To A Sleeping Beauty - Jimmy Dean

Dear daughter, I tiptoed in your room tonight and I looked down at
you smilin' in your sleep. You were so lovely my heart nearly broke;
and I thought how much like Sleeping Beauty a little girl is. When I
tuck you in at night I never know how old you'll be when you wake. One
evening you crawl on your dad's lap and throw your arms around his neck,
the next morning you might be much too grown up for that sort of thing.

 You're so quickly approaching the awkward age, too young to drive the
car and yet too old to be carried in the house half asleep on daddy's
shoulder. I have a secret that I've never told you, Sleeping Beauty,
you're going on a very exciting trip. You'll travel from yesterday all
the way to tomorrow. It's a rapid journey and you'll travel light,
leaving behind you - measles, mumps, freckles, bumps, bubble gum and me.

 I promise not to feel too hurt when you discover that the world is more
important than your daddy's lap. Yesterday you were blue jeans and pig tails,
the neighborhood's best tree climber. Tomorrow you'll be blue organdy and
pony tails and you'll view the world from a loftier perch - a pair of high
heel shoes.

 Yesterday you could mend a doll's broken leg with a hug; tomorrow you'll
be able to break a young man's heart with a kiss. Humh! Humh! Yesterday you
could get lost one aisle away from me at a supermarket - now I have to worry
about losing you down another aisle to some strange young man. You see,
just at the point where you're growing pains stop, mine begins. Yesterday
you were kind of a pain in the neck when you were around, tomorrow you'll
be an ache in my heart when your not.

  Tomorrow you'll lay aside your jump rope and tie up the telephone lines
and that little boy that used to push you in the mud; well, he'll fight to
sit out a dance with you. The clock is countin' the minutes for you and the
sky upstairs is savin' its' brighest stars; - and the sun is waitin&#