The Best Two Word Sentence

“I’m Pregnant.” Best two word sentence I have ever heard my wife put together. And I have heard a lot of solid two word sentences from Liz in our years together. “You’re handsome.” “You’re cute.” Then there’s the combo. “You dumbass. You’re drunk.” I have a bank full of them; I guess that will be another blog down the road…should be an entertaining one at that. But no other words coupled together can be more life altering or more emotionally evoking than “I’m Pregnant.”

After all of the happy smiling/crying on the inside (I’m not much of a crier on the outside) produced by those two words, I have this particular theory that the man involved automatically defaults to thinking about life as a father to a son. The thought of having a baby girl doesn’t even cross our minds. You can show us an ultrasound image and well still think its wrong. They are only 99.9% accurate anyway. Daughter? No way. Not on the first go around at least. Men are afraid to have daughters. We are unprepared. Hell, the only real preparation we can do in having a baby girl is to go get a gun. We are men. We know ourselves. Get a gun and check the list off to being an awesome father to your newborn daughter. Period.

Yet, on the contrary we are over-prepared to have sons. We are told while growing up by our own fathers/mentors/coaches things like, “When you have a son one day” you’ll teach him how to do yard work or throw a football or talk to girls or fight or save money or drink a beer. The list can go on and on and on.  It really is endless. Preparation conversation for a daughter? Non-existent. Not once did my pops ever prep me with a “When you have a daughter.” Negative. He was and still is a one-sided thinker just like the rest of us men. Hard Headed. If I ever have a son, I’ll probably do the same. It’s all we’ll talk about.

But out of all of this madness and unpreparedness of men everywhere in the world, the title of “Daddy’s Girl” somehow manifested itself. And here’s how. We, as new dads to daughters, don’t know what the hell we are doing in raising a little girl. So little girl gets whatever she wants. All of the time. Little girls are cute. Too cute for dad’s tough souls. All it takes is for Gracie to drop one tear and it breaks my damn heart. Bring my 3 year old nephew Kevin over and let him cry in my house, or my buddy Jr’s two sons, and I could care less. In fact we tell them to man up. It’s our nature. It’s what we do.

The funny thing is that as unprepared as we may be as a father to a newborn daughter, she will equally be prepared for you in life. She’ll lead the way, giving you direction whenever you need it. She’ll look at you differently from her mother. She’ll have games that only she wants to play with you, or times she only wants your embrace or laugh. It’s simply your job as a dad to listen and do as your told. Daddy’s girl, that’s what she is. Let mom handle all of the hard stuff. They can fight.

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My Top 5 Daddy’s Girl Moments

1. The first time I held Gracie.
2. Working overnight and catching naps with her during the day.
3. Nailing her first birthday present and seeing her smile. Thanks Elmo.
4. Walks around the neighborhood, just her and me.
5. Sharing my favorite foods with her while she sits on my lap. Sometimes she feeds me so I can be ultra lazy.

I’m still getting that gun though. I mean, look at her.

Until next time…Peace and Carpe Diem!