Holidays always give me an excuse to take too many pictures – but I really outdid myself today. It was not only Father’s Day, but Grandma Janie’s birthday, so we decided to head down to church so that Grandma and Grandpa could partake in their favorite pastime: showing off their Grandson. Brendan obliged in great form – waving, clapping, pointing, and calling out in church when he saw Grandma singing in the choir, and Grandpa giving the prayer at communion. Luckily, we go to a church where people smile when babies yell in church.
Our day started early. Earlier than expected when Brendan decided to wake up for the day at 5:30. I like the way Rob explained this to his parents by saying that he was really getting his moneys worth out of Father’s Day. I’ll be honest – Rob and I were a bit exhausted. We tried to cram a lot into our Saturday (there’s a birthday party next weekend, you know…) and ended the week of Brendan’s stomach flu, and a very hot day with a bit of champagne and cheese. We were not overjoyed to get up at 5:30.
I have come to enjoy reading a couple of Mom Blogs. Not the ones where people try to tell you the right way to be a parent and then everyone leaves inflamed comments. I don’t like those at all. For the record, I don’t think there is a ‘right’ way to parent. I think (I hope) each family does the best job they can loving and raising their unique little miracles. So it might not be surprising that the Mom Blogs I like are the ones that are oozing with love, even when things don’t always go as expected. One that I recently started reading is by a Mom who has two daughters – one of whom was born with limb deformities. Among her inspiration through just being a regular Mom to a couple of regular girls who each have different strengths and talents and struggles – each week she does a ‘special needs’ spotlight. This week she highlighted a Mom whose daughter Piper is 5 years old, and has never been allowed to leave the hospital. There was a quote in this interview that slayed me:
Question: Since you have such an a-typical situation with Piper living in a hospital, do you ever dream about doing ‘normal’ things with Piper that maybe the rest of us stay at home moms might take for granted? If so, what are they?
Mom’s Answer: Is this the kind of blog that I can swear on? Like mine? Because if it were I would say “Yes, oh {explicit} yes.”. But if it’s not, I’ll just say a polite “YES!”. I have a huge list of things I would do with Pippy. Some of them are big, like take her to the beach or show her around the south where I grew up. And some are small, like take her home and put her down for a nap in the crib she hasn’t ever used in the nursery she’s never been in. I actually wish I could be woken up by her in the night. I wouldn’t mind cleaning up a cluttered living room of Pip’s toys, or folding her tiny laundry with mine. I hate housework, but that would all feel very normal and sweet, and a teeny bit exhausting in a good way.
And suddenly I was delighted to wake up at 5:30 on a Sunday morning.
We had a wonderful day. On my Dad’s first Father’s Day, my Mom made me a dress to match a tie she made for my Dad. This tie was always my favorite, and each time my Dad asked if I wanted to pick a tie, I ALWAYS picked that one. To be honest, I still do. So you’d think I would have given my two boys matching ties. I didn’t. But they still wore matching outfits – at least until Brendan extended past his diaper in church and had to change into bright red shorts. Nobody seemed to mind.
I love watching Rob as a Dad. A few of my other favorite Father’s Day moments actually happened yesterday. First, we took B to get a haircut so he would be all spruced up for the many activities this week. We go to a little place called “The Panda Room” that does little kid haircuts. They have toys and things that are fun for the kids. Rob always sits in the chair, and Brendan sits on his lap. I do the distracting if needed, but he’s always a good boy. This time when they were finishing up, the hairdresser jokingly said that Rob could use a little clean-up too, and long story short – Brendan and Rob both got a hair cut. It might even be the same haircut. Why-oh-why didn’t I take a picture of Rob wearing the brightly colored smock with Pandas all over it? It’s actually a good haircut, and the nice lady said that Rob did a great job holding still.
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While we were waiting our turn, Rob handed Brendan a brush from the display, and I’ll be darned if he didn’t hold it up to his head and try to brush his own hair. He also brushed Mommy and Daddy’s hair when we asked him to. It’s amazing how much he is absorbing! This weekend he also picked up a pen and piece of paper and knew exactly what to do. I decided he really wanted to make Daddy his own Father’s Day card, and I have a feeling it was Rob’s favorite.
My other favorite moment was as Brendan was just starting to feel better. He had a full bottle, and had been playing music at his table. Rob and I were both sitting on the floor with him and he turned and put his arms around Daddy’s neck. Rob and I sat talking as Brendan stood holding onto Daddy, and I don’t know exactly how we discovered it, but we soon realized that Brendan had fallen asleep – standing up – holding onto Daddy.
What a happy Father’s Day.
Oh, one more thing. There was a little 8 month old girl at church today, and I caught Brendan holding her hand. I only hope Harper isn’t reading this… I know it was just a temporary lapse. She was awfully cute.
If anyone wants to see more evidence, or for the three people who really do look at every picture, I’m including 50 of the 222 pictures I took at church today. Everyone else… move along.
