today that same little angel is 2 years old …

there are many things that "Rylee Kat" has shown me in those two years …

the first is that God does have a sense of humor …

i just thought that Taylor Grace was something … little did I know what He had in store for me with #2 …

secondly, as big and as blue of eyes as Taylor has, and my thinking that I couldn't imagine God creating another child with eyes that size or color ever again …

he did …

third, no matter how hard I told myself it was going to be when Taylor became a teenager …

that thought, that fear, that anxiety, that uncertainty has now only been doubled …

and finally … no matter what the situation, the day I have had, or the way I may feel … when I come home and "Rylee Kat" rounds the corner saying "Daa-DEE" … "Daa-DEE" … "Daa-DEE" …

And as I look down in those amazing blue eyes as she hugs my leg for all it is worth …

I remember …

i am more than blessed …

and God is more than good …

"Rylee Kat" … Happy Birthday … you are truly "my little blessing" …

The other night my daughter was crying her head off, molars cutting through gums that just didn’t see a need for more teeth. My wife went in the nursery, but outside I could still hear the wailing. After several minutes of this, I went in and said, “Let me give it a shot.” Daughter in arms, we rocked and I whispered “Shhhh…” over and over in her ear until she calmed down. Then she turned her head up a little, she looked up into my eyes and I knew we were falling in love even more. She just reclined there in the crook of my arm and contentedly studied my face. In that moment I was everything she needed. There was not a question you could ask her where the answer wasn’t “Daddy.” In that moment, I became the only man that mattered in her life. Being that man was the most important thing in my life and nothing, absolutely nothing was going to come between me and my daughter. Making her happy, taking the tears away, that’s what I do, and I’m very good at it.

A popular pastime for members of my family is to point out to me that boys will want to date her. It’s fun for them seeing me overreact and make vain promises that she’ll date over my dead body. But boys will want to date her. Why wouldn’t they? She’s beautiful. But she doesn’t need to date because she’s already got a man in her life. Me. I’m all she needs and that smile on her face says so. In the afternoon, after lunch when I’m staving off the strong desire to nap, my mind is filled with little daydreams of meeting young men–punks really–at the door and explaining to them the extents to which they are mistaken if they think they are leaving that house with my daughter. Someone else’s daughter, yeah, go ahead, but I know how boys think. I was a boy. You will not get anywhere near my daughter if you think like I did. And I know you think like I did. Punk.

In the course of rocking my daughter, however, I got past that little gun-cleaning fantasy to a much more devastating realization. If I do my job, if I provide for my daughter the happiness she wants and that I want for her…at some point–through no fault of my own–I’m no longer going to be able to make her happy. It won’t be for lack of effort on my part. It will be because she will have grown up, and no matter how many books I read or how cool I try to be, she’s going to need something else. Someone else. My time will have simply passed.

The tragedy of this, for me anyway, is that there is going to have to be a moment when I meet that boy at the door and rather than block his entrance, I do nothing but hold that door open. Because he can make her happy in a way I cannot. If I can shed that selfish pride, I can still make her happy by stepping aside and just supporting her while another man puts that smile on her face. Is that how I want it to be? No. Hell no. But I can’t have it my way. So at some point, I’m going to choose her way. Because I love her.

they have a Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari…

it was pretty kewl, and the girls just loved it…

check out some of the photos in Taylor's Special Day album on flickr…

no, not the kind of alarm that wakes you up at 5:31 each morning with your favorite talk-show host…

and no, not the kind of alarm that wakes you up at 5:40 each morning with your favorite talk-show host…

and no, not the kind of alarm that wakes you up FINALLY at 5:49 each morning with your favorite talk-show host..

no, we have a home security alarm….

we don't live in one of those neighborhoods either….

and no, we don't have any of those types of neighbors…

we mainly have the system because 8 years ago we bought our first house in Carrollton, TX….

Carrollton is a sleepy little suburb of Dallas, TX…

we had never lived in the "big city" before and therefore, the alarm system brought some sense of security…

actually, we really had it because the previous owners of the house had it and we just kept it…

but anyways, we do have this said alarm system on our home in Fayetteville to this day…

it is active and monitored 24/7/365….

early this morning, my oldest daughter Taylor, decided she needed to see what was in the front yard around 12:01 am…

she quickly decided that she no longer needed to see what was in the front yard at approximately 12:01:30 am….

was it because nothing was out there??

did she become bored quickly like most 3 1/2 year olds tend to do???

or did she not see anything interesting to look at in the front yard at 12:01 am??

no, it more than likely had to do with the ear-splitting-wake-the-dead-rouse-you-from-the-deepest-sleep-you-have-had-in-weeks siren that was now blasting due to her having tripped the aforementioned alarm…

i fall out of bed, sprint to the bedroom door, yank it open only to be met by my previously mentioned 3 1/2 year old as she bypasses me at a full sprint and makes a bee-line for her mother…

oddly enough, I could hear her screaming OVER the alarm sirens….

i finally make it to the alarm control after hurdling the doggie gate and nearly impaling poor Bear with my foot….

and the sirens are silenced…

now, the question is, did I get there in the 30 seconds ADT allots before they dispatch the police??

not sure how good the reflexes were…

another twist is our home phone currently isn't operational, that is for another post some day…

so, would they call my parents at 12:01 am on Friday morning and wake them to let them know that 3 1/2 hours away, their son's alarm system had been tripped???

now that would be handy…

so I frantically find the number and call, guaranteed that I DID in fact make it in their alloted 30 seconds…

no police this time..

after all were back in bed, and we had quieted down again, one thing came to my attention….

our youngest daughter, Rylee….who just turned one on Sunday???

she can sleep through anything…

you can see ms rylee and ms taylor with Santa….

Also, we took some pictures down on the square at the lights of the ozarks…

enjoy…

see more pictures of taylor and rylee on their sites…

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