What’s Happenin’ for Papa Patterson?

2011 seems to be off to a decent start… We just finished celebrating our first daughter’s second birthday for the third time last night and I feel like we’re almost ready for the second daughter to make her grand entrance in May. I never thought I would have turned out to be the father of two beautiful little girls but I’ve embraced it wholeheartedly, going so far as to tell myself that girls are better than boys even. Sure I’ll have to one day face the sad moments that I’ve seen other fathers deal with, when they’re  finally allowed to go out on their first date after months of begging and sulking or even the bittersweet feelings that I’ll have to endure on the day of their weddings. I know that this experience is going to soften me, as every day comes and goes, these little angels are going to melt my heart a little more each day and by the time they give me the last kiss on the cheek before they run off to make their own lives, I’ll be a crying mushy puddle of a man and won’t know what to do with myself. Isn’t it amazing that children can do that to you? I’ve tried to express this to friends that don’t have them yet, only to find it impossible to put in words. It IS nice to finally understand what parents before me have meant by “you’ll understand when you have children of your own”…though I still think that’s a lousy excuse that is often abused as an “end all” statement to flex authoritative muscle. I’ll NEVER use it in that way, or will I?