So, the little dear (from February 2, 2006) and the little deer (from November 13, 2005)...
My Daughter's First Date
Every little girl's father dreads the day, but it's bound to happen...her first date. For my daughter, it came sooner than usual.
The guy called her up, talked to her mom, and made sure it would be ok to take our Abby out on a date. I know the guy, which made it better, even though he was quite a bit older. I know him as well as I know myself, actually. He's me. Tonight, I took my 3 year old daughter Abby out on our first Daddy-Daughter date!
It's an idea that I think I heard of first working at Familylife - Dennis Rainey does this type of thing with his daughters, and I thought it was a great idea. After all, I probably spend a disproportional amount of time with my son...you know, first born...he's a boy, I'm a dad...male bonding....deer hunting, etc. So, Abby is certainly due some time out with dad. (I have a 1 yr old daughter and a daughter currently in the womb, due May 11, who will also be dividing my date nights in a few years, if the Lord wills!)
It was a sweet night...nothing too terribly noteworthy to blog about. When I "asked Abby out on a date" over the phone, she excitedly said "yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!". I then asked, "Do you know what a "date" is?". She calmly said, "no." My dear wife tried to explain & prepare her as the afternoon progressed. After trying to ask her what she'd like to do on our date & where she'd like to eat, she basically said "I'm not hungry, I just want to go to the toy store." (just like a woman!) :o)
We went to Abby's favorite restaurant...not Red Lobster...not Outback...but...Wendy's. After a cheese burger with mayo only, we went to the Purple Cow and drank a purple milkshake. It was fun...we sat at the soda counter and shared a shake sipping from two straws. We giggled alot. Afterwards, we walked over to Lifeway Christian Books and she looked at the Veggie Tale stuff...then we went to Toys-R-Us to try to find "Mommy & Poppy" (sp?) figures for her Dora the Explorer house. She didn't seem too sad when we couldn't find them. She was probably still elated that she was getting to spend the evening with her favorite guy (tic). She did, however, repeatedly through the night say, "I like going out on a date!" Sweet girl.
And that's about it. I don't even know if she'll remember much about it tomorrow. But, Lord willing, I hope to begin a tradition with all my daughters of periodically taking them each out on a date with daddy and showing them how a man is to treat a lady. My end goal...well, I'd really like to set the bar so high that they become convinced that they'll never find a guy as good as their dad, so they'll commit to a life of singleness and service to the Lord. Seeing as how that probably won't happen (I might still pray towards that end, though, and make them fill out this application), I can only hope to model some standard of godliness and gentlemanly (it's a real word, look it up) conduct for which my daughters will use in choosing a mate.
Oh, Deer!
I decided to take Aaron Job, my five year old son, on his first deer hunt this year. My only concern was keeping him quiet and still long enough to have even the slightest possibility of having a deer come up on us. So, my ingenious wife packed his portable cd player & some cd's (audio books) for him to listen to in the deer stand. It worked! Well, it worked as far as keeping him still and quiet Saturday morning. After about 30 minutes or so, he was out!
We got up around 4:45am & were in our stand by 5:30am. Our "stand" (see photo above) was nothing more than a camo tarp wrapped around some posts & a stool to sit on. I laid out some old carpet the night before, anticipating a need for Aaron Job to have something to sleep on. Even after he woke up from his nap, he sat on my lap very quiet and still for another half hour or so. We returned to camp by 8:15am which, was pretty good considering the circumstances. However, no deer.
Saturday evening's hunt was a bit different. We went to a different stand (above photo) - a box stand perched on 15' legs. I saw three deer on this stand one evening last year, so I had high hopes. Just as the sun went down and it began to get dark, I was telling Aaron Job to be looking close, because he wouldn't be able to hear the deer, they could just quietly slip out of the underbrush at any time. As I was whispering this to him, he calmly said (as if he wasn't suprised), "There he is." I looked, and sure enough here comes a buck walking right toward us. After at least 10 minutes of trying to count horns (3 points on one side is the minimum requirement), Aaron Job all the while squatting down with his fingers in his ears (he actually stood up twice to look at the deer, which, suprisingly, didn't run off!), I aimed, I shot, I made contact.
So, long story short... we spent 15-20 minutes following his blood trail, and my brother-in-law finally found him about 30 yards away. Great day!
Aaron Job's first day of hunting, Aaron Job's first deer. My umpteenth day of hunting...my first deer. I'm not sure who was more excited!
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