Pix of the Princess July 13, 2008

Actually, she has my mother's features, my mother-in-law's coloration and my father's curly hair. Her hair is long now, so it doesn't curl quite so much, but when it's short we get these big ol' curls. My dad had curly hair as a kid. My wife & I have always had straight hair. But the facial structure of my daughter is my mom's. Unfortunately, my mom passed away from a cerebral aneurysm in 2001 at age 65. Also sadly, my mother-in-law passed away after a fight with cholangiocarcinoma in 1999 at age 73. Sometimes, my daughter will hold her head just so, or I'll take a picture of her in a particular pose and it'll remind me of a picture of my mom when she was a little girl. And, I know I'm biased here, but my mother was extremely beautiful! Although I am pleased that my daughter is pretty and may turn out to be pretty as a young lady & an adult, I am NOT looking forward to boys coming over, or calling her. My plan is to buy a firearm and conveniently be cleaning it whenever any suitor comes over. I will point out to them, that because of my job (prosecutor), I know lots of cops and they will help me kill any boy, who attempts to dishonor my daughter. Of course, I do not plan to kill anybody, but I'd love for them to get the impression, I would kill them and have help in covering it up! Very Happy

Well, I suppose the best thing would be for the guys to be afraid of my daughter herself! My youngest sister-in-law got kissed on the bus on the way to school at age 5 and she punched the boy in the face! Also, she was playing in the community pool with an inflatable alligator, when some boy tried to take it away from her. She took the floatie device off herself & beat the boy over the head with it. I would like my daughter to be a little bit like this, so the boys would know, first they'd have to deal with my daughter, then they'd get to deal with me.

When she was 3, I was taking her to her dance class & she leaned against the side of the truck & said, "Daddy, I got it bad." I asked why. She said, "Anthony kissed me." I did not know who Anthony was - turns out, he was a boy in her pre-school. I then asked, "Where did he kiss you?". She answered - all too evasively, if you ask me - "At school." I then asked, "No! Where on your body!?" "She answered, "The lips". I then went into a lecture about not letting boys kiss her at all, much less on the lips! I called my wife on the cell phone & she gave Her Royal Highness a lecture too. Later that night, we watched the Charlie Brown Halloween special. I pointed out to HRH, that she needs to be like Sally Brown, who balled up her fist & told Linus in the pumpkin patch, "If you try to hold my hand, I'll slug you!" My brother-in-law tried to teach her to ward off boys' advances by teaching her to say "Absolutely not!", but it came oout "Absolooply not!" I talked to her about responsibility - a new word. She tried it: "usponsibiluppy". I just had to laugh! And I miss those days already and she's only 5! She can tell people, she wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up, or a "betanarian", and then there's the astronaut & ballerina careers she's planning too!

Joann, your son is brilliant! He should write a book! But I've also heard, when you buy your daughter a car, buy something sturdy & strong & safe, but not new. When her husband buys her a car later, you don't want her thinking, or saying, "But Daddy bought me a nice car!" I will try to find a tank from the 1960's for her to drive. Big ol' hunk o' metal that'll withstand impact from any more modern contraptions!