Hopes and Dreams of this 1st time dad.

When you become a father or even just a parent, your whole look on life changes. You begin seeing things for what they are. You understand why some people in your life act the way you do, usually because of the lack of sleep. Happy hour goes from a drink at the bar with your wife to bath time and story time before your able to even to sit down .

My life was changed for the better about 8 months as I am writing this. My daughter was born. You probably guessed that was coming. She was born on November 1st, we named her Emilia and she is just wonderful. I've witnessed the war zone that is birth. Ive evaded enemy fire that is "shooting poopies" which the teddy bear across the room was  unable to avoid. Ive been in the torturers chair depriving me of sleep and demanding answers and actions to events i really did not understand.

Being a parent is tough and me and my wife are still on the front line trying to figure out the best way to deal with the new commander that is always barking orders. One thing has never changed, our wishes, our hopes and our dreams for what our little girl will have when she's older.

We want her to be kind so we will treat her the way that she should treat others. Me and my wife do a lot to assist when we can and help who we can and we know that she will see that. They do say that the best way to show is to demonstrate. Which also means that we will never talk poorly of others in front of her. Currently, we wait til she's asleep to start exchanging gossip and opinions. Most nights, there's none at all. With that being said, i want her to be able to see evil and to know how to avoid od deal with it. This will be instilled once shes of age to be introduced to my movie collection including the usual Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter collections.

We want her to be musical so we play GOOD music any chance we can. Whether its classical, instrumental or oldies. We play music all the time. Plus my wife would like to pass down her skills on the violin to our daughter so we can one day witness her at Carnegie Hall. Learning a musical instrument takes dedication, concentration and patience which are three key things we want her to have. I want her to appreciate the work she hears coming from someone playing live on the street or even the music she hears on the radio and TV. Actually, let's face it. Most of today generated music kind of sucks but anyway, i still want her to hear it. (There's my next blog post!)

I want her to understand diversity. We never want our daughter to stare at people because they wear a head wrap or their skin is a different color than her own. I myself am the lightest skinned personally in my immediate family so skin color will be easy for her to grasp. We DO NOT want her to think all Muslims are bad, because they are not, or that all Jews are cheap, because again, they are not. Our daughter will understand that everyone is their own person despite what she may hear from others. Racism has no place at our dinner table.

This one is an easy as well as difficult one. I do not want her to be spoiled. This is tough because she is our first and we want to give her everything we see. At the same time its easy because we do not have the means to shower her with gifts. We have money but we just choose to spend it wisely. I want her to know that you should work for everything that you want and never take anything for granted. Its much easier to appreciate things when you understand what it took to get it.

Of course there are more than what is listed here. Some i have yet to realise or think up. As time goes by there will be changes. Once she develops passions and hobbies, those will change what i want for her. But overall, i want her to have a much happier childhood than the one I knew. I want her to believe that there is more to life than what you see in front of you. I want her to imagine a life in a far away land and maybe pursue it without feeling like she can't. I also want her to know that no matter where she is or what she does, that she is loved.

All parents have all different hopes and dreams for their children and I hope there is the underlying notion that they want their children to have better than they did. We all know that this is not always the case.

My wife and I also have hopes and dreams that she will start sleeping through the damn night so we can get a full nights rest but those will forever remain just that, hopes and dreams. Can I get an amen? .... no? Ok.