Gator Family Adventures: Daddy's Girl

Today is Daddy's birthday! He doesn't care so much, but Lily does! She's been waiting for weeks for the chance to bring him balloons, red (his favorite color), party hats, and cake to work. I know she thought it would be just the thing he would want. It's probably about the opposite of what he really wants, but because it was her idea, I know he loved it.

The title above is a little deceiving. Not because she's not Daddy's girl, she is, of course. It's just that Jeremy and I are so lucky to have a little girl who doesn't favor just one of us. She loves us both so much and tells us so and we are definitely the lucky ones here. A friend recently told me that Lily doesn't act like an only child, and by that, she meant, she doesn't act in the negative ways an only child can. And, I am of course a little biased, but I agree with her. We are lucky enough to have an "only child" who has gotten all the good qualities of only children, and, remarkably little of the bad. It is our sincere hope that Lily does not remain an only child, but if that is to be, we now know she will be an amazing one of those, one who gives her love freely to both of us.

But, today is Daddy's birthday. So today the pictures are all for Daddy, because I know there's nothing he loves more than pictures of him and his little girl.

Here's Lily wearing the shirt Jeremy wore the day she was born - the shirt he wore when he held her and kissed her for the first time. Every year, we take a picture of her wearing his shirt for Father's Day. This year, we got to take a special picture, in the sandbox Daddy made just for her!

Daddy will be the first to say he had to learn a lot about patience when Lily arrived. But there is no one he is more patient with than her, seen here helping her learn to float.

A family trip to the beach:

Daddy helping Lily on her first trip to the bowling alley. The employees had given her a small, lightweight bowling ball that she could have used by herself, but it was brown. So Daddy helped her use the pink one that was quite a bit heavier.

This spring brought many new learning experiences. Daddy had all the best ideas to help Lily learn to pedal and ride that bike!

I'm not entirely sure what Daddy thinks about horses, but I know he didn't bat an eye at waiting in line for over 30 minutes so Lily could take a three minute pony ride!