Daddy's Little Girl...For Now

Baby Girl just loves her daddy.

She runs to him when he comes home, and she looks for him during the day too.

So I was a little worried when we were away from him for a month, afraid that she might forget him. The memories of two-year-olds are notoriously unreliable.

My husband came with us on our trip at the beginning, but he could only get a short time off work. (Those pesky jobs, right?) So he went back home without us.

It was funny, because right after he left, the kids and I moved from my mother-in-law’s house to my mother’s. (We like to spread the love around…and the mess!) When we came back to my mother-in-law’s after a couple of weeks, Baby Girl seemed to think we had left Daddy there. She looked all over, calling for him. She even picked up the shades and looked behind the bedroom curtains! It was obvious she really missed him.

I tried letting her speak to him on the phone, but that just confused her. She would pull the phone away from her ear and go, “Daddy?” Then she would turn the phone over and look all around it, trying to figure out how Daddy got INTO that tiny thing. It kind of upset her, so I quit giving her the phone.

I showed her pictures of her father while we were gone, and she would call out, “Daddy!” when she saw his face. I started to feel a little more confident that she would still know him when we got back home.

Then we visited my uncle and Baby Girl started calling him Daddy. Well, he does look kind of like my husband, so I decided to let that go.

Then she started calling her grandpa Daddy. Hmm, I thought. Technically he’s her daddy’s Daddy, so I guess that’s all right.

Then on the plane ride back home, she started calling the male flight attendant Daddy.

By then I was getting pretty worried. I had no idea if she’d recognize her real Daddy when she saw him, but I didn’t have too long to wait and find out. My husband was coming to meet us at the airport.

I was so pleased that she called out, “Daddy!” as soon as she saw him, AND consented for him to pick her up right away. (She never goes to anyone she doesn’t know, so I could tell she really did know him.)

So I guess we got home just in time, before her Daddy attachment transferred to the garbage man or something….

And the fact that she just happened to have a dirty diaper when he picked her up...well, that just made the reunion all the sweeter. (Okay, not LITERALLY!)

Welcome back, Daddy! Change my poop!

And the amazing thing was, he did!