First Father's Day

Charlotte hearts her dad.

Father's Day goodies.

Reading the Minnie Mouse card from Charlotte.

Daddy's loot.

Chris is a pretty spectacular dad, so Charlotte and I wanted to make his first Father’s Day equally spectacular. I got up with Charlotte super early in the morning and we played and finished up some projects for Daddy’s first Father’s Day. When I heard Chris turn on the Food Network in the bedroom, I figured he was awake, so I made the coffee and brought it to him in bed like a good little wife. Later, after a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and puttering around the yard, Chris opened his gifts: The book Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert from me, and a painted GEICO frame with the photo of a cute little girl from Charlotte. Next, we went to Sugarloaf Mountain Winery. Due to successfully reproducing (see Exhibit A, Charlotte Marie), Chris qualified for a free wine tasting for Father’s Day. We then sat back with a couple glasses of wine and listened to a surprisingly decent musician. Charlotte behaved like a dream, charming everyone around us with lots of coy little smiles. Flirt. Then once we got home, I baked Chris some Father’s Day cookies. I’m eating one now. They’re quite tasty. It’s interesting, watching the one you’ve known for so long (for a whole decade!) and loved (hey, I married him) develop his role as dad. I always knew Chris would make a great dad—that’s one big reason I married him—but several things have surprised me about his daddy-ness. I find the following particularly endearing: The way he tries to clap (or better yet, dance) to the music that Charlotte’s toys play. He was blessed with zero rhythm, so he pretty much looks like a total goofball—and Charlotte gets the biggest kick out of it. Hearing him shout from all the way down the hall, “Good lord, woman! What did you do?!” when opening a particularly poopy diaper. The way he rubs and then kisses Charlotte’s fuzzy little head good-bye when we drop her off at school in the morning. The way he stares down at her as she sleeps, saying with complete awe, “We made her.” Hearing him laugh when Charlotte does something funny. Seeing the grin on his face as he watches her start to coordinate the movements for crawling. How he gets up in the middle of the night to check on Charlotte and make sure she’s warm enough (she wriggles away from blankets then gets cold). Through the baby monitors, hearing him greet Charlotte: “Well, good morning!” And then I always hear him laugh as she greets him back with a big fat smile. Seeing Charlotte’s face light up when she sees Chris enter the room. Charlotte is such a daddy’s girl. She likes me a lot and thinks I’m pretty spiffy, but she absolutely adores Chris and is utterly fascinated by everything he does. Toys that light up or Mommy’s funny faces? Eh. She’d much rather watch Daddy put on his socks. So Happy Father’