Chapter Sixteen

Father Daughter Day

 

"Sydney thank you so much for helping your mom and me with decorating for Casey's party."

"Your welcome. He's kinda cute, so I wanted to help."

"Well your help was much appreciated; especially now since your mom is having another baby."

"Another one! Aren't you guys ever gonna stop?"

"What can I say? Your mom enjoys having babies. With the new baby coming it does mean you and Evie will have to share a room."

"What! No way! I don't want to share a room with Evie. She'll ruin my stuff. It's not fair!"

"Calm down. You know her birthday is coming up and she'll be bigger and not as likely to break your stuff."

"Why can't she share a room with Robert?" Sydney asked still not liking the idea of sharing her room.

William sighed a little wondering where Sydney got her selfishness from. "Evie and Robert can't share a room. As soon as Casey is old enough, he'll be sharing a room with Robert. So the plan is Robert will get your old bed and you'll get a bunk beds. So how about you and me going tomorrow and picking out your new bunk bed."

"I can choose anything I want?" Sydney asked warming up to the idea.

"Anything. Then afterwards you and I could go to the art museum and then to the park to ice skate. We'll spend the whole day together."

"Ok that sounds like fun. But I still don't like the idea of sharing a room with Evie, but I guess I'll live."

Smiling a little, William said "I know you don't, sweetheart. But I'm proud of you for be willing to give it a try."

Getting up to clean up her cake dish Sydney asked "What if the new baby is a girl? Can I have my own room then?"

Chuckling a little at her persistence, William said "Princess I'll build you a room of your own when your mom has a girl."

"Great! I'm gonna hold ya to it."

"I know you will but don't get your hopes up. You only have a 50/50 chance of it being a girl."

"I know, I know but I'm betting on this not being your last baby. Mom is baby crazy."

"That she is but it's time for bed young lady, we have a busy day tomorrow." William hugged Sydney before shooing her off to bed so that he could finish cleaning up after the guests.

 

Shopping for bunk beds went fairly quickly as Sydney was more interested in getting to the art museum then in buying bunk beds. She enjoyed art and dreaming of the day when she would be a famous artist with her artwork hanging in every art museum around the world. But mostly she enjoyed the one-on-one time with her dad.

"Dad do you think I'll ever be good enough to have my paintings in a museum?"

"Sure anything's possible. If that's your goal, you have to keep working at it. The most important thing is not to give up on your dreams. No matter what obstacles that might come up that may make you feel like giving up."

"But what if someone says I have no talent?"

"Honey, don't ever let someone's opinion form your opinion of yourself and don't let them take your dream away from you. Always remember that's one person's opinion, don't let it become yours."

The continued to roam the art museum. He appreciated his daughters enthusiasm and hoped that she would attain her goals. He wondered if she would like to go away to an art school when she was older. Maybe that would be something he and Jessica should look into, it might help give her an added boost in her chosen career.

"Honey it's getting late, so if you still want to go ice skating we need to get going."

"Oh alright but we can come back, right?"

"Sure princess."

It was later than William had planned on going skating but there were still plenty of people out enjoying themselves. It had been several years since William had skated, so he was a little shaky on this feet and he wasn't much help in teaching Sydney how to skate.

It wasn't long before other more experienced skaters offered to help. That was when Sydney met Jonas Ingberg. He was older than her about 15 or 16 but she thought he was the cutest boy she had ever met. As she stared at his eyes she would trip and knock into him and they would both fall on the ice. Her heart would skip a beat when he would bend down and help her up. William wasn't sure how he felt about observing his daughters first brush with puppy love but he knew he wasn't ready for the thought of her growing up and dating. But he knew the boy was too old and was only being nice so there wasn't anything to worry about. As it was getting late, he decided it was time they were heading home.