Daddy's Girl's First Dance

This actually goes out to you dad's or maybe not dads no harm no foul. Just keep taking care of business. And when it's time for your little girls "first dance" then I hope this will first of all make you laugh then secondly enlighten you if in fact you have not had your first dance. I am no expert on trying to be a dad or father. And my kids first dance is just God giving me another part of the puzzle of the wonderful world of watching your little ones grow up. Our little girl is our only child. I claim her as Daddy's Girl but she is really her mother's daughter. She is a girly girl to a point. She likes to fish with me. And the worm we use for fishing is to be held and petted. Recently she brought home a paper from school. "Daddy can you go to my Valentine Day's dance with me" she asked. Of course I would. Though this was suppose to be the Valentines Day dance. It was actually after the day due to bad weather and so on. So you could call it a make-up Valentines day dance. Enough of the explaining here's the story.

It was the night of the big dance. My daughter is in second grade but all of the school was at the dance except Pre-k my little darling reminded me. She is a very good dancer, very out-going personality like her Pop's. She was really looking forward to this dance. My wife of 23 years had made sure that she had best finery. With my limited knowledge of dresses I will say it was a shimmering, with little straps over her shoulder a shawl to complete the outfit and a pair of open toe silvery shoes decorated on the toe with faux diamond butterflys. And to not be left out. Pop's was almost a complete match, wearing a red tie for the Valentine's theme. However no open toe shoes for me with the faux butterflys. Bad joke trying to wake you up if your falling asleep reading this. Anyway, everyone was ready to dance. And though it was really strictly a dance for "Daughters and Daddys" mommies, guardians and others were welcomed also except no Pre-K next time for them I guess. So I asked my wife if she wanted to go with us also. She politely declined but offered to drive us to the dance. I think she was being funny. Well my kid really dances all the time and so do her school pals the boys and the girls. So think High school musical, maybe Glee, Raven, Hannah Montana and all those Nick shows and kid friendly shows with singing and dancing. That will put you in the frame of mind of what dancing is like for most kids in my daighters age range nowadys. And no disrespect to my kids school. But the paper advertised finger food and hors d'eoevres. Boy was I sort of shocked to see a table full of "sweets" as far as the eye could see. So now my kid and her friends were already at the height of energy and they were about to go into orbit. After they started eating all those cakes,cookies and chips. To wash it down can I get a drumroll...soda but in the schools defense water was available also thank goodness to dilute the soda. And so it was throughout the night from 6:30 PM to 8:00. We would go into the dance hall. The damce was in the cafeteria. So part was the brightly lit area for the photos, the snack table and a place of safe haven from our little party goers who could not get enough of the music or the dancing. Just to frame it a bit for you on that night. We showed our invitation for the dance. My wife dropped us off. I even coaxed her in to buy a ticket. I thought she would stay. But she took off. The only person quicker than her was my kid. "Daddy there's my friends," my daughter took off like a shot. And this how it went we would dance as I have already mentioned and then it was take a rest to eat all that sugary food. And you dance to line dances. None of that the boys ask the girls to dance or vice versa. And that's nice in a way no one is left out. No wall flowers. We adult lot even got into the act. But of course it was Michael Jackson and Kool & the Gang and just the bare minimum of old classics. For the kids Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Cotton Eyed Joe, Willow Smith and all the latest kid songs and the majority were line dances. So did I get a chance on my daughters dance card. Maybe one dance. And that was me dancing along with fellow adults in a group of kids. This not like the dancing we did thirty years ago. Finally we took a photo as a keepsake. I managed a smile. But I was so wore out from actually walking real fast to keep up with my kid and her friends when they danced and played chase all around the dance hall. And don't get me started when I thought I lost her. When they started to play that disco type song "Come on ride the train Choo Choo" and everyone lined up in a big Choo Choo train configuration. I could not keep up with tarin nor find my daughter. But after a good search I saw the pretty white dress and my little ones familiar face. Because I did not mention it there were lots of white dresse at that dance. "Thank you for coming out and this is the end of the dance" the DJ blared out over his sound system. A sad look came over the little peoples faces. The hour it seemed had speeded by. I took my daughters hand and we walked outside. She had had a lot of fun. An hopefully a good time had been had by all. The next day I told a friend. Man am I ever wore out from my kids first dance. "Did you dance a lot" they asked. "No it was the running after my kid." My friend burst out laughing. I hope your first dance will be fun and I hope there will be many.