Anna Jo

I am amazed at how time is passing by so quickly and how I am getting old and my kids are growing up. Our house has mostly been a divided house, with Blake leaning more toward me and Anna Jo leaning more toward her mom. This is a constant and I don't see it as a negative in our house, but when free time exists Blake tends to want to be more with dad and Anna Jo with her mom.

It has only been in the last 4 months or so that Anna has started to cling to me more. Possibly an adjustment since Blake has been at school, and with Anna and Shar having much more time together she is looking for a different face, but she has been wanting more time with dad.

This is great. I love Anna Jo so terribly much, and little girls have a certain power over dad's that is unexplainable, and I love it. Our new tradition is bed time and stories.

Like most things, Shar has nearly always put Anna to bed and me Blake, when I am home at bed time which is not often enough. But lately Anna has been requesting me and a story about a princess. I will be the first to tell you that my stories are poor, but Anna loves them and so I continue to create adventures for the beautiful, strong and kind Princess Anna to endure and enjoy. Dragons, monster of the land and sea and acts of kindness for the local village have been our most recent tales, and she consumes the very idea of another story. It is such a joy to tell her how kind and brave and wonderful she is going to be and all of the great things I see inside of her, and in her future. To watch her listen to the jumbled words that leave my mouth is to watch pure joy. She is the princess, and I am the king. There is a great country song about that very thing.

At the end of each school year I give the kids in my class a charge to be good and do right, and then I give the girls in my class a special talk. I explain to them how precious they are and how perfectly God made them and that they are special because they are some body's little girl. Not all of my kids come from a perfect home so I get to tell them that they belong to God and he loves them just as I love my Anna Jo. As my little girl grows the talk I give takes on new meaning and becomes more difficult.

I am already planning for the end of this school year.