My daughter and I have had a nice bond so far, but I feel our connection has deepened in the past couple weeks. I’m attributing this mostly to her waking up almost every morning at 4 or 5am lately and me taking her out to the living room to try and coax her back to sleep. Now, believe me…4 or 5am is not my preferred bonding time, but that extra one-on-one time I’m getting with her has been amazing… and so I guess I’ll catch up on sleep later (right???)

Most of the time when she wakes up I change her diaper and try to rock her back to sleep. However, she’s just awake enough that she sometimes looks right at me and tries to catch my eye, and if she does…it’s all over. She flashes that adorable little smile and gets me to smile back. She knows she has me and now tries to play a bit even though it’s not even time for the sun to play yet. While I try not to get her too riled up  I can’t help but enjoy some precious one-on-one moments with her. She’s so sweet and curious and loving. Her smile melts me every time.

We’ve both really enjoyed these times together and often I’m even able to get her back to sleep. We both cuddle up carefully on the couch and get a bit more rest. I’m telling you there’s not much better than a peacefully sleeping baby cuddling close in your arms. She seems to really enjoy it too as I’ve noticed her reaching out for me and wanting to be held by me more and more during the day while she’s awake also. She even recently started saying “da da”…finding a new way to melt my heart.

The bonding time that I get with her is so precious and something that I really enjoyed doing with my son when he was this age as well. It’s difficult with a 3 year old around to get this individual time with just her so I’m going to soak it up as much as I can…even if it does require som extra caffeine to make it through the day.

I have a strong, smart, funny, loving, inquisitive and beautiful daughter…and I’m thoroughly enjoying getting to see her personality blossom each day.

This is fatherhood…