Longhorn in Paradise

When you have a daughter like Liska, the term "sweet" can begin, at some point, to lose its value. It seems everything she does we label as "sweet" or "precious" or "obnoxious". Not so much the last one, but, as you all now know, she has her moments.

So, this past weekend, Liska brought sweet to a new level. You see, we spent the weekend down in Huntington Beach at the Bank of the West Beach Games. It is an Arrowhead (Nestle product) sponsored event that showcases The US Open Surfing Championships and other X game competitions like BMX, skateboard and Motocross events. We get VIP passes and sit in the sky boxes and watch it above the heads of the common folk/riff raff that show up for these events. Anywho, during the drives to and from Valencia and from the beach to our hotel, Liska requested (and of course got to listen to) Closing Time on the CD player. For those of you who don't recall this catchy little diddy from a few years back, it is by Semisonic and goes something like this:

Closing Time, one last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer
Closing Time, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here....

I know who I want to take me home....(3x)

So, like her papa, Liska is very adept at learning the words to songs after a few listens. So, she would sing along to the song as it played and then sing it whenever we were out and about. I didn't realize how proud she was of herself until I would sing it with her and she would get a huge smile on her face and sing even louder.

I'm not to the sweeter than sweet part yet, so hold on to your hats...

So, when we got home on Sunday, we planned dinner with the Browns. When we told Liska, she announced that she could sing Closing Time to Claira and Annalee. She was so sincere about it! So, in the next half hour or so, you could tell she was practicing it. She really wanted to impress her friends with her new song that she loved so much.

I should note here that the only way that Kat and I know she is singing Closing Time is because we both love the song and we know what she is trying to do....the words are not very decipherable, but the tune is.

Anyway, we finally head down to the Browns and Liska again announces "I can sing Closing Time for Claira and Annalee!" I'm a little nervous now because I know how much this means to her and I am fearful she will be frustrated that noone knows what she is talking about. As a doting father, I never want to see my daughter deal with any psychological pain. Not like I did growing up in a house full of drunks and drug addicts..that's right mom and dad..it is all out in the open now! muhahahahaha

Sorry. Just wanted to make sure peeps were paying attention. :-)

So, we get to the Browns and as soon as Claira is done serving Liska some pizza, Liska busts into song. Full force. I can hear it behind me and I turn around to see what the reaction is from Claira and Annalee...maybe they are rapt with attention at this beautiful girl singing her hearts out for them...maybe they cannot believe their ears that they are hearing a modern, popular song being sung by a two year old (as opposed to the Little Einstein theme song)...or, as it was, maybe they continued to eat their pizza without a glance in Liska's direction. Poor Liska I thought. My heart sunk...but only for a moment. Until I realized that Liska really didnt' seem to care who was paying attention. She just kept singing like she was the star of this show...in fact, her eyes were closed, so she may have thought we were all there, watching her, waiting for her to finish, so we could give her a standing ovation...

She ended the song, opened her eyes and looked around, I started clapping and saying "yeah Liska! That was beautiful." She lit up with a huge smile and said, simply, "I sing Closing Time for Daddy!". Yes you did my sweet little girl...yes you did.