Daddy's Girl

Jeff and Keira really do have a special connection. He makes her laugh like no other. I know she knows his voice and she is so smitten with him. Their bond comes as a relief to me. If it had been this way with Liam, my first baby, it probably would have left me feeling really insecure. Not that Jeff and I don't share the blessings and burdens of parenting equally, I tend to be the one the boys come to for comfort. With Keira, and all of the unfamiliar needs that she has, I'm so glad that at the end of the day, Daddy can swoop in and be a more than satisfying presence for her.

Jeff invented a game called "Strong Bear." (He calls her "Bear," which is derived from "Keira Bear," which we thought was cute early on, because it sounds like our old pals, the "Care Bears.") Keira sits in Jeff's lap and he holds her around the waist, which means that she's slumped over like those sad old grandmas you see around sometimes who have hunched shoulders and can't seem to look up from the ground. Jeff then prods and cajoles and makes silly noises at her until, with all her brute force, Keira's head pulls up, up, up, then crashes back so she's looking at the ceiling. I used to hate this game, or at least I couldn't watch it. But, lo and behold, K seems to like it. She tends to talk loudly to him during the game and wouldn't you know, she's much less slumped over than she used to be. Her head is also doing a lot less crashing from one extreme to the other. She's getting more control, little by little.

Keira was a little fussy the other night. Jeff was at a PTA meeting and I put her to bed. She'd been crying without ceasing for quite some time, for no known reason, and I finally picked her up and rocked her. Jeff came home soon after. Her face brightens and the mere sound of his voice and after holding her and playing with her for about 3.5 minutes, he put her back in bed. She went straight to sleep. Not a peep. She knew her day wasn't done without some daddy time. Precious.