Daddy's Girl

"Disarmed. Ready to arm," the alarm system announced with its robotic voice.

"DAAAADDYYY! DAAAAAADDDDDDYYYYYY!" immediately followed the toddler.

I got out of bed and stood by her door, not sure if the intervention that Rosemary really wanted would happen. Sure enough, I heard footsteps on the stairs: Daddy was coming up to say goodbye. I went back to our bedroom where Poppy had been awakened by the yells. While I attended to her, I overheard the exchange going on in Rosemary's room.

She was babbling about going outside and coloring, dancing, bouncing: all of the fun things she wanted to do with her Daddy. Senpai apologized for having to go to work, saying that all of those fun things would happen when he came home later, but now was the time for her to go back to bed. It was too early to wake up, the sun wasn't up. He got that right. But while the rest of the family still had more time before Storytime called us out of bed, Senpai had to be out the door and on his way to work before the sun rose.



She loves him so much. When he's home, he always has a million and one things to do. Rosemary is his little helper. I asked him one day what he had enjoyed doing with his father when he was a kid, aside from doing projects together. I wanted him to see if maybe there was something else he could do with Rosemary, some other way for them to spend quality time together. But he said that was it: it was the projects that he most enjoyed. So nothing has changed except for my understanding.


I get it now.