never guess how daunted he was the first time he had her on his own as he’s adapted to this new role so naturally. To me he’s like ‘Super-Dad’ on those days; doing mountains of laundry, grocery shopping, meals for the week, and a trip to soft play is quite a typical day for him. By the time I get to the days I have her on my own, I’m glad to have a little quiet time and she’s happy to oblige. 

On the days Little Miss is in nursery, he also drew the short straw and has drop-off. Most of the time this is pleasant, but in the beginning it was hard to leave a little girl who couldn’t even sit-up unaided with strangers all day. Lately, as she goes through a second clingy phase, he consoles her when I leave for work, then has to peel her off him when he drops her off.  Heart breaking for all involved.

Andrew is not only an amazing dad but by picking up the slack on everything I don’t manage, he’s given me the ability to concentrate on being the best mom I can be. 

Her Daddy held her for her first round of shots. He’s changed her on the floor of the embassy when a stomach bug chose a very unfortunate time to rear its ugly head. He does plenty of night duty. She has a great big belly laugh that she only belts out when playing with him. Parenting is no doubt a team effort and he’s more than fulfilled his end of the bargain. 

Sure, we’ve had our share of screaming matches disagreements but I know that’s all part of a baby’s first year. (Mammy Woo’s blog post Romeo oh Romeo, Pass me thy Spade? describes it better than I could ever hope to) He has been my rock and when you see our happy, bubbly, smiling little girl, it’s because she’s got such an amazing Dad.

Thanks for everything Andrew. Happy Father’s Day. xx