Preferential treatment

Maddie loves her Daddy.

This is awesome, and I love watching the close, loving relationship they are developing.

But it makes me a little sad how she now refuses (REFUSES) to let me do or help or take part in half the things that he does.

Daddy does bathtime, Daddy does storytime, Daddy does playtime. Daddy does pretty much any and all fun things that Mommy used to do. 

I know (because I am an obsessive Googler) that this is just a stage, and that it happens all the time. One parent gets preferential treatment over the other. A few months ago, nothing Daddy did was right and it was Mommy she cried for. And now it's his turn.

And that's cool, right?

It is. I swear - I'm happy with it. But without sounding like a child myself, I do feel a teeny-tiny, little itsy bit of jealousy (just a smidge, I swear!).

Maybe because it was 18 months of her crying for me. That Mommy was always the best one to chase away the tears. I got used to it. I was the one that slept with the monitor on my side of the bed. I was the one that jumped up to her cries. Iwas the one the learned to cook with a baby on my hip. I was the one who became a pro laundrer with a toddler wrapped around my ankles.

She did everything with me and I did everything with her - and as slow and difficult that made things, I figured it out.

And now (again - disclaimer - I don't want to sound like a child, but I do want to be honest) it feels a bit, I don't know... rejecting... when she could give a care if I was in the room or not.

I still do the wake ups and the daycare pick ups and the etc etc etc. But the minute Daddy walks through the door, the sun rises, or sets. Or whatever that analogy is...

Wow, I really do sound a bit like a petulant child. Huh... 

I guess you figure it out as you go along, and I could be all big and act like I don't care - but the truth is. It hurts. A little bit.

But do I envy and admire the little Daddy's Girl my Miss Button is becoming? 

And do I chuckle a little to myself every day as I see just how wrapped around her pudgy little finger she can make her Daddy?

Abso-flippin'-lutely.

xxoo.S