"Tony! It's only three days, I'm sure you can handle Kels." Kate says, firmly as I hold our Four-year-old daughter in my arms and Kate is loading up her car full of her suitcases. "I'll be back from Spain, and the case done, before you know it." She continues, shutting the trunk and turning back to me. I give her a kiss, and hand her Kelly. She kisses Kelly's face causing Kelly to giggle before clinging tightly to our daughter.

"Bye Mommy." Kelly says, sweetly

"Bye Baby. Mommy will be home as soon as she can, but until then, you and Daddy are going to get to have some fun time together, Okay?" She croons to Kelly, before handing her back to me. I give Kate one last hug.

"Take care." I whisper

"I will." She whispers back, giving Kelly and I one last kiss each, before getting in the car and driving off.

Kelly starts to sob the minute Kate's car vanishes around the corner.

"It's okay Kell-Belle. Now we get to spend some time together." I say, excitedly to her. Bouncing her on my hip as I try to make her beautiful smile come out again.

She still looks at me tearfully as I shut the door behind me and walk into the living room. Her eyes are the same color as her Mom's and seeing them filled with tears breaks my heart

"What do you want to do today?" I ask her, and she pauses for a moment, before her perfect little toothy smile appears

"Cookies!" She says, firmly "Make Cookies."

"Cookies it is." I agree, carrying her into the kitchen, where I sit her down on the table.

"What type of cookies, Kell-Belle?" I ask her

"Chip! Cho-cho-" She fumbles the word chocolate, so I give her a hand

"Chocolate Chip?"

"Yes!" She squeals happily,

"Chocolate. My kinda girl." I smile, and she gives me a high five

"Music?" I ask her, before I begin pulling out all the ingredients

"Yes! Disney!" she shrieks, clapping her hands together.

I grab my phone and plug it into the speaker. Then I press play on the 'Disney Shuffle Mix' Kate and I made Kelly a long time ago.

"Strangers Like Me" from Tarzan begins to play immediately

I turn up the volume and start putting all the ingredients on the table. Then, I tug Kelly off the table.

"Kell-Belle, will you go get our aprons? I'm going to find you a hairband." I ask her, and she races off to the pantry.

I find an extra hairband in Kate's desk drawer, and return to the kitchen, where Kelly is standing, holding our aprons.

I help her tie hers on, an apron designed to look like the dress of Kelly's favorite Disney character, Belle. I pull mine on, an apron with the Beast on it.

"Daddy! You're the beast!" She giggles.

"I am!" I growl "Roar!" She shrieks with laughter as I chase her around the kitchen table, before I finally catch her, swinging her up in the air, as she laughs.

"Cookie Time, Beast!" She commands, so like her mother.

"One minute Princess. We need to tie up this pretty hair of yours." I answer, pulling her thick dark brown hair into a braid, and tying it with the hairband.

"Ready yet Beast?" giggles Kelly
"Absolutely Princess! Let's make the best cookies ever!" I chuckle as I scoop her up and place her on the table beside the bowls.

We add the butter and sugar, stirring and stirring, her tiny hands under mine, as she laughs. We crack the eggs together and measure vanilla. We level the flour, getting it everywhere in the process, and we pour in the salt and baking soda.

"Time to make everything come together, Beast!" Yells Kelly, as her second favorite part comes up, mixing the wetter batter with the flour batter.

With a cloud of flour puffing up everywhere, she dumps the flour bowl into the butter and sugar bowl.

Grabbing a spoon, we mix it all together.

"Chips!" Smiles Kelly as I bring out the bag of chocolate chips, her favorite part. Per tradition, I open the new bag and we each remove one chocolate chip. We hold it out on our palms and each the chip out of each other's palm. A smile spreads across her face as she tastes the sweet chocolate.

"Together, Princess?" I ask, offering the bag of chocolates to her.

"Yes!" she answers, and we take the bag together before pouring its entire contents into the bowl.

Together, we stir the dough until the chocolates are well mixed in.

Then, I offer her a little spoonful of the dough and I eat one myself.

"Perfect!" she giggles, reaching for another bite.

"Not so fast, princess!" I laugh, tugging the bowl away "We need to bake some."

Using cookie scoopers we make little dollops along four trays and place them in the ovens.

"Now we need to clean up." I explain, gesturing to the egg-coated, flour-covered, dough-patched, chocolate-smeared kitchen.

