Hey! That's my Daddy!

I took Madelyn to McDonalds for supper tonight. It is not something I want to get into the habit of, but there are the odd evenings where after running errands there's just no time to get her home in time for a proper meal.

There's also the added bonus of the giant play structures!

The McDonalds we went to tonight featured a nearly 30 foot tall maze of twisted plastic and bolts,forming the hugest play structure Madelyn's ever been on! She was a bit tentative at first ("That's so high, Daddy!"), but it only took her one trip down the slide for her to lose any trepidation about climbing those steps!

I was so proud of her. I always am! I'm constantly resisting the urge to go overboard with my pride - I'll grab random strangers and say "Hey! This is my little girl! Look! Isn't she great"!

Well, I got a little bit of that back tonight.

Madelyn made friends with a young girl about the same size, age,and development level, and the two of them made a few trips up the two storeys of steps to the top of the slide. It was fascinating to watch the two of them use their 2 year old vocabulary to communicate with each other.

Around their fourth or fifth time to the top of the slide, Madelyn spotted me at the bottom, and then grabbed her new friend's shirt and gave it a gentle tug. When the friend finally got turned around, Madelyn pointed at me, and with pride in her voice exclaimed...

Look! There's Daddy!"

It was so sweet, almost as if Madelyn was bragging about me, showing me off to strangers the same way I do to her.

The other little girl waved at me, so I waved back. Then Madelyn waved. Then we were all waving. Then I could tell all three of us were waiting for SOMEONE to stop waving so that we could all put our arms back at our sides, so I went stopped first, to the relief of the two toddlers.

I'll never stop being proud of my little girl, and I hope she keeps feeling the same way about her dad!