Princess Zoe

I peered across the table, into the bright blue eyes of an anxious 2 year old, waiting for validation that she was in fact, a princess.  You see, she had just proclaimed herself to be a princess and her type A older brother informed her that she was in fact not a princess, because Daddy and Mommy are not a King and Queen.  Her mouth dropped a bit and her gaze slowly turned to me, unable to quite comprehend the news that was just so harshly delivered to her.  She now looked at me, with her young fragile ego resting on the next set of words that I would deliver from my lips.  "You are my princess", I said.  Her look changed from trepidation to tranquility to triumph all in a split second.

It is moments like that when it really hits home to me, raising girls is a whole different animal.  I would describe Zoe as "all girl".  She loves babies and all things pink.  She can be reduced to tears, just by getting dirt on her shoes. The words that come to mind when trying to describe her are, 'Diva', ' Drama', 'Careful', 'Observer', 'Repeater'.  Repeater you ask?  Zoe says things twice.  "Chunney, Chunney" (her name for Zane), "Zadie, Zadie", "Baby, Baby" and so on.  We don't really know where that came from, but we have been calling her ZoZo-head as a nickname for most of her life, so maybe from there.

She is very friendly, but cautious when entering a new situation.  A good example of this can be found in a previous post, Family Night. 

We see Zane as strong willed, and he is, but Zoe is also strong willed in a sneaky kind of a way.  She is usually easy going, but there are certain times when she decides that "this is a cause worth fighting for".  Recently, Zoe decided that she wanted to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed.  We had some real knock down, drag out nights, two of which ended like this ...

(notice her empty bed in the background)

There was another time in Target that Zoe was so insistent on holding and eating a can of "puffs" that she bit Julies finger when she tried to take them from her to give to the cashier.  I can already see this being a problem for her when boys enter the picture (just keep on fighting baby).

But, she is my princess.  And hope that she always will be.  Zoe and I have a lot of living left to do together and I hope that she always knows that no matter what, she is my little girl.  See, we as fathers have a very important responsibility.  The bond between fathers and daughters is key to the formation of their self confidence.  A father who fails to provide love and affection to their little girl, will find themselves with a pre-teen or teenager who is looking for that love and affection from someone else.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of guys eager to step in and "fill" that role.

Julie teases me about something that happened when Zoe was just a few weeks old.  Zoe was our fussiest baby and once again I was in her room rocking her in the chair, trying to get her back to sleep.  In Julie's words, what she heard come across the baby monitor was a "very breathy, very heartfelt, I love you".  She says that I never tell her I love her with that level of fervor.  Of course I don't remember it that way ... But there is something different in the relationship with a girl versus a boy.  A boy should be rough housed with, playfully teased, toughened up to get them ready for the life that lots of boys live.  Girls need to be protected, nurtured, but at the same time have a self esteem and self worth developed to handle relationships with those "tough boys".  Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

 (Thank you to Mellisa Boyd for providing the pictures)