To My Husband on Father's Day

To my husband on his first official Father's Day (because neither of us thought last year's Father's & Mother's Days really counted, with Gabe being in-utero and our parenting skills being a thing of conjecture rather than a reality worthy of a full day of honoring):

Babe, if I thought you were snazzy before, it pales in comparison to how I feel about you now that you've added "father" to your list of life roles. Since Gabe's birth - wait, let's go back even further, during the preparation stage...

You came to OB appointments with me, shared my awe at ultrasound pictures, called me at work to remind me to drink more water...you came to a million baby classes with me, and supported me when I felt like labor induction wasn't what I wanted to do. You held my hand through contractions and encouraged me and advocated for me and held me up and kissed me and told me I was amazing when I pushed Gabriel into the world.

And then you immediately stepped up to fatherhood as you watched the nurses clearing his throat so he could breathe easier, urging them along in their task with fierce protectiveness and anxious concern resounding in your voice. 

You tackled diapering and dressing and swaddling from day one - perhaps a bit worried about handling a tiny baby but not letting it deter you from caring for your son.

When I struggled with breastfeeding, you were in the trenches with me as we first tried feeding Gabe formula via a syringe while I nursed, then formula via a supplemental nursing system, and then you giving him a bottle so I could pump.  You went to every lactation consultant appointment and every baby weight check appointment.  You admitted not fully understanding the depth of my sadness over not breastfeeding, but you let me cry without censure.  And you reminded me that the most important thing was our healthy baby boy.

You took on bath-time as your specialty, and the first bath I gave him was when he was almost three months old.

You took Gabe on a tour of the garage when he was only weeks old, and you put his little hand on the grip of your motorcycle, explaining to him how you guys would ride together when he's older.

You make up songs and stories and you made it a goal to learn the songs I sing to him, like 'Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes', 'Skittamarink-a-dink-a-dink', and 'Abba Dabba Honeymoon', even asking me to write down the words so you could learn them faster.

You can make Gabe laugh harder than anyone, and he adores you.  He starts smiling and waving his arms in excitement the moment he sees you.  If we're at home but you're not, he'll look down the hall to your office as if hoping to see you've appeared, and when you call up the stairs that you're home, he stops what he's doing and stares at the doorway in anticipation.

Watching the tenderness with which you snuggle Gabe and shower him with kisses makes my heart swell and I fall in love with you more every time.  I am so proud to be your partner in parenting, Bret.

Happy Father's Day, I love you!

To My Dad on Father's Day

Dad,

Since I was little, you've been the mark by which I measured any boy/guy/man.

You may have given me away...

...but you will always be the first man I loved.

Happy Father's Day, Dad - I love you!


p.s.  I know this post sounds like a totally cheesy Hallmark card but I really don't mean for it to - although, maybe I should submit it to them and see if I can get a greeting card writer job on the side?!

All because two people fell in love

 On this day, thirty-eight years ago:

...these two crazy kids got hitched.  And I do mean kids.  If Gabe even remotely considers getting married just out of high school I think I just might lock him in the bathroom and set up a tent outside the door to keep watch so he can't escape.  He'll have water and I'll slip him sandwiches under the door.

That having been said:

1) I'm glad my grandparents were more rational than I am and didn't lock either of my parents in the bathroom.

2) I do want Gabe to be happy, so if he decides to get married right out of high school, I will give him the best advice I can based on the circumstances at that time and then pray pray pray pray pray.

Mom and Dad:  your love for each other and the life you've made together is...well, it just IS.  I've been sitting here for five minutes trying to think of how to phrase my thoughts, and "it just IS" feels like the best way to describe it.  Your example has shaped my life, it's been constant, it's a grounding factor for me - it "IS".  You guys get happier as the years go by and truly enjoy each other's company.  Mom still greets Dad at the top of the stairs with a kiss and Dad still surprises mom with "I love you" on the bathroom mirror in Mom's lipstick. 

Happy Anniversary to you two crazy kids!

April Birthdays

Papa T (Bret's dad) turned 60 at the beginning of April!   We decided to spruce up the festivities with some party decorations and while shopping for them, I saw this hat:

...and I decided that we should start a birthday tradition!

Papa T and Meemo - aren't they adorable?!

And another festive onesie for Gabe:

Then Bret's birthday came at the end of April.  A few months ago we borrowed Christina's DVD's of the first five seasons of "The Office" - really funny and we totally got hooked - so in honor of his birthday I made Bret a Dwight-ism birthday banner.

Me:  "Babe, smile"

Me:  "Babe, look at me and smile for real"

Me:  "BABE!!!!"

Me:  "Now was that so hard?"
Bret:  "Yes, actually..."
(We have had similar conversations many, many times over the past 5 years.  How many spouses (mostly men, I suspect) would like to throttle the person who invented the digital camera?)

The Birthday Tradition hat makes a second appearance.  It's possible that the hat will mysteriously disappear after Mary's birthday in July and just as mysteriously reappear in October for Sara and Gabe's birthdays.

After his birthday brunch Bret wanted to go for a hike, so we went up to Barclay Lake and Sara and Jared joined us.

On Bret's actual birthday we repeated last year's activities and bought Bret new running shoes, then went out to dinner for hot wings (Bret's birthday dinner of choice). 

