When my son was 9 months old his father called to say he wouldn't be seeing him anymore. This is when our son became my son. At that moment I vowed to raise him not be like his father. Several years ago while on vacation he wanted a doll that was dressed in a baseball outfit at a shop we were at. He loved him so much and slept with him at night for the longest time and he was the best "daddy" to Marlin. (He named him after a fish). That's when I realized that him being such a loving, caring, sensitive kid had nothing to do with his father at all, it had everything to do with me being a mother.