To A Sleeping Beauty

To A Sleeping Beauty - Jimmy Dean

Dear daughter I tiptoed to your room tonight

And I looked down at you smiling in your sleep

You were so lovely my heart nearly broke

And I thought how very 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 grownup for that sort of thing

You're so quickly approachin' my awkward age

Too young to drive a car and yet too old to be carried

Into 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

Leavin' behind your measles mumps

Freckles bumps bubblegum 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-jeaned and pig-tailed

The neighborhood's best tree-climber

Tomorrow you'll be blue-organdie and pony-tailed

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

Ha ha yesterday you could get lost

One aisle away from me in a supermarket

Now I have to worry about losin' you

Down another aisle to some strange young man

You see just at the point where your growing pains stop mine begin

Yesterday you were kind of a pain in the neck when you were around

Tomorrow you'll be an ache in my heart when you're 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 set out a dance with you

The clock upstairs is countin' the minutes for you

And the sky upstairs is savin' it's brightest stars

And the sun is waitin' with it's shiniest day

Oh I can't expect you to live in a dollhouse forever

Sooner or later the butterfly sheds it's cocoon

And the smallest bird must try it's wings

But when you grow up and out of my arms

When you finally get too big for my shirts

I'll still recall how you used to scatter dust and dolls

And partially through every room in the house

But you spread sunshine too

The dust is settled your mom picked up the dolls

But the sunshine will always fill the corners of our hearts

So here I am talkin' in your sleep

Because well if you saw this look on my face you'd laugh

And if I spoke with this lump in my throat I'd cry

Yeah honey when I looked at you tonight you were a Sleeping Beauty

So I tiptoed over and I kissed you

You didn't wake up I knew you wouldn't

According to the legend

Only the handsome young prince can open your eyes

And I'm just the father of a future bride

So you sleep on pretty thing

Tomorrow you'll awake and you'll be a young lady

And you won't even realize

That you've changed courses in the middle of a dream

But you might notice this little change in me

I look a little different somehow a little sadder

A little wiser but a whole lot richer

Tonight I kissed a princess and I feel like a king