Some conversations are too precious to forget. Others are so funny that they deserve to be written down. And sometimes, the most memorable conversations happen before a child can even speak.
This series began in 2020, when my daughter, Ishie, arrived in our lives after sixteen years of waiting.
The world was going through an extraordinary time. The COVID-19 pandemic had brought much of everyday life to a standstill. People were staying home, families were separated, and uncertainty was everywhere.
But inside our home, a completely different world was unfolding.
There was a little girl who needed to be fed, changed, comforted, and occasionally persuaded to sleep. There was her mother, who seemed to understand every little sound she made.
And then there was me.
I talked to Ishie constantly, even though she was far too young to answer in words. I imagined what she might be thinking when I woke her up, sang to her, changed her diaper, or tried unsuccessfully to understand why she was crying.
Gradually, those imaginary conversations became little stories.
In those stories, Ishie had a personality all her own. She was curious, confident, mischievous, and remarkably good at questioning her father’s intelligence.
And I was usually the one who ended up looking foolish.
I called these early stories “Ishie, Daddy Calling!”
As Ishie grew, something wonderful happened. The conversations I had once imagined began turning into real ones. She started asking questions, making observations, expressing opinions, and occasionally leaving me without a convincing answer.
I realized that these were moments I wanted to preserve.
What began as a collection of imaginary conversations gradually became a way of preserving the little moments of her childhood.
Some conversations in this series are real, while others, especially those from Ishie’s earliest days, are how I imagined she might have responded to the world around her. All of them are inspired by moments we shared.
They are not intended to be a chronological record of every event in her life. They are simply moments that made me laugh, think, wonder, or appreciate the experience of being her father.
I hope that one day, when Ishie reads these stories, she will discover not only what she was like growing up, but also how her father saw the world through her eyes.
And perhaps she will finally understand why I kept saying:
“Ishie, Daddy Calling!”