Monday, May 23, 2011

Hold Me Like a Baby

Your name is Dad. That's what my son told me recently. "What else would my name be?" Daddy. But when you come to school, your name is Dad. If you wanted to know when you become Dad-hold-the-D-Y, well, it looks like my sampling data suggests somewhere in the first grade.


I thought of that conversation while sitting in the auditorium at my daughter's preschool graduation. She'll join her brother in school next year, and soon, I'll be Dad for two of them. Those little daddy things will go away, a sign of growing up.

One of those things with my daughter Ainslee is "hold me like a baby". It's one of those silly little things that developed as a bond between a father and daughter. Her little sister had arrived, she was dealing with those emotions of no longer being the baby, and she told me to hold her like a baby after she was out of the bath, wrapped in her towel. And so it began, and it has continued for three years. The bath ends, she stands on the rug in her towel, and cries out, hold me like a baby. I scoop her up in both arms, sometimes I teasingly ask her, "like this?" and pick her up and throw her over my shoulders. No, like a baby. And I cradle her nestled across my arms to the bedroom and place her on the bed.

Why do I do it? I can try to convince you it is for her, the middle child, to try to give her a special moment that always let's her know she will always be my baby. Believe me, I'm just learning and failing as I go at this parenting thing, but it seems with multiple kids that you need to find those special moments that make them feel unique. But that would be too simplistic. It feels special for me as well.

Someday soon, it will end--either because I get too old to pick her up, she gets too big, or because social mores prevent me from picking my daughter up in her towel at some point. And someday soon, I'll just be Dad.

1 comment:

  1. Not a chance...if I know my nieces like I think I do...you'll always be their Daddy. And...a great Daddy at that ;-)

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