The sisters relate to each other...

As a Daddy Blogger, I find myself in a unique situation: I have a 15 year old step-daughter and a two year old daughter. I feel that this gives me a different perspective. I came into Kat’s life when she was four years old, so I missed the diapers and the slow development of her language skills. I’ve watched her grow up and marveled at her dreams and the decisions that she’s made. Even though I’ve had those eleven years of being a Daddy, with Calli it feels like I’m a brand new Daddy. Now I get the diapers and laugh at the way she reasons out words. Bunnies are ‘hoppies’ for instance. Doggies are ‘goggies’. With a new baby boy on the way in August, that’ll be a whole new world, as now I’m so used to girls, what do I do?

Which brings me back to the big bad teenager. As she grows older, our tastes and opinions are starting to spread further and further apart. When kids are young, they generally like what you like, so it’s easy to relate. As they get older, they gain more opportunities to explore the world without you there. I think Kat read all the Twilight books before I knew it was such a big deal. I just watched the movie and still don’t get it.

When Kat was young, she was in to super hero comics. Powerpuff Girls ran supreme, but she also enjoyed Batman and Superman. Our tastes were similar. I discovered Ranma 1/2 and brought home the anime (Japanese animation). It was all over. Kat is still a veracious comic reader, but now it’s pretty much strictly manga (Japanese comics). I enjoy manga too, but a different ‘flavor’ than her.

Kat's taste in Manga generally looks like this...

We both still love Science Fiction (we can totally agree on ‘Firefly‘ forever!), I’m toying with the idea of driving down the mountain for Starfest this weekend, snowstorm from heck permitting, and I decided to ask Kat if she wants to go.

“That depends. Is it that science fiction that you like?”

I laughed. “The science fiction that I like? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, like, I don’t want to say Ray Bradbury, but I don’t like Ray Bradbury that much…”

You could probably hear the audible cracking of my heart…

“…but, you know, those books you like.”

I laughed again. “Well, let’s see. The guests you’ll probably care about are Brent Spiner, you know, Data on Next Gen? And…”

My taste in Manga. See what I mean?

She stopped me right there, as I predicted. “If Data’s there, I’m going!”

So I guess I can still relate a little, after all! Now if the weather can go easy on us, hopefully we’ll see Data together tomorrow!

*On a personal note, as if this post hasn’t revealed how much of a geek I am already, I have volunteered to teach a class on creating comics at my local public library. My credentials basically consist of the librarians noticed I was in there every other day checking out graphic novels with a different character on my t-shirt every time. The kids are very interested in Manga, so I’ve enlisted Kat’s help. She promised to just kick back and laugh at me. I hope she’s kidding!  I know that somehow I’ve attracted a couple of comics professionals to this blog, so any friendly advice would be greatly appreciated!