Now, I know what you're thinking.  "Wow - party hats, tennis shoes, and hot wings.  Gabe has a LOT to look forward to."  I figure we're about 10 years away from copying my Great-Grandmother's classic Christmas gift of socks & underwear.  Should be an exciting adolescence for the Gabester.

...And in light of my last post about the Mercer Island Half Marathon, I will leave you with this:  Bret's big birthday gift this year from Gabe and I was a Nike+, which is a transmitter you wear when you run that tracks how far you've gone, your speed per mile, the temperature on Jupiter, the NASDAQ, the relative humidity in France, etc. etc. (obviously I'm being facetious - you can't expect it to track how far you've gone when it's busy with the temperature on Jupiter!).  Anyway, after Bret got his new running shoes, we went to the high school track so he could calibrate it, and I tried again to take pictures using the Continuous Shooting function on my camera that failed me so miserably the day of the Mercer Island Half (or did I fail it?  hmm...).   The results:

 

Look!  Look what I can do!!  Gabe wasn't nearly as excited for me as I wanted him to be.  I think he found my jubilation a bit ridiculous, since obviously there was no picture-taking pressure in this situation...after all, Bret would be coming around the track again in a few minutes! 

Mercer Island Half Marathon

Bret, his mom, & his sister are running another half marathon in a few weeks, which means I better get the post done for the one they ran at the end of March.

Yes, I said the end of March.

Ahem.

Anyway, at the end of March, Bret and his mom ran the Mercer Island Half Marathon.  When they did the Seattle Half last November, my sister Christina came along and we scrambled around Seattle to cheer them along.  For the Mercer Island Half, we added my father-in-law (otherwise known as Papa T) to our cheering section as we zoomed around Mercer Island.  And I have discovered that, for some reason, I hear the Wicked Witch of the West music when I am driving in a hurry to get to the next cheering destination. 

We were amateurs back in November for the Seattle Half, checking the Thomas Guide on the fly and driving willy nilly around Seattle.  But not this time, oh no; not this time.  This time I printed out the course map in advance, estimated Bret's average speed per mile, and jotted down several possible cheering locations.  Oh yes, I was taking this Mercer Island Half Marathon much more seriously.

We got to the first location and settled in to wait.  Christina and I ran a few picture drills to stay alert.  We were determined that our picture taking skills this time around would not turn out like before.   (Taking it much more seriously, indeed.)

But alas...

See, the problem is that in the excitement of the moment - the moment of "There he is!  YAY!!" - everything goes all thumbs and all the picture drills in the world haven't helped. Observe:

Bret on the far left of the picture...

Bret on the far right of the picture...

And that's Mary (i.e. Bret's mom/Meemo) waving from behind the woman wearing #1577 in the foreground.

Sigh.

Well at least we got one good picture at this first stop...Go Meemo!

So it was on to cheering-destination-number-two and hopefully better picture taking.  Mission accomplished as far as the cheering section was concerned:

But the fate was not to be the same for our runners. 

I had remembered that my camera has a snazzy "Continuous Shooting" mode.  Brilliant!  Inspired!  Magnificent!  I would simply hold down the button and let the camera click-click-click away as Bret ran past.  Why hadn't I figured this out earlier??

Well, here's why (and please keep in mind that I wasn't looking at the camera's view screen to see what it was capturing in the moment - I was just holding down the button and moving the camera to follow him as he ran by - so the captions are my thoughts as I was reviewing the pictures later):

"Oh good!  This first one caught him on the left of the screen...but it's so blurry! Hmm..."

"Not as blurry...this is where he was getting ready to hand his backpack off...must've been bothering him to run with it."

"Hey, you're not my husband.  Where did he go?"

"And you're not my husband's legs."

"No really:  where did he go?"

"?"

"?????"

"@#%?!"

"Finally!  But he's so blurry...and close!  Was the camera on zoom?"

"What is that?  His license?  Why would he be handing off his license?  Is it a note?  Ok, Cheryl, that doesn't even make sense.  Why would you think he'd written a note while running a half marathon?  Jeez!  (Stop to ask Wayne what it was)  Ah, the remains of a Gu wrapper.  Now *that* makes sense!"

"Well, darn."

"All that excitement about the Continuous Shooting function and I didn't even get a good picture of him!"

When Mary came by a few minutes later, I had zoomed the camera back out and it made a big difference:

So then it was a mad dash to the finish line to find a place to park the car and cheer them their last few steps.  It was here that I remembered that, earlier in the week when I was commenting to Bret that I hoped the picture-taking worked out better this time around than it had for past runs, Bret had said we should just take a video.

Hmm...sure wish I remembered what Bret had said back at the beginning of the run!  (I also need to note that Christina took the videos...my videography skills have yet to be proven under race-day pressure.  Guess we'll see what happens in a couple of weeks!)

After the race, Gabe revealed his team spirit via his onesie:

After the the run we decided that we should spell it "Meemo" instead.  Every time I see the onesie I chuckle...I still read it as "Memo" (i.e. memorandum - but you probably already knew that, right?  Just making sure.  Wouldn't want you confused as to why I'm chuckling.  Although maybe that adds to my air of mystery.  Or lunacy.  Hmm...)

Good job Mary & Bret!