This is the 500th post in the history of this blog, and I'm going to make it about my daughter Melanie

I have three daughters. Three smart, talented, beautiful daughters.

(NOTE: I would say this about them even if it weren't true, because that's my job as Dad. But it just so happens that it's a 100% accurate assessment.)

The oldest two, Elissa and Chloe, are also the first two in overall birth order. Then we had a boy (Jared), followed in 2000 by another girl, Melanie.

It was 5+ years before Jack, our last kid, came along. So for a long time, Melanie was the baby. When she was very little, we started calling her Melanie Moo (for reasons lost to time). Then she became Melanie Schmoo, and later just plain old "Schmoo."

Melanie's boyfriend Jason recently expressed disbelief that we ever called her this, and I can't blame him. It has been a long time since she has been "Schmoo."

She is now, after all, 20 years old. Amazingly, inexplicably 20 years old.

Time always go quickly when it comes to your children, but I feel like it has gone the fastest with Melanie.

It seems like a month ago she was six years old and starting soccer.

Then she was suddenly 11 and the goalie for the team I coached.

And then, maybe 10 minutes later, she was a high school senior playing forward...and getting herself involved in student government and all of the other extracurriculars in which The Smart Kids get involved.

And now she is a college sophomore. She is doing all of the things you do to set yourself up for a successful life, and I love to talk about her because I'm always so proud of her.

Of course, we all have areas of improvement. Melanie tends to be lazy. And not just regular old lazy, but Grade A, major league, highly impressive lazy.

Not all the time, mind you. She has a job in addition to attending school, and she was recently named Employee of the Month. She works hard when she wants to.

But when she doesn't want to, the lengths to which she'll go to avoid any sort of exertion are stunning.

Like, she'll be sitting on the couch and want a glass of water. She will always ask me to get it for her, because she knows I'm the only one who will do it.

I am her father. She is my daughter. If she asked for the moon, I would call NASA and see what it would take to bring it home.

So I always say yes. Or at least I want to say yes. Sometimes other family members are in the living room when she makes these requests, and they demand that I make her get up and get the glass of water for herself.

This makes me sad because I want to get it for her, but I know the best thing is for her to learn to do things even when she doesn't want to. That's how life works.

Anyway, if that's the worst thing anyone can say about her, then I think she's doing pretty well. I love her.

Also, she asked me when I was going to write a blog post about her, so this is it.

It's also post #500 since this blog began under a different name nine years ago. Thanks to everyone who has taken this journey of fits and starts with me since 2011!