be a good father

5th in her class of over 600. K – 11 and only one “B”.

To celebrate I took her to Columbia after Christmas. She so wants to attend Columbia and I know she can do it. 15 months and she will graduate and leave me, I am so proud of her, I am so excited for her….. But I will not be the same when she leaves me.

Last night I sat up listening to my daughter talk. She talked about her hopes, her wishes, her dreams, and I just listened carefully.

I love my relationship with my daughter. Only two more years until she leaves me, to begin a new phase of her life. It will kill me when she leaves.

I left work early yesterday so that I could take my daughter to get her driver’s license. I guess that I am getting old.

She was ecstatic. My favorite part was her argument with the authorities because they would not let her wear her tiara crown for her license photo. “I always wear this crown!” “No one will recognize me without my tiara!”

She IS the “Princess”!

Tonight my daughter got drafted to play on a top-tier club basketball team and she is thrilled.

Sounds good, but this means…..
1. No family summer vacation
2. No trip to Mexico with the wife
3. No solo Italian bike tour this summer.

Just BBall, BBall, BBall and more BBall. At most, maybe I can sneak away for a one week tour closer to home.

Tonight is my daughter’s last basketball game of the season. I love watching her play! I made all of her games except for one.

I so hope that she is high-point tonight!

Last weekend was my daughter’s first tournament with her new team. It went GREAT, she was playing “HOT”. They dominated their bracket and went on to finish third.

She loves playing volleyball and I love watching her have fun. She is finally on a winning team and she SO needed to experience the thrill of winning!!! YES!

My soon to be 16 year old daughter is in love! The boy is a good kid and my daughter is happy. It’s a hard situation because I know they will break up and I know she will get hurt. Love and learn. She has this boy whipped and I know she will tire of him quickly, no challenge, no chase.

Each night before she goes to bed she talks to me about their relationship. In my head I am thinking, “Thank God she is not dating someone like me when I was 16!” ;)

When my daughter woke up, she still had her iPod ear-buds plugged in. As she walked into the living room I asked her to please go get the morning paper and she headed out the front door. Parked in the driveway was her new red VW Beetle. I heard her scream from inside the house, very cool.

I love making her happy!

My daughter lost her basketball game tonight. She played well, with an aggressive edge (OK, she fouled out). To be short, they lost to a team that they could have beaten. She took it hard.

I raised my daughter to be competitive and aggressive. She HATES to lose! I was proud of her performance, but most of all I was proud of her “edge”.

My daughter is soon to be 16 and a fully licensed driver, watch out! No seriously, she is quite a good driver. Today I bought her a “Salsa Red” 2007 VW Beetle. I have the car stashed in a friend’s garage until late on Christmas Eve. I can hardly wait to see her face!

She will be ecstatic when she sees her new “Bug”. My first car was a piece of crap; the door would not open, it had no heat, a bullet hole in front fender (I have no idea! It came with the bullet hole), and it constantly left me stranded, until it burst into flames while I was driving it one day…. She deserves the car, a safe and reliable car. She is a GREAT girl and she has maintained straight “A’s” for her 10 years of schooling.