Hugs and Kisses Powered

Daughters are great.

Sons are great too. Don't get me wrong.

I love my boys.

However, I don't think they were much over 12 minutes old before they didn't want to get hugged anymore.

They still let their Mom give 'em hugs and kisses, but dear old Dad has been reduced to high 5s and maybe a shot in the arm.

You could see the natural progression of 'coolness' with the boys, I'm pretty sure this is what was running through their heads:

1. Yes Dad can give me a hug and a kiss! I love my Mom and Dad!
2. Fine, Dad, if you REALLY have to give me a hug and a kiss... fine. But I'm not gonna like it!
3. What? Dad wants a hug before he goes to work... fine, I'll like, lean against him. I'm not hugging you back.
4. Dads leaving for work?! Quick, HIDE! He's gonna want a hug!

I won't even talk about trying to get a hug from the wife. :-)

Okay, maybe its not THAT bad. But you get the point.

This lead to really the only one logical conclusion in fixing this situation:

• I needed a daughter!

I needed SOMEONE who would make sure I could get a hug before leaving for work in the morning!

It is the cutest thing ever now as our Kid #3 (our daughter) will run to the door when I am leaving for work and remind me that "Daddies are Hugs and Kisses Powered!" - and then make sure that I get enough hugs and kisses to get me through the day.

There is the odd day where I get off to work before she has a chance to hug me, and when I come home, shes comes running to the door reminding me that I forgot my hugs and kisses, and asking if I had enough "power" for the day. Of course I tell her "no, I was very tired", and she proceeds to give me hugs to make sure I have enough power for whats left.

This is all very cute and adorable. But a while ago, I realized that there may be some "jealousy" issues when Ping arrives.

The boys and I have a great relationship - we do stuff together, hang out, talk, build robots, play games, etc. But with our daughter, it has been different, cuz she has been the only girl. So she hasn't really had to 'share' me before.

Kid #3 wouldn't care if I was building a Robot with Kids #1 + #2. But would she care if I was giving hugs and kisses to Ping when she arrives?

So I started talking to her at bed time about sharing rooms, and sharing toys, and sharing stuff. Kid #3 really is so excited for Ping to arrive! She talks about Pings. Is already collecting toys and dolls for Ping. But when I mentioned that she would have to share her Daddy... well... that didn't go over so well. She was trying to be funny laughing as she said "Nope! I don't have to share my Daddy!". I told her she defiantly DID have to share her Daddy, but that this was a good thing.

The conversation went from there and ended well. She is super excited to have Ping come as quickly as possible, I think she is really looking forward to having a "sister".

But that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop praying for Ping to have an easy transition into the family.