I wrote this a while ago and hesitated posting it because my dad and I aren’t the most open about our feelings about each other but I still feel the same if not even more love for my dad now. I am breaking the rules of not talking about feelings and my dad at the same time and laying it all out on the table!

I know my mom was hoping with all her might I would avoid this fate. Sorry mom. I like to believe that I am still an even mix, but more and more I am realizing that I am very much like my father. I am not sure he knows that I admit this openly about him but my dad is one of the greatest people I know. Although he is brutally honest, and at times emotionally constipated (what man isn’t) he is genuine to his core and he would and does do anything and everything for anyone. He takes selflessness to a whole new level. These characteristics are not necessarily why I believe I am my fathers daughter but hope someday they will be the proof that ties us to each other.

Things like my interest and love for putting things together. I love puzzles, and I love projects that involve building things. I love trying to figure out how to make something work. I had this realization, that I was like my dad in this way, when I was contemplating how I was going to manage floating shelves in our house. Also when I asked D for a power drill for mothers day. Not your average gift request is it? I love being able to do things myself and I am stubborn in that way. When our vacuum broke I insisted to D to let me try and fix it first before we looked at buying a new one. (I am rough on vacuums apparently!) I was able to fix it, just for the record. I know what I can do and I am not willing to give up the pride in finishing something myself. ( I still brag to this day that I helped put up the walls to the addition on our home and that I helped pound in nails that are someones roof) Unlike my dad I do take the time to be really careful and try to build things that last, are functional, and look nice.

It is funny how many subtle things I notice that I do that my dad also does. Things like twiddling my thumbs because I can’t sit still. (I’ve caught BB doing this as best a baby can, she also folds her hands and it looks really similar to the way my dad does) Or focusing all my attention on fixing something no matter where we are. It’s also funny, my mom and I were talking about how sometimes he will start talking about something and get half way through the thought and it just stops. I too do that and drive D crazy when I do. There are endless little things that I know I do similarly or I got from my dad … can you say pack rat?

I write this after pouring myself a bowl of cereal and throwing away the bag of popcorn from my snack earlier today. Both of these are two of my dad’s favorite foods. Those and ice cream … which I have resisted buying because I will eat it, I will eat it all!

My dad is an amazing man, whether or not he openly admits that we are his kiddos. I am so blessed to have the dad I do and I am the strong willed, independent, problem solving, handy, sarcastic, troublemaking woman and mother I am today because of it. Being the only girl I get the honor of daddy’s girl all to myself and I definitely think that I lucked out with that. I hope that I can mature into some of those amazing characteristics he has too! Let’s be honest, if I mature too much I will be nothing like him… maybe I should just grow into those characteristics and stay immature!