From the time our daughter was just about a year to just over 2 years old we'd periodically get woken up to the sounds of her giggling to flat out cackling and squealing in excitement. When either of us would get up to see what the fuss was about she'd be standing or sitting at any of the 3 sides of her crib looking up.
One day I was holding her and walking from each framed photo of family members. I'd point to those in the pics and say, "Who's that?"
I pointed to her mom, myself, my mom, my mil, my sil, my brother, his wife. Each time she'd say her word for that person.
There was a collage with a number of people, memories of the past my wife and I made and framed. There were family and friends who were no longer with us/passed on, including my father who'd passed away a decade before our daughter was born. I started pointing at people and if she didn't know them she'd look at me real fast and hold the palms of her hands up like "I don't know."
So I'd point to the person again and say their name. She'd do her best to repeat it.
In the collage was a pic of my late father and I. I pointed to me. She said Da-da! I pointed to my father and she got all excited. She started bending her knees in my arms raising up and down giggling with the biggest smile. She raised her arms up in the air and looked at the ceiling and said loudly, "Papa! Papa! Papa-Papa-Papa-Papa!" She kept giggling and saying "Papa!"
I had chills and my wife was looking at us with wide eyes. I started to tear up. For one, no one had ever shown her a photo of my father. We didn't have one hanging up in the rooms where she frequented. No reason. We just didn't have very many big photos of him. For two, she'd never said the word before. Not ever. Lastly, my brother lives halfway across the country and at that time he had only seen my daughter once. He has one daughter, but she was in college when we visited him so she'd never met our daughter. But.. My niece spent a lot of her early life around my late father before my brother relocated. "Papa" was what my niece called my father and he loved being called Papa.
Her reaction had my wife and I thinking and admittedly hoping that maybe, just maybe, all those times we had woken up to our daughter giggling/laughing and squealing in delight, it was my late father paying her a visit.
submitted by /u/RabbitOfCaerbonnog
[link] [comments]From the time our daughter was just about a year to just over 2 years old we'd periodically get woken up to the sounds of her giggling to flat out cackling and squealing in excitement. When either of us would get up to see what the fuss was about she'd be standing or sitting at any of the 3 sides of her crib looking up. One day I was holding her and walking from each framed photo of family members. I'd point to those in the pics and say, "Who's that?" I pointed to her mom, myself, my mom, my mil, my sil, my brother, his wife. Each time she'd say her word for that person. There was a collage with a number of people, memories of the past my wife and I made and framed. There were family and friends who were no longer with us/passed on, including my father who'd passed away a decade before our daughter was born. I started pointing at people and if she didn't know them she'd look at me real fast and hold the palms of her hands up like "I don't know." So I'd point to the person again and say their name. She'd do her best to repeat it. In the collage was a pic of my late father and I. I pointed to me. She said Da-da! I pointed to my father and she got all excited. She started bending her knees in my arms raising up and down giggling with the biggest smile. She raised her arms up in the air and looked at the ceiling and said loudly, "Papa! Papa! Papa-Papa-Papa-Papa!" She kept giggling and saying "Papa!" I had chills and my wife was looking at us with wide eyes. I started to tear up. For one, no one had ever shown her a photo of my father. We didn't have one hanging up in the rooms where she frequented. No reason. We just didn't have very many big photos of him. For two, she'd never said the word before. Not ever. Lastly, my brother lives halfway across the country and at that time he had only seen my daughter once. He has one daughter, but she was in college when we visited him so she'd never met our daughter. But.. My niece spent a lot of her early life around my late father before my brother relocated. "Papa" was what my niece called my father and he loved being called Papa. Her reaction had my wife and I thinking and admittedly hoping that maybe, just maybe, all those times we had woken up to our daughter giggling/laughing and squealing in delight, it was my late father paying her a visit. submitted by /u/RabbitOfCaerbonnog [link] [comments]
