1/28/2008

Daughter's first Boyfriend

Friday my daughter stayed after school since the school was showing a movie. She is in Middle School and she has been growing up way to fast this year. I left work early and decided it would be fun to go pick her up and then go out for an Ice Cream cone before we picked up her little sister from Day Care. I make sure that there are those little moments that the two of us can sit down and talk without the interruption of her 3 year old sister looking for my attention. So I walk into the Auditorium and look among the mass of 11-14 year old in this huge room. I couldn't see he and thought it was no big deal (there were a lot of kids) Then my eye caught her best friend. She was sitting just a few rows in front of me and was with a big crowd of kids joking and having fun, they definitely didn't care if there was a movie there. I scanned the smaller group and sure enough there was still no sign of my daughter. Then I did a double take, there she was, right next to her best friend. She has a favorite sweatshirt, or Hoody I think they call them, she always wears it. There it was, how could I miss her? Well this whole time I was looking for this beautiful young girl with 2 arms and 1 head, I was not looking for the kid with one head on someone else's shoulder. I was not looking for a boy with his arm around my daughter. I was not looking for this boy that was holding my daughter like she was the most valuable possession he has owned. I will admit at first my blood was boiling over, I could not believe what I was seeing, then the humor set in. I know none of her friends saw me so I grabbed my camera phone and tried to sneak up a little closer. It was to dark I had this image of snapping a picture of this and sending it to every relative we have. I just couldn't get the picture, well here I was standing right behind one of her friends that was right behind my daughter, look there, its an empty seat. I quickly tapped her friend on the shoulder and gave her the signal to be quiet. Sat down next to her and started watching the movie. Her friend leaned over and whispered, "Tony asked her out today." I quickly responded, "I see that," with a little grin on my face. I was sitting there in this group of my daughters friends trying to think of something that I could do to embarrass her. I could have thought all day long and I would have never came up with something good enough. So I leaned over to her friend and said, "just tell her I will be up there waiting." On my way up towards the school lobby one of my daughters teachers stopped me. so I sat there and talked with him for a few minutes and was taking glimpses of my daughter and her new boyfriend. Then all of a sudden it felt like I was jumped on by a Linebacker in the Super Bowl. It was my daughter, I guess she noticed I was there. She jumped on me and wrapped her arms around me and said, "Tony asked me out." Of course I had the same reply, "I noticed, and again I had this grin. At this time I looked at where my daughter was sitting and I see this 13 year old boy sneaking away very quickly. After telling my daughter I was waiting until the movie was over and then I would take her home, she gave me another hug and then went to sit down again. "Wow, not to many daughters would be excited to tell their father they have a new boyfriend," her teacher said to me. "Yeah, I know" I said as I thought about every major milestone I have seen her go though, and realized this was the next one.

1 comment:

Jessi said...

Awww. That is so sweet! I know it probably took your all to resist getting upset, embarrassing her, etc, but it's so touching to know that she was excited to tell you! She's comfortable and open enough with you to share even things like that. Awkward and uncomfortable or not, that is amazing. Hang in there, Dad....times may get rough, but you've got a daughter that loves you and wants to share her life with you still. Do your best to keep it that way. <3