I can still remember the moment that they said, "It's a girl!" There is a video of my reaction and it is so clear that while I played a good game of 'what ever is perfect', I was mighty darn excited to have a daughter. Skip ahead 3.5 years and repeat the process. Same pre-event poker face, but upon announcement, I was beyond thrilled because that meant SISTERS!
In the 11 years since then, I have learned that sisters fight. Sisters are not always best friends. Sisters can be very different. Upon refection, I wanted my oldest to have a relationship like I had with my sister. Instead, she received an entirely different gift who will inevitably teach her equally important lessons. However, 15 months apart and 3.5 years apart make for some challenging differences. They struggle to find common ground at this age and somedays (lets just be honest...most days) it is more like a scene out of a Wrestle Mania cage match than a precious Little House on the Prairie moment.
My desire to have daughters, and for my girls to have a sister, was the obvious dream of duplicating my childhood. What I did not expect or even know how to appreciate, was just how perfect of a girl dad Lucas was going to be. He was made for this gig. Now granted, he is just a super fun dad, so a son would have loved him, but he is seriously the man when it comes to these girls.
If you follow him on social media, you know that his two primary posts include concerts and sports. He loves these activities because his girls love them. Our oldest loves live music. In the last year, the two of them have seen 30+ bands together. Sometimes they take a friend (for instance tonight they are seeing Blink 182 with AJ's best friend and her dad - how cool is this?!?!?), but many nights it is just the two of them. They go to small venues and big arenas. He stalks ticket outlets. They catch drumsticks and guitar picks. They stand in line for pictures and they get cool t-shirts - that they always buy in a large so they can share it. THE MAN.
While sports come a little more natural to his love language, he gets the younger daughter's passion for physical activity. They ride bikes together. They play in the pool together. They go play putt-putt or bowl on dates. They smack talk their basketball brackets. And even though she is currently beating him, the competitive banter will continue until next Monday night. She may get her spunk and fierceness from momma, but dad loves and encourages that athletic fire. They get each other.
Every night, he walks down the hall and does his bedtime rituals with them. This is one of my favorite things because he loves them each in their own way. I'll spare you all of the squishy cuteness, but there is one part that gets me every night. There is a metal giraffe named Gertrude that lives in the corner of AJ's room. After the kisses are given to the humans, he walks over and taps Gertrude's neck (which is on a spring) and says goodnight to Gertrude, too. He loves all the many ways that our girls are unique, even the metal spirit animals.
When we were standing in the delivery room more than 15 years ago, I wanted a girl so that I could have a daughter. Today, I am so thankful that I have daughters because I fall in love with their daddy each time I see him express love to them. I know that being a dad to a teenage girl can prove exhausting, but to all the dads out there that are in the trenches, you got this! I can tell you from personal experience, the love that this daddy's girl was given in those years helped shape the woman I am today. Let them sit in your lap, be engaged in their life, know their passions and their spirit animals. They will never forget it.
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