Dad...

Belated Happy Father's Day to all the Daddies out there..

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Days before last Sunday, I was listening to Bob Carlisle's Butterfly Kisses and suprisingly I got the humor of my siblings because I began shedding tears uncontrollably. I couldn't explain why but hearing the song from a "father's" perspective.. seeing your little girl, the one that would fall off her bike if you're supporting it from the back, or the one who'd draw you and your wife's faces almost everyday like you're the perpetual idol up in her pedestal..all grown up and trying her wings.. feels crushing at the same time uplifting..

I really couldn't say if I'm my daddy's girl, but surely I know that, being the first born, I have advantages that my other siblings could and would never have. When I was born, my dad was in the midst of his photography frenzy, his 80's music filled life, his obsessive fresh father enthusiasm.

I remember dad dedicating all sorts of stupid sounding songs to me.. as Police's De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.

I remember dad giving me my remarkably stupid sounding nickname from my very first word.. A-pprrtt which evolved into "Agoo".

I remember dad reading me "The Three Little Pigs" while I was lying in my cradle. (I don't know how I remember, I just know)

I remember dad carrying me on his shoulders.. making me feel like I was seven feet high.. (especially since my dad is 6 feet tall).

I remember dad punishing me by making me sit on the sofa for over five hours without permission to stand up, while he brought my mom and brother (just one, then) to the carnival.

I remember dad talking to me when I did something bad, rationalizing the situation rather than hitting me with a belt.

I remember dad taking me on a motorcycle ride around our block six times on my 6th birthday since, according to my Chinese zodiac, I wasn't allowed to leave the house else misfortune befalls me.

I remember dad running after me after I caught him doing something bad and trying to explain the situation to me from his point of view.

Now, imagining those broken families of single mothers or divorced absentee fathers.. how much have those children missed.