Ed. note: Before you
say anything, I realize I'm publishing this post on Thursday night and it's no
longer Ellie's birthday. However, according to the ironclad rules of
#DaddyWrite, I am only allowed to count days in which I am home with Ellie
towards the running total. That being said, I feel that writing something
chronicling my feelings on Ellie turning two supersedes anything that happened
today.
I find myself experiencing an odd set of emotions right now.
Truly, I do. As I sit down to write a few thoughts in celebration of Ellie's
birthday, I first looked back to last year's post, entitled One. There
were various reasons for me to do so. For one, I didn't want to just carbon
copy last year's post and change ones to twos. More important than that though
is that I wanted to look back at my thoughts on Ellie at one and compare them to
my thoughts on her today at two.
For posterity, I should probably remind myself how we spent
Ellie's birthday. For starters, Bethany took the day off from work so that we
could celebrate as a family. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. We started
our day off bright and early with a typical Ellie wake-up call over the 5:00
hour.
Now, while I'm normally pretty ticked about said wake-up
call, that was not the case on this day as it meant we were able to grace Ellie
with her birthday present just that much sooner. Just to alleviate any
suspense, the present was a 36-inch trampoline. It may sound like an odd gift
for a two-year-old but makes perfect sense when considering Ellie's affinity
for jumping.
After an extended play session, we left the house early to
head to the Kansas City Zoo, arriving in the parking lot around 8:00. After
nearly three hours of pushing Ellie's stroller, we were spent and it was time
to head for home. There, I transitioned a sleeping Ellie from her car seat to
her bed where she continued napping while Bethany prepped Ellie's birthday
cake.
Once Ellie awoke, the afternoon was filled with plenty of
playtime even though Bethany and I each stepped out for brief errands. For
dinner, we served up grilled brats and sweet potato fries before presenting
Ellie with her ocean-themed birthday cake which came complete with two candles
for her to blow out. In case you're wondering, one was successful while the
other stayed alit.
Back to my initial thought. As I looked back at my post in
honor of Ellie's birthday, I actually found myself tearing up a little. You
see, while I swore up and down I'd never forget things about my daughter's life,
the truth is that I already have. For example, look no further than this video
from just one year ago containing a moment that had completely slipped from my
mind.
While that's just one thing, I'm sure there are many, many
others. Hopefully, though, those moments aren't lost to me forever. If I'm
lucky, maybe I will have chronicled the important stuff in a #DaddyWrite post
or at least taken a photo. That being said, I want to make sure I don't forget
about the highlights of Ellie's second year. In no particular order...
- Seeing Ellie finally get brave enough to experience the ocean in the final moments of our beach vacation.
- Laying on the floor beside her bed each night and holding her hand as we pray together.
- Being able to run with her and chase after her now that she's older. Just to note, she's deceptively fast.
- On that note, seeing the pure, unadulterated joy riding on a moving sidewalk in the Atlanta airport brought Ellie during our Florida trip.
- I know it's silly, but Ellie's overwhelming love for Sheepie brings me an inordinate amount of joy.
- Anytime I get a hug and a kiss from her warms my heart to no end.
Seriously though, I find myself thinking about just how quickly
two years has flown by. Ellie is growing up so fast. She's running and playing,
jumping and climbing, stringing multiple words together. She's even already
working on potty training (on her own accord!).
 |
| Now vs. Then |
As we head into year 3, I know Ellie's going to continue to
grow and develop by leaps and bounds. However, I need to make sure I do the
same. So, in the third year of Ellie's life, I want to do a better job enjoying
my time with her. I want to share new experiences with her, spend more time
outside, be on my phone less, intentionally share God's Word with her, take
more dumb selfies together, and most importantly, be the dad (and friend) that
she needs.
After all, as my pastor says (and I paraphrase), investing
in a relationship with your daughter is one of the best things you can do as a
dad. It's something you'll never regret doing and something you'll always be
glad you did. Or, you know, something kind of like that.
Happy (belated) birthday Ellie!
Love, #DaddyWrite
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