The party was better...

Last Friday, as previously noted, we had my daughters 10th Birthday Party.  Today was her actual birthday, and it was much less fun...for me at least.

I think my daughter had a good time...she is over in Seattle with her mom and other sister on a Girl Scout Field trip to see the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.  She is going to be spoiled this evening by The World's Greatest Nana. 

Me?  I'm all alone.  Night # 4 of being all alone.  Which really means night #4 of having to clean the litter box myself. 

She is a great kid...I'm not sure what I expected her to be like at 10, but I have no complaints.  She is easily as smart as my wife and I...and I don't think either of us are dumb people.  One of the things I think that my wife and I have done 'right' is indulge whatever interest she has.  For a long time it was(and still is to some extant) dinosaurs.  Once you dig deep enough into a subject, you start finding ways that other subjects connect...like geology and general biology.  Now it's not just dinosaurs...it's plate tectonics and birds and snakes, and how they are like dinosaurs. 

That's just the mental side though...I at least am still trying to figure out what kind of person she will be.  I still worry that there are times she is too shy and submissive.  She tends to let her younger sister bully her, and direct traffic.  Just like her smarts, I recognize this behavior from her parents also...mostly me.  I am definitely a 'go-along to get-along' kind of guy.  My wife...not quite as much, so there is still promise that at some point we will see some of her mom's New England Bitch Backbone show up.

My wife insists she is beautiful...but for me it's tough to see, because she looks more like me than my wife.  My younger daughter tends to resemble my wife more, so it's easier for me to see the bone structure that I find pretty in my wife look pretty in my daughter.  Bella...she looks like me, and I just have a hard time seeing how that reflects to pretty.  Gosh...I'm not saying she not pretty...I'm just saying it is too much like looking in a mirror for me to form an un-biased opinion. 

Does it matter?  No and Yes.  Not too me...she is amazing, and will always be that way.  The only reason I bring it up at all, is the cynical opinion, formed over 37 years now, that IF you have to choose between being aesthetically appealing or NOT being aesthetically appealing....well, being pretty very rarely hurts.  If someone underestimates her because she can bat her blue eyes...well, God Help Them.

I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world, but I'm running out of time to hold on to her.