Sunday, June 20, 2010

#1 Dad

It's Father's Day- the day to brag about our husbands and fathers and how great they are. I will not disappoint.
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Listening to the radio on Friday, I heard the DJ ask the audience if they thought their significant other would be a good dad, but then once he became a dad they just didn't measure up- they weren't the dad the spouse hoped for. First off, I thought it was a horrible question, and I changed the channel because I didn't want to hear people calling in ragging on their spouse for everybody to hear.
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Secondly, though, it did get me thinking about Ben and how grateful I am that he is the father of my children. That was an exceptional decision on my part.
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Honestly, I wasn't sure how Ben would be as a dad. Before Audra, he had never held a baby- no, wait, I take that back. While dating I took him to Seattle where he got to meet my family. My sister had just had a baby and I was holding her. I had to get up to help Melissa with something, so I said, "here, Ben" and handed him the baby. He held her with his arms outstretched and a look that said, "What am I supposed to do, please take this baby away from me!" So he had held a baby once before Audra, but it did not go so well.
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But from the second Audra was born, he has grown and become the best dad these girls could hope for- and I am not just saying that. You all know I would tell the truth! He would be so nervous about hurting Audra when she was a baby- he was scared to change her clothes because he thought he would break her. One time, her thumb got stuck in the shirt as he was trying to pull her hand through the sleeve, and he fretted for hours thinking he broke her thumb. Hours later she would start crying and he would say, "is it her thumb? Is it broken?"
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There was a long stage where Audra would want to play "house" with daddy the second he walked through the door until dinner was ready. For months, if you came to our house at 5:30 PM you would see Ben on the floor pretending to be the Mommy, Daddy, Baby or Grandpa- entertaining Audra. Audra LOVED this game, and Ben would humor her because he is such a great dad.
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Now he has two girls, and even though Claire is a mommy's girl, she sure does love her daddy as well. When he comes home from work, she crawls super fast to the door and cries if he doesn't pick her up right away.
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I have said this before, but so often I hear people say, "my family is first" but then they go play golf all day on Saturdays, they do nothing but watch sports in the evening, and they come home from work too "tired" to play with their children. This is absolutely not the case with Ben. When he says, "my family is first" he really means it- and he shows it by his actions on a daily basis. Everything he does is with keeping his family in mind and how he can spend the best quality and quantity time with us. We are truly blessed to have Ben!!!!
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Here are Daddy and Claire at the park- I love this picture of them.


















And here are Ben and Audra yesterday as they prepared to go on their first Daddy-Daughter date:


























We got some free tickets for Toy Story 3 so Ben took Audra to her first movie at the theatre. Can you tell Audra is excited to go? She didn't want to put the tickets down- it was really cute. She said she had a good time even though the movie was "yucky." Ben said she loved the popcorn. I just love that Ben wants to do dates with the girls. He just loves being a dad, and he is such a wonderful dad.
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I feel like I got a 2 for 1 deal- I dreamed of meeting the perfect husband, and I got that. And I got a perfect daddy for my girls as well. What a great deal!

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