Mallory Grace

2 hours of picking up dog poo…yuck!
1 hour of picking up sharp sticks…boring

watching your daughter chase the dog in the back yard, laughing until she collapses…priceless!!

As we are preparing for the party to celebrate your first birthday I thought it time I helped Mama in recording how you have brightened our lives. When you made your entrance into our lives it was a most wonderful event. Beauty, personality and grace were all apparent in your first days of life. After 9 months of uncertainty as to how you would impact our lives I discovered the most wonderful experience ever – a Peanut sleeping on my chest. While I fell for your Mom rather quickly, it still amazes me how instantly you bonded with my heart.

Expressing your personality came rather quickly. At just two months you were saying volumes, without speaking a syllable. Your gestures, facial expressions and spastic flailing about left no doubt as to who Mallory Gracie was. It was a marvel to just sit and stare at you anytime I could. While not yet knowing what was going on around you, you were the cure for any rough spots the day may have thrown my way.

I should have realized just how quickly you were evaluating your environment though. While just a couple months old you were already studying the routines around you. I think your constant happiness and being a Giggle Box misled me. No doubt you were the happiest infant I have ever known, but you were also most astute. Mama or I only had to repeat something a few times in your presence before we would see you understanding what came next.

One area you picked up quickly was when I changed into Daddy ‘Nikon’ and the bright flashes of light started fluttering about you. After just a few months I had hundreds of photos of you, and thankfully you were almost always an A+ model. Unfortunately now that you have become mobile the challenge of keeping you in the shooting area has been most difficult for Dada. We’ll stick to the candid shots for a bit.

What I should have seen coming was your mischievous side. All the happy go lucky and big laughs from the little belly fooled me. As you were observing everything, that soon came to be planning how you could be a little devil. I think it was around your fifth month when I realized I was being outdone. Can’t say for sure when it happened, but I must admit it was years before I expected it. How will I ever make it through your teenage years?

Fortunately we still have a few years left of sometimes getting our way. The Monkey hat is one of my favorite little wins. You are the world’s cutest kid when you wear this, though demonstrating your desire to be in control usually means I put it on you and it is off within 52 seconds. Now and then I could distract you and have the joy of seeing you in it for a few moments, before it would go flying. Trust me, I’ve seen people do far worse to their kids – you don’t really have it that bad…

It didn’t take long for you to get me to realize everything in life is a stage. I don’t mean a theatrical one, rather a passing phase. When I look at how quickly you grew in just the first several months it makes me sad. Though every phase has been better than the previous, which is a miracle I still cannot comprehend but am very thankful for. We have been blessed with how well you have grown, avoided illness and gone through each stage with a happy demeanor.

Christmas was truly wonderful. While being your first you showed a complete understanding of what to do. You toddled from present to present opening the packages as if you were a pro. Granted the paper and box were more to your fancy than the present, but it was still wonderful. It only took a quick demo from Mama or Dada as to how to use a new toy and you were off and running – literally. It became apparent you loved to ride around as you wanted to spend hours on anything we could push you around with. Naturally back to exerting your will, as soon as we would stop pushing, the sign gesture for ‘more’ would be done with great emotion – and off we would go again.

Both of these concepts followed us to your birthday. Pappy predictably brought a toy you could ride around on. Unfortunately it needed assembly. You impatience with the grown ups dallying around was evident when you walked over to the instruction book and started reading it! Of course 9 seconds after our assembling it, you climbed on and gestured for ‘MORE’. Taking turns, the four of us bowed to your wishes – who would have thought.

I don’t know the words to describe the joy in my heart being your Dad brings me. While I am sad as each phase ends, I look forward to every one yet to come.

Love Dada ~

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

~ e.e. cummings