When our daughter was very young, he would sit on the floor and let her brush his hair into spikes, tipping them with rubber bands.

He let her smear makeup on his face, and sat through dinner with one eyelid coated in blue eyeshadow, the other in green, his cheeks bright red with blush and lipstick on his chin, and acted as if it was perfectly ordinary.

Because I had no idea about imaginary tea parties, he bought her a tiny set of cups and a teapot, and introduced her to the concept of quiet afternoons with imaginary friends, and he spent hours talking to dolls and stuffed animals, just because it made her laugh.

When she was five and too excited about the idea of going to school to wait, he sat with her on his lap and taught her to read, and the first time she read an entire page to him without prompting, he held her close and danced her across the room.

At her first piano recital, he cheered. At her last, he was moved to tears.

Tonight, the boys were with my dad, so it was just the three of us; he helped her with dishes after dinner and I left them alone in the kitchen, where it took them nearly an hour to do something that should have really only taken fifteen minutes. I could hear them from the living room; she was chattering on about her friends and school and her upcoming birthday party, and he listened patiently, laughing when he should and not asking the questions I know he wanted to.

Before we were married, when we were getting to that place where we both knew that we weren't dating just to date but that we were heading towards marriage, and had gotten the nerve to discuss kids, he admitted that more than anything he wanted a daughter. He wasn't worried about having boys to carry on the family name; his brother had seen to that, and he just wanted a little girl.

Lately he's realized that having a little girl really does mean that one day he's going to turn around and find that she's not little anymore, and someday she'll turn to someone else instead of him, and I think it breaks his heart just a little.

But he has something that all her future boyfriends and future spouse don't; no matter what, she loved him first. And no matter what, she'll always love him.