Dear Journal,

Ellie got her first period today. 

Blaine and I suspected it was coming soon, she’s been home from school with terrible cramps for two days already. But even knowing it was going to happen at some point, did not prepare us for the reality of seeing our baby girl in pain and not being able to make it go away. 

We’ve been keeping her comfortable with hot water bottles and painkillers, and we made sure the bathroom was all stocked for her, but that feeling of powerlessness persisted. 

I’m just incredibly thankful that we’ve always made sure that there are no taboo subjects around our house. It might have been uncomfortable to have to sit through Rachel’s lecture on a woman’s anatomy how to properly deal with a period (especially with Santana cackling in the background), but Ellie’s worth it. 

We may not fully understand what it is like to be a woman and have to deal with the changes that come with that, but at least we are as prepared as we can be to support her in that, whether that means buying her pads or tampons, or letting her go off on a spa day with her Aunties. 

Both Blaine and I have endured a lot of teasing from our male friends over the years about being girl dads, but I’ve always thought that they were missing the point. Bodily functions are the most natural thing in the and they should never be a taboo subject, even if we can never understand them personally. 

Ellie is our baby girl. We helped create her, changed her dirty diapers and kissed her ouchies. I lost track of how many times we had to clean up her vomit or wipe away her blood when she rode her bike a little too fast. 

We raised her to be the young lady she is today. Why should this be any different?

~ Kurt