Parenthood is a long, hard slog. It’s easy to get lost in all the negative things that wear you down each day/week/month. Thus, I’m going to attempt to end each week with three things that pleased me about my daughters over the previous seven days. Perhaps the public sharing of these acts will help me cope with the constant battles we’re having with them over other things.

M.: M. is our reader. She loves chapter books and is working through at least four different series right now.1 Thursday I went to the library and brought a stack of new ones home for her. As soon as I handed her one in the school parking lot, she began reading it. She read it all the way home. Once we got home, she sat on the couch and continued to read. Finally, around 4:30, she sighed, closed the book, look at me and said, “Daddy, I finished this book.” 163 pages in roughly 90 minutes!

C.: I love watching the constant give-and-take of big kid and little kid as our girls grow up. C. has an assignment from school to build a leprechaun catcher. Each time we talk about her plans for it, she lights up. Her eyes get big as she explains the ideas she has to lure the leprechaun in, how to keep him in, etc. She starts talking faster. The ideas pour out of her. She’s like a little tornado of big kid knowledge and little kid belief in magic.

L.: We’re having less issues with L. than her sisters right now, so it’s tougher to pick just one thing she’s done that delighted me this week. She is still using random phrases she’s picked up on TV or in movies. This week it’s been, “Well, whaddya know, Joe?” She’ll say it to me and her sisters. She’ll say it to herself in the van. She’ll say it while she’s playing with toys. It’s just funny.

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  1. The Boxcar Children, Ivy & Bean, Ramona, and then a couple fairy sets. ↩