Yesterday was the annual Father Daughter Dance at my Daughters school. It is the third year in a row that we've gone. This year we took my daughter shopping and let her pick out anything she wanted to wear. She was so excited for the dance and excited to spend time with me. Lately I've been so busy with school and work and workouts that i haven't been spending much time with the family. I get out of work late at night and go to school early in the morning. By the time my little girl gets off the school bus I'm getting ready for work and only have about 20 min to talk to her before dashing off to a full nights work.
She misses her daddy and i miss spending time with her as well so this father daughter dance couldn't come at a better time. We got all fancyfied and went off to her school for pictures, dancing, and general merriment also a lot of high pitched squeals when the little girls saw each other. It was nice to see her grow into a well adjusted girl with friends of all kinds.
I talked with her teacher and she informed me that the school is planning on an excel program and if they have the funding my daughter is definitely going to be in it. For those of you who don't know excel is a program for children that need to be challenge more. The teacher said that my daughter Saige is easily the smartest girl in her class. She tries to stump her and challenge her more than the other children and thinks my daughter needs to be in a more advance class. I continue to be proud of my little girl, what parent doesn't love hearing how well behaved and intelligent their child is right?!
Today was my 7 year old daughters Cultural school day function. It was to celebrate the diversity of people in her school. All the second graders had small roles to play. Each class was given a different country to speak about. My daughters classroom had China and my little shy girl had a speaking part! My nerves were on edge for my little girl. I know all to well how crippling shyness can be. I never even did an oral book report, I was always so shy Id take a failing grade.
We arrived at her school and found a parking spot. I hurried my 5 year old son and girlfriend inside camera in hand. I anxiously watched the other classes speak about the countries they had. I felt a lump start to gather in my throat, my palms were sweaty and my feet were nervously tapping on the gymnasium floor. There's no way I could be up there with a speaking part. I had such an overwhelming fear that my little girl would be afraid, cry, puke, and run off stage being forever scarred causing her to become an old recluse shut in with 15 cats as adult. Sounds weird I know but that's how my mind works. My daughters class was the last to go and I'm proud to say she did amazing. She was up there next to her friends in her cool new outfit and spoke her part like a pro. I'm definitely proud of my little girl. I couldn't ask for a better daughter I don't have the words to describe the joy I feel in my heart watching my daughter succeed.
Unfortunately, my mother was a no-show. She has a way of putting my children on the back burner. She doesn't stay for birthday parties, doesn't come visit them, and doesn't invite them over like she does her other grandchildren. Shes even had the nerve to tell me that my kids aren't really her grandchildren. According to her, they are more my girlfriends side of the family. That's my mothers not so subtle way of saying my kids are white and her real grandchildren are Hispanic. Its frustrating as hell because my kids don't know any better and love spending time with her.
Well... I'm not going to let my disappointment in my mothers behavior overshadow the happiness in my heart or my daughters big day. This weekend I'm going to treat her to a Father-Daughter dinner and ice cream at Friendly's then off to Game Stop for a well deserved video game.
