Brad on Being "Daddy"

Hello Everyone!
It’s about time I took a moment to share some of my experiences being a relatively new daddy. I figured the best way to do this was to take a excerpt from my journal and share it with you all. Hopefully I didn’t leave anything to embarrassing for you all to read…
“Now let’s talk about my beautiful little baby girl…
Mia is a gem. What a lovable, sweet, and downright gorgeous bundle of fun she is! She is now well into her 9mo mark and growing without any regrets. Recently, she started babbling with her own little baby words. Then, one fine day she was jabbing away when all of the sudden… “Da Da” came out of the babble. We were so excited to hear this (before she was just saying “Ba Ba” at everything). So now that the word was on tap, we vehemently started our mission to inculcate the meaning of this word into our smart little daughter’s brain.
Erica and I probably looked insane in public. The second Mia would randomly yell “Da Da” we would start our “Da Da” dancing ritual, pointing to me and repeating it over and over. “Look Mia! It’s Da Da! DA DA!” In fact, I think we startled her more than once, not expecting such a dramatic wave of excitement and insanity coming from her relatively boring parents. The world stops for the “Da Da” dance, whether in the parking lot, checkout line, or anywhere. I can just imagine what young, childless couples would think seeing (or hearing) us… “Jeez, that’s so sad. What’s wrong with those people? Is that foam in their mouths?” That’s when you hope they just think you both have Tourette’s and stop staring. I’m sure that child-laden parents have a better understanding of our public display of insanity…
 “Look Paul, they must be NEW parents. Ha, remember when we looked like morons in public?”
“Yup.”
Well, the effort seems to have paid off because she now starts saying “Da Da” when I come home or she wants my attention. Or if she needs a hug, kiss, to be held, fill in the blank. And let me tell ya, nothing pulls on the heart strings like your perfect little girl looking up at you with big, blue eyes boring right into your soul, chubby little arms outstretched to hold you, meaningfully saying “Da Da!!!” Even the poopy diaper that she is trying to escape being her motivating factor to call in the Daddy-troops can’t take away from the joy I feel. Smart girl. But seriously, I loooove it all, even if its just a clever little ploy she discovered. So what about Ma Ma? Well, I occasionally have to rub it in that Mia is a daddy’s girl (not solely by virtue of her saying Da Da first, since most kids do, but because she just LOVES daddy time). Honestly, it’s probably because I get less time with her and she is ready for a change at the end of the day, but hey… I’ll take it either way!
Erica and I also get a cheap thrill waking Mia up from her naps together. That sounds mean. Let me explain. If she has been napping too long, we both go in and softly say “Mia, it’s time to waked up…” (said in an embarrassingly child-like voice. Good job, teaching her improper English!). Then she sleepily rolls over, and looks up at us, eyes half open and… Boom! A huge gleeful smile sets in as she looks back and forth at both of our faces, little coos and sighs and giggles erupt and the heavens open, light shining in a golden beam over her bed as angels surround her, hoping just to see her laugh. Ok, maybe not the last part, but at times it feels like it could happen… She seriously is the cutest baby ever though (and I’m not using hyperbole here either!). She makes the Gerber baby look like a needy, feral little troll.
Here’s another fun thing since she started teething. She loves to drink out of adult glasses (well, less drinking and more sloshing water in and out of her mouth like a sucker fish. Kinda like a reverse filtration system). If we give her a sip of water out of our cups, you hear a little “clank, clank” as her sharp little baby teeth bump up against the class. It is really cute. So cute, that I occasionally continue to drink out of the cup now laden with baby food floaters, without realizing it. Well, I don’t notice it until I feel bread and banana chunks, both of which I did not knowingly eat, sloshing around in my mouth. It’s like an all-in-one meal!
Mia has been so much fun to be around. This age sure has a lot of exciting and engaging new changes that come with it. Her personality comes out more each hour. Every day I just can’t wait to get home to hold her, play with her, tickle her, and put her on my shoulders. Nothing in my life has ever approximated the pure elation and raw joy that I have felt in being Mia’s dad. Combine that with a loving, patient, and sweet wife/mother, and you have a knock-out little family that any father would love to come home to. I am so grateful and so incredibly enamored with my girls!”