text: Saturday, June 9th at 9:30 am After eight hours of labor that's when Ella was born into the world. She was a small thing, but had the cutest smile. Her big adorable hazel eyes were shut as she slept in her father's arms in the living room. Her father, Dave, have been getting along for the couple of weeks and she was surprisingly quiet for a newborn. Dave was pretty happy that the past few days hadn’t been that hard with Ella. And still new to being a father, he didn't think much of it besides that raising Ella will be a piece of cake. Sadly though, the mother of Ella died a few days after their daughter’s birth due to a car accident. It was all because of some guy who was drunk while driving and sadly Jamie was the consequence of the guy’s actions. Dave was devastated when he heard and swore, he would take care of Ella the best he could. He wouldn’t lose her too. He rocked her softly back and forth as she slept. Dave smiled softly at Ella and brushed a few hair strands on her forehead. Ella looked a lot similar to her mother, she had her brown curly hair along with her hazel eyes except her nose which was shaped like Dave’s. He glances up at the clock that read twelve o’clock in the afternoon, then he looked back down at his sleeping daughter and thought, "This won't be so hard, right?" Wrong. It is currently four o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday and for the past five minutes Dave has been trying to get Ella to fall back to sleep. It was exhausting, he tried almost everything. He tried feeding her, rocking her gently... maybe it was her diaper? Nope. Still bouncing the small child in his hands, Dave sat down in a rocking chair. He didn't know what to do, so with this exhausted self he went back to his room, laid in the bed and sat Ella on his chest. He rested his hand on the baby’s side to help hold her up. “Does this help? Because I’m out of ideas.” Ella’s cries slowly came to an end as she was placed on top of Dave. Her hazel eyes started right back at Dave’s green orbs. Her hand moved slightly to his arm and left it there, her tiny little hands started to grip the fabric of Dave’s sleeve. “Oh, I see. If you wanted, you could’ve just asked.” Once again Dave saw Ella’s eyes well up and her lip poked out a bit. Dave chuckled to himself, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I know you can’t, yet.” Ella stopped crying and Dave wiped away the previous tears on her face. Dave saw that she was getting tired again because her eyes were slowly starting to close. He laid her on her stomach on his chest and slowly rubbed her back. “Yep, you are your mama’s child.” Dave says quietly. Ella immediately fell asleep for the rest of the night. 8:30 am Dave had already made his coffee (preferably black) and was about to change Ella’s diaper. Now what Dave didn't do was plan for this. He set Ella on the changing table and held Ella’s feet so she wouldn’t kick him in the process. He opened the bottom half of the yellow onesie she had on then he removed the diaper. ‘Okay, she only did a number one. Thank God.’ Dave silently celebrated as to not cleaning up a number two from Ella. Dave leaned over Ella to get a diaper, big mistake, an instant small stream of pee hit his shirt. His WHITE shirt. Ella made a series of small noises and gargles that kinda sounded like laughter. Dave, with an unamused look on his face, turns to the small child who looked back at him with an amused look in her eyes. “That’s not funny.” 10: 00 am Dave set Ella down in her crib before making his way to the kitchen to get her food. He’s researched plenty of YouTube videos about how to feed a baby and the right amount of baby formula he needs for a two-month old infant. Dave took out the formula and measured four ounces of formula and placed it into the baby bottle. He then added one ounce of water and shook it up well making sure all the formula was mixed inside. When the mixing was finished Dave wrapped Ella in a light grey baby blanket that had cute puppy designs on it. Dave gave her the bottle and after around fifteen to twenty minutes Ella had finished the bottle. Dave set the bottle down on the table across from him. He then set Ella on his lap and held her stomach with his other hand placed on her back. He patted her back to get her to burp which she eventually did. After a few minutes and the bottle was now clean Dave put Ella down for a nap. After he set her in her small crib he walked past a picture of Jamie. He smiled and picked up the picture, caressing it with his fingers. He had missed Jamie dearly and wanted more than anything to have her back. “If only you were her to see this.” He says looking back at Ella then at the picture before setting the picture back down. 2:20 pm After feeding Ella a couple more times after her naps Dave was peacefully sitting on Ella as she played with her rattle until a really bad smell hit his nose. It was as if... “Did you just?” Dave lifted Ella up and turned her around and yep, he found it. Ella had done a number two on his lap and it was not pleasant. Dave took her as quickly as he could to the changing table. He set her down and opened her diaper. The smell of what was inside hit his nose like a train. Dave scrunch up his nose and disgust and held Ellas feet she wouldn’t kick him. “The things I do for you child.” Dave chuckles as he got out a baby wipe. Ella, who had no idea what he was talking about, shook her rattle with no care in the world. 7:50 pm After getting changed into her onesie with stars on it both Ella and Dave were ready for bed. Dave had finally got her to sleep and started to set her down in her crib. Once she was in Dave removed his hands from her slowly only to earn another crying fit. Dave gave an exhausted sigh and picked Ella up again and went back to his bed placing her on his chest. She imminently stopped crying and slowly went back to sleep. Dave had remembered what he said this morning. In a way she was like her mother but... “You are definitely a daddy’s girl.”