Happy Father's Day

After swimming lessons, we spent the afternoon out at Grandpa Ben's farm with Grandpa Bob and Grandpa Ben's friends John and Carolyn.  We had a cookout and sugar cream pie, the state pie of Indiana.

Like Indiana, it's sweet, but a little weird.

Happy Father's Day to all of you who are dads.  It's not an easy job.

Bonus Post!

July 4, 2011

I'm such an overachiever with this resolution stuff! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUMPA!!!!!

Winning!

I just posted this picture on Easy Canvas Prints's Facebook page to enter a contest.  If you deem it worthy, click over and hit "like" for me, would you?  (I think you have to "like" their page before you can "like" my picture.)

Do you ever want to share something awful - something that's sad news, but important - but you just can't bring yourself to click "like" on it? 

Email

"Jack just sent his first email to the Air Force."

Happy Father's Day!

When I chose a father for my kids, I was so smart. I took all the best qualities of 

and 

plus some of

and

and I found one man who possesses all the best qualities of all the dads in my life.

I didn't know it at the time, but I'm so glad that he already had a whole bunch of

And it was a surprise to find that he even shared some of the qualities that made

...so special.

Add up all of those great men, plus 10 years and three kids, and you get

To all of the dads who taught me to recognize the best daddy I could have possibly dreamed of for my kids, and to my kids' dad, thank you for everything that you are, and everything that you do.

Happy Father's Day!

35

Happy birthday to the best husband and father in the universe.  We love you so much.

From the Mouths of Dads

I wrote the other day about how our society's screwed up perception of all men as predators hurts men, and ultimately hurts children...  Rob commented on that post.  I don't want anyone to miss what he said, because this is exactly what I'm talking about.  With his permission, here's Rob:

I am in the same situation as BJ - I feel very awkward when coming into contact with other people's children if I do not know their parents really, really well. I volunteer in the church nursery every Sunday and refuse to change diapers because I just don't want to deal with the hassle when we have paid folks in there to do it. The room is often full of children and anywhere from three to seven adults, but I just won't do it. (And it's not just because poop stinks!)

I had direct experience with the “Stranger Danger” feeling on Tuesday night when I took Abby to the mall for dinner, just the two of us. When we were walking through the mall while holding hands I got smiles and “aww, how sweet” comments the whole time. When we went to the playground part of the mall, she shot in well before I did, after throwing her shoes at me. Everyone accepted the child that was running around, but nobody associated her with me.

Strange looks were shot around as soon as I walked into the playground, by myself, and started scoping things out. Every parent took time to scope out where their child was in relation to me. It was palpable, and very awkward. I got Abby’s attention and made her come over and give me a big hug and a quick tickle and all of the sudden I was in conversation with the moms and dads around me.

It was such a change that I noticed it. I guess it’s the first time in a long time that I have taken Abby out by myself to someplace like that.

I don’t have a solution for how to change the perceptions, but I can tell you that they are real, and they affect the way that I choose to do some things now, and that makes me sad.

This is what I'm talking about.  Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences, Rob!