4 Lovely Women

The girls and I went to the mall yesterday.

This giant pin is one of their favorite things to see when we go to the mall.  We made our usual rounds, and saw our usual things, the pin (of course), the fountain, the turtles, and the ducks.

They were trying to watch the duck, but I think the duck got the better show.  The middle one (in age) is trying to touch her hair in the water.  the oldest I think has had enough , and the duck, well I'm pretty sure she is thinking, "here we go again.  Some stupid kid is going to fall in.  I am just going to stand over here out of the way."
After we played with the duck we went to do one of our other favorite activities, ride the escalator.  When we reached the top something happened that revealed my future to me.  The girls stepped of the escalator look up into the heavens of the second floor of the mall and their jaws dropped.  Just then their mother said, "who wants to go to the make-up store?"  From the escalator they had seen this eden of womanhood, and even though they have never been allowed to wear make-up, they instinctively knew that this store was exciting, mysterious, grown-up, and where they needed to be.  They squealed as if they were in junior high, and yelled as they jumped up and down thrusting their hands in the air, "I do, I do."
They entered this shop as if they were entering Cinderella's castle.  This would make them princesses.  As soon as we entered the store a sales woman came over and said, "Hi ladies."  They gleamed with excitement.  Their dreams were coming true, they were grown-up ladies.  "Can I help you find something?"  The sales woman asked.

 "We are looking for lip gloss."  Their mother answered.  "Here, Lindsay will show you where it is."  And off they went with lindsay to find the lip gloss.
They found it, and began to pick their favorite colors and try it on.

All four of the girls were excited.  There was a flurry of activity, and they were all talking 90 to nothing. It was almost too much for my male brain to handle, and I was contemplating going to my empty square when I remembered a conversation I had with Barry Nash.  Barry is in his 50's and has two daughters.  I was directing him in a play when we got to talking about being the only man in a house full of women.  His daughters are grown now, so I was hoping to pickup some points of survival.
He said to me...
"There will come a time when you walk into your house and want to talk to someone about what is going on in your life.  As you try to do this, you will realize no one in this house understands me.  Not only that, but they don't care to."
Here in the make-up store, I could feel that moment beginning to creep its way into my life.  I told the Barry Nash story to my wife, and told her that sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to have a son.  Because, let's be honest, I think almost every guy thinks about having a son, and how he's going to rear him.
"Oh stop it."  she said, as she figuratively slapped me in the face.  "What."  I thought.  "I don't understand this sudden feeling of aggression."  "You are lucky to have 3 daughter.  Because we all know that daughters love their daddy's best, and when you are older you will have 4 girls that all love you to death."  She said, as the reality of these words tugged at my heart.
"Aw, you still love me."  I said.  "Shut up."  She answered, and in that moment I knew she did.  Then I looked at these 3 beautiful young girls, and saw how happy there were to be in the make-up store, and like the grinch, my heart grew 3 sizes.  Then one at a time they came over to me and asked how they looked.  "Like a princess."  I said.