Appear excited to follow dad (3,2)
I believe the answer is:
pop up
'appear' is the definition.
(popping up is a kind of appearing)
'excited to follow dad' is the wordplay.
'excited' becomes 'up'.
'to follow' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'dad' becomes 'pop' ('pop' can be a synonym of 'dad').
'up' after 'pop' is 'POP-UP'.
(Other definitions for pop up that I've seen before include "Appear (like toast?)" , "book for youngster" , "Appear suddenly or unexpectedly" , "three-dimensional picture book" , "which may interrupt computer user" .)