Archive for the ‘dads’ Category

As much as I am loving this time to be home with Bean Man, I am still job hunting.  I used to be really uncomfortable staying home, but part of this whole Bloom Where You Are Planted thing is coming to peace with where I am right now and right now, I’m home during the days.  Actually, I’m getting pretty good at it now!  I’m much better at play dates, I’ve made some really nice friends with other SAHM’s here, and I’ve completely gotten used to being out and about during the day by myself with Bean.

The thing is, I’ve gotten so good at filling mine and Bean’s days with fun things that sometimes Chris feels a little left out.  When we’re on the go all day long doing fun things, I can tell when I talk to him that night that he wishes he’d been able to go with us.  Lately, I’ve been making an effort to make sure that he doesn’t feel left out of anything.  Now, we use weekends to do a lot of “Firsts.”  Like, the first time we took Bean to a pool was on a weekend with Daddy and the first time we let Bean order off of the restaurant menu was on a weekend with Daddy.  None of those things are milestones or will probably be significant looking back at Bean’s childhood, but they go a long way to make sure Chris knows how important he is in Bean’s growth.  After we’ve had the “First” with Chris on the weekends, I can add it to my regular rotation of activities we do during the week without feeling like I’m experiencing anything with Bean that Chris would miss out on.

Does that make sense?

On Friday night, Chris and I were up late watching Season One of The Shield (holy smokes what a show!  wowza!) and in the middle of one particularly intense scene, Chris looked over to me out of the blue and said, “Let’s take Bean to the zoo tomorrow.”

Now, I know this is going to sound melodramatic and ridiculous, but I could actually FEEL myself fall more in love with him when he said it.  It wasn’t the zoo that was important to me.  It was that Chris was thinking of things for us to do as a family together.  Knowing that Chris LIKES spending time with us and that he WANTS to be there with us is something that I don’t take for granted.  Lots of dads aren’t like that and I know how lucky we are to have one who is.

So, Saturday morning, we got up and headed to the Central Florida Zoo.  We spent the morning there seeing all the animals and making animal sounds with Bean.  This zoo had a little splash park inside of it, too, so when it got hot around lunch time, we changed into Bean’s swimming trunks and let him splash around for a while before we headed home.  Bean Man was asleep before we even pulled out of the parking lot.  It was a big day.

Blooming where you are planted is hard stuff, man!  You have to be sure you are blooming as an individual, blooming as a couple, and blooming as a family.  That’s a lot of bloomin’ blooming!  But each step is important and to fall short in one area can throw all the others out of whack.

This is one of the many hundreds of thousands of reasons that I am thankful to be married to someone who is not just willing, but who WANTS to hold my hand and bloom along beside me.  And who makes the effort to be there to bloom together as a family.

Because seeing his parents make that effort together is what will give Bean the confidence and security to bloom on his own his whole life.

Today I woke up and it seemed like an important day for some reason, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it…

Were my taxes due?  No….

Was it the first day of school?  No….

Had I won the lottery?  Definitely no…

Did we have company coming?  No…

And then I rolled over in bed to face this guy, and I remembered.

Today is my honey bunny’s birthday!!!!

Happy birthday to the man who makes every day exciting.

Happy birthday to the man who reminds us to stop and relax every now and then.

Happy birthday to the man who fixes things when I break them.

Happy birthday to the man who pushes Bean WAY higher on the swings than I think is appropriate.

Happy birthday to the man who lets us hug and kiss and climb all over him.

Happy birthday to the man who makes me laugh till I snort.

Happy birthday to my partner in crime, my chef, my mechanic, my humorist, my confidant, my proofreader, my adviser, my counselor, my cuddler, my best friend, my hubby, my Pookey.

You make every day better than yesterday.

I love you.

Because you check on Michael every night before you go to bed, even if I was just in there.

Because you talk like Mickey Mouse.

Because you share your pretzels and cucumbers with Michael.

Because you go to church with us even though you’d rather sleep in.

Because you get Michael’s crib ready for bed every night.

Because you go straight to him when you get home from work.

Because you know where the tickle spots are.  For both of us.

Because you watch Sid the Science Kid.

Because you walk around with Michael on your shoulders.

Because you’re teaching Michael what sound a dolphin makes, even though that’s such a strange thing to teach him.

Because you cook dinner for us every night.

Because you switched to whole milk.

Because you keep me from dressing Michael like a nerd.

Because you can sing the entire children’s CD in the car.

Because you show Michael every picture of family in our house every single day.

Because I can’t find a picture of you in the past year without Michael in it.

Because you tell everyone that you have the coolest kid ever.

Because you go to work every day so that you can provide for us.

Because you moved across the country for your family.

Because you miss Michael when he spends one night with my parents.

Because the first thing you took to your new office was a picture of your son.

Because you are so excited about building a tree house that you point them out to me in other people’s yards.

Because you don’t want to miss anything that happens in Michael’s life.

Because you call during the day just because you miss us.

Because you never get frustrated.

Because you don’t even know how good of a Dad you are.

Because you tell us how much you love us every day.

There are so many reasons that you are a good father, Chris.  But I don’t have to list them here.  You can look at Michael and at the person that he is becoming and you know what kind of dad he has.  You make my life better and you make Michael’s life fuller.  Thank you for taking care of us, making us laugh, and being there for us every day.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!

We love you,

Mom and Michael