I am feeling my age right now :( :(

[The Straight Story]

Was in the house helping my 6 year old with her 1st grade homework. Write the numbers 1-50. She is up to 23 now.

I was watching her and trying not to at the same time.

"Daddy, you are cramping my space, I can't write when you are standing there."

So I came outside for a smoke and a post. She said she would yell for me when she was done and I could check it.

Seems like only yesterday she would have made me sit right there.

I have 5 kids, from 21 to 6 - though I live with only my 6 yr old. My last child, and she is growing up.

Yeah, she still worships daddy, hugs me when I pick her up from school, tells me she missed me, likes me to read her a bedtime story...but I saw again tonight that subtle transition.

Someday I won't be daddy, I will be 'dad - he never wants me to go anywhere...sigh'.

The days of 'daddy' are slipping away. And I will miss them.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Dude. Give her the gift of your life. Quit smoking.

Not being judgmental, but do it for her. You'll never regret it.

[The Straight Story]

4. Working on that, been a freakin hellish three years though

and not easy to quit when everything you knew vanished in such a short time.

[Midlodemocrat]

6. Believe me, you are preaching to the choir on that.

But my husband survived a quadruple bypass last year BECAUSE he didn't smoke. Had he been a smoker, he would have never come off the bypass machine.

[Cabcere]

2. If it makes you feel any better...

I'm 21 and I still call my dad "daddy" sometimes. :shrug: We don't always get along, but I love and respect him more than anything, and there's a part of me that will always be his little girl, you know? :hug: Peace.

[The Straight Story]

3. well, she calls me da-doo right now, and I call her Han-do :)

That probably won't be the same when she is 21 :rofl:

[Cabcere]

5. Well, maybe not so much... :-)

But I bet she will still love and admire you, even if she doesn't always show it. :hi:

[The Straight Story]

7. And to top it all off - she just came out here with her paper

and she did the back, which was math problems (addition) and got em all right (math is my hobby, she got her looks from momma and her math from me).

I did not even tell her what she was supposed to do with the back side of the paper, was waiting until she was done with the front side.

Got every single one right.

My little girl is growing up. Glad for her, a little sad for me at times (selfish I know, but honest).

Now off to play a game my wife made up for her - scavenger hunt for words. she has cut outs of words she needs to know, then hides them - we ask her for word X and she leads us to that word only. She loves it and is learning words really well.