Noelle

Noelle Catherine LaPre,

How are you today?

Are you fine, are you good,

Are you doing all you should

To be a good little girl?

I sang this song to my beautiful baby daughter almost every day for the first three months of her life. Noelle suffered from colic and falling asleep was very difficult for her. So I would walk her round and round through our house, from the kitchen, to the family room, into the living room and dining room, and back through the kitchen until she finally fell asleep.

If she was suffering from a particularly severe bout of colic, Cindy and I would put her in the car and drive her around the neighborhood until she dropped off to Dreamland.

When Noelle was born, I was in my fifteenth year of teaching. I thought I knew everything there was to know about kids. Noelle taught me differently. When you're a teacher, you do the best you can to educate and socialize your students, but at the end of the day you send them home to their parents. As a parent, the responsibility of turning a little person into a responsible citizen can be overwhelming. Being a teacher is easy compared to being a father. In my twenty-five years of teaching I probably taught over two thousand students. In my thirteen years of being a parent, I have fathered one child: Noelle. She has taught me through her love, respect, and kind nature that I have what it takes to be a good father.

There have been mistakes, plenty of them. Walking Noelle in a snowstorm as a baby to see the Christmas Parade in Estes Park springs to mind, but the only damage done was to my own ego for being so stupid and careless. Bumps and bruise, cuts and scratches come to all kids, but if they receive the care and attention they need, they know they are loved.

I sang the little ditty mentioned earlier to Noelle until she was two. Then carrying and walking her became too difficult for me physically. I missed our little walks, but they were now beyond my physical abilities.

Noelle taught me that I had so much more to offer her beyond my physical abilities. I read to her, played board games with her, and watched her grow into a graceful dancer. Noelle is my chance to give a child something I never had while I was growing up: comfort, security, and opportunity.