Kelly pouts at the mention of the word "Clean"

"How about we play a game while we clean?" I suggest.

Kelly's face lights up at the word "game"

"Okay." She nods, like a bobble head, a few strands of her braid coming out and falling along her cheek.

I go over to my phone, which is playing "Just Can't Wait to Be King." From The Lion King

I change it to one of her favorite songs, "In Summer" From Frozen, while Kristof is talking, I grab a dirty spoon, and use it as a microphone and I start singing as my daughter squeals with laughter.

"Bees'll buzz, kids'll blow dandelion fuzz

And I'll be doing whatever snow does

In summer"

I grab some of dirty dishes and put them in the sink, Kelly doing the same as she sings, a smaller spoon in her hand.

"A drink in my hand, my snow up against the burning sand

Prob'ly getting gorgeously tanned

In summer"

I start soaking all the dishes, and wet two paper towels to wipe the table. I hand one to Kelly, and we start wiping the dirt, singing together, grins on our faces

"I'll finally see a summer breeze blow away a winter storm

And find out what happens to solid water when it gets warm

And I can't wait to see what my buddies all think of me

Just imagine how much cooler I'll be

In summer"

I start dancing with her as we use towels to mop the floor, under our feet, in a slippery tango

"Da da, da doo, ah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, boo

The hot and the cold are both so intense

Put 'em together, it just makes sense

Ratdadat, dadadadoo"

I spin her, and we put the towels in the trash, before starting to put the dishes in the dishwasher.

"Winter's a good time to stay in and cuddle

But put me in summer and I'll be a-"

I pause as she shrieks "happy snowman!"

"When life gets rough I like to hold onto my dreams

Of relaxing in the summer sun, just letting off steam"

We finish the dishes and start drying the sink

"Oh, the sky will be blue, and you guys'll be there too"

When I finally do what frozen things do in summer!"

"I'm going to tell him." I admit, playfully to my daughter

"Don't you dare!" She gasps with false disapproval

I scoop her up around the waist and for the last part of the song as we sing in union, I twirl her around in the air.

"In summer!"

She's breathless with laughter as I set her back on her feet, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Now it's time to clean you up, Princess." I laugh, taking her flour-covered apron off and mine, and tossing them in the laundry bin.

"More songs Daddy!" squeals Kelly, wriggling away from me and the sink that I was washing her hands in.

"How about we do something special?" I offer, and she nods

"Go and find a pair of socks, okay, Princess?" I ask, and she runs off

I quickly move the couch in the living room to a side wall, and move the carpet and coffee table, revealing a wide open wood floor.

I take off my shoes, and Kelly runs downstairs in socks.

"Let's Dance." I say, gesturing to our makeshift dance floor.

"Perfect Daddy!" She giggles

"What song?" I chuckle, walking back over to my phone.

"Be Our Guest!" she answers, excited

"Coming up!" I answer

I press play and the song blasts to her joy.

I sing to her, along with the song, as we spin and dance and slide in our socks across the wood floor. We dance through many songs, some of the highlights being "Upendi" from Lion King 2, "Something There" from Beauty and the Beast, "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan and "I've Got a Dream" from Tangled.

"Cookies are done!" Yells Kelly, her palms and nose pressed against the glass of the oven.

I hurry in and make sure she stands away from the oven as I pull out the four trays of cookies.

I carefully take them off the pan and put them on the cooling rack, letting the pans cool in the sink.

"Can we try yet Daddy?" begs Kelly, using the same face her mother does whenever she wants me to do something for her, and I can't resist.

"Only one before dinner, Princess." I answer, picking up one of the biggest and handing it to her, before grabbing one myself. It's really warm and chocolatey and soon, both of us have chocolate all over our faces and hands.

I lean down and I'm about to scoop her up to wash her off, when she kisses the side of my mouth, giggling as the chocolate on my face ends up on her lips.

"You have chocolate on your face Daddy." She laughs

"So do you, Princess." I laugh, kissing her all over her face. "Here. And Here. A spot here. Over here too."

She is shrieking with laughter as I do

Before I know it, she wraps her chocolatey arms around me and gives me a hug, and despite the fact Kate is going to hate getting chocolate out of Kelly's shirt, I wrap my arms around Kelly too.

"Love you, Daddy." She whispers

"Love you too, Princess." I whisper back, kissing her forehead and leaving a chocolate print.

She may look like Kate, but Kelly is a Daddy's girl.