Aside from that, I would have to say the proudest moment with my daughter was when she had her second piano recital. She had already volunteered to go first (and insisted that it was not to get it over with as early as possible). When it was time, she quietly sat down in front of the keys, played her two songs (one was When the Saints Go Marching In) while I sat less than six feet away with my iPhone videotaping this moment. Later I asked her if my being nearby had made her nervous. She said in her truthful way, "no, it made me feel better, daddy." Proud.
The proudest moment with my son was when he swatted his first inside-the-park home run during Little League this year. The entire team was waiting for him when he crossed home plate. I told him he may never get that feeling ever again - that adrenaline rush of rounding the bases without stopping, only to see all of your friends and teammates gathered, cheering only for you. But in reality, if he keeps working at it, he might experience that more than just once.
Every night during the workweek, my children tuck me into bed. That is the luxury of a father who has to go to sleep at 6:30pm. And it is one of those memorable fatherly moments that make you proud and happy.
I asked our "dad" friends on the Action News Facebook page to tell us about their proudest moments have been as a father. Our first response was also about stories and sleepy time:
Don Fox: "When my son reads ME the bedtime story."
Jason Ellis: "Hearing them say 'dad' for the first time."
Dave Dominick: "My first born…at the age of nine months, he was trying to walk and he held himself up and walked and now I can't keep him still…but that's daddy's lil' man. I love him to death."
Joe Graham: "April 8th, 2010, watching my son graduate from Army boot camp."
Luis Rafael Cosme: "When my son Louis came back from Iraq. I went to Fort Dix to receive him and I didn't know how to act, but you can imagine how proud and happy I felt."
Richard J. Chester: "I'm always proud of anything my kids do but when they say they can't do something and they excel at it, that is when I'm the proudest."
John Makin: "Every morning when my daughter wakes up, smiles at me and says 'daddy' and reaches out for that hug!"
Eric Nagy: "I asked my three-year-old son if he wanted to grow up big like his favorite player Ryan Howard. He said, "no, I want to be big like my daddy!"
Steven O'Connor: "Last week my oldest daughter won all of her swim races. I have seen a stronger self-confidence in her ever since, and that is what my wife and I have been working on with her all year."
Kevin McCabe: "The first time I got up with (my daughter) in the middle of the night to feed her."
Thanks dads, keep up the good work, and remember: you rock!
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