Hello, my name is Jeremy and I’m about to have the greatest night of my life.
How do I know this? Because it happened last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.
I’m about to go on a date.
Shh, I have a confession.
I’ve been married for almost 12 years now but soon I’ll be going on a date with someone else who is beautiful, young, and amazing. In fact, I’ve gone on dates with this girl before…and each time it’s the best night of my life.
My date is the sweetest 9-year-old girl you’ll ever meet, my daughter Keira.
Soon, we’ll be going to our annual Daddy Daughter Dance. However, it’s so much more than a dance. It’s a night where the world melts away leaving just the two of us.
She loves it because she gets treated like a princess. I take her to the salon to get her nails done, she gets to wear a beautiful dress, and mommy spends all day putting bouncy curls in her hair.
I love it because for one night only I’m not just Dad, I’m “Daddy” again, and it’s pure magic.
Usually, the evening starts out like the scene from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. You know the one, where Belle floats gracefully down the stairs looking effortlessly beautiful. The glow on my princess’s face as she anxiously awaits me to shower her with compliments is more than enough, but this is just the beginning.
I present her with a corsage. Giggling, she smells it for what seems like hours and my wife does her best to capture the moment by taking a million pictures.
Then we set off for what is arguably my favorite part of the evening, dinner.
It’s my favorite not because I like food (I do) but because it’s the calm before the storm. It’s the only time during our date where I can get her to stay in one place.
This is one of those rare perfect moments where she is abundantly excited, has a million thoughts on her mind, and has the enthusiasm to tell me about each and every one of them.
And I just sit and listen.
Rather than breeze through the day’s events, she dives into details about what she’s been thinking lately. I learn little things about her, things she doesn’t usually talk about as often, (who her best friend is now, what she wants to do when she gets older, and sometimes even about the boy who won’t stop talking to her in class). They give me a deeper insight into who my little girl is becoming. She orders whatever she wants, takes a few bites, ends up eating all of my fries, and then it’s time to take Cinderella to the ball.
It’s a whirlwind.
In the first few minutes, we literally run around checking out EVERYTHING as if it’s all going to disappear soon. We sprint to the dance floor where she takes a quick peek, then I follow her to the photo-booth trying to keep up. Her favorite stop, the fondue fountain, is next. It is glorious, not because of the chocolate, but because it’s the first time I’ve been off my feet all evening. But then, as if the clock were striking midnight, I hear it, the song that instantly brings me to tears, Steven Curtis Chapman’s Cinderella.
We dance and time stands still.
And then it’s over. I wipe the tears from my eyes, and as we end the evening with a stroll through the sculpture park, I reflect on how lucky I am to be her “Daddy.”
The City of Des Moines’ Daddy Daughter Dance is February 2 at The Science Center of Iowa. Get more information and purchase tickets here.
Do you go to a daddy daughter or mother son dance?
Love it! Our county hosts a father daughter dance each spring and I’m excited that my oldest daughter is old enough to go with her Dad this year 🙂