Your first Thanks Giving and Christmas have come and gone. So have many of your firsts over the last several months. In the last couple of months your mom and I have seen so many changes in you. Just a short couple of months ago you were sitting up great but not yet crawling. As if out of know where you got the crawling down and are now all over the place. It was so cool to watch as you began to really figure it out. You would get on all fours and then stick your butt in the air as if you were going to walk. You would get one knee in front of the other but that second one was a dead weight and you’d fall to your tummy. You would then turn, looking back at who ever was watching at the time, you’d sigh or grin and then try again. Over and over you would try to get down all the coordinating movements to make you a traveling baby. Then, out of no where, it click, you were off, first it was one full step, then three, then five, then off the blanket chasing whatever toy was drawing your attention. Like crawling it was amazing to see you learning things each day.

Over the holidays, you took your first road trip to the Texas panhandle. You experienced really cold weather for the first time, of course not the last. Of course you won’t be able to look back and say that you remember it but for me it was great to see you meet your extended family. Great uncles and aunts that have been waiting to see you since June. You were able to see your great grand parents and many of your second cousins. It was a very special time, you had no hesitation to interact with any one new, despite meeting family for the first time and being around such a crowd. I was so glad to have you there and to be apart of what my childhood Christmas was all about. From the road trip, to the cold weather, to the home made rolls, the sweet sound of your great grandmother, to the laughter of your cousins. I know there aren’t to many more of these left, and more than likely by the time you read this, your mom and I will have made new traditions for your childhood. One tradition that I hope we have is that your mom and I will tell you of our memories of Christmas and Thanks Giving as our parents did for us.

There is so much to tell you, so much I want to teach you. ‘Course I know I won’t get it all right, but I look forward to what each new day with you brings. I don’t think I will ever forget the first thing and the time I really notice that you were learning, actually learning. Not something that is instinctual but something you actually learned from observations. During a span of less than a week, you learning to wave, maybe not fully understand the meaning, or knowing full well when to execute it, but watching us do it you learned to return the hand gesture.  I know it was something little but perhaps it was God’s way of telling me that she is watching, learning, absorbing what I do, what I say, how I act. It was a perfect reminder to be that Godly man that I am commanded to be. As time goes on, I have taken bigger steps to be that man, that father that you deserve. I will never finish the process but my hope is that you will see through my words and actions that grace and peace that comes from only knowing Jesus Christ. It will be a tough road and one that I am committed to, to make sure that I provide you with the right tools to recognize the evil that will tug at your heart.

One thing I know that is the farthest from evil is your laugh. At times it doesn’t take much and brings a huge smile to my face. If nothing else happens in my life, I want you to know that you have already brought so much happiness to it in the last seven months, you have honestly brought joy to my life each day. You have the ability to disperse all my frustration and stress just buy watching you react to me walking through the door. I hope that never changes.

You are special little girl and I am glad that your mine and a product of two people that love each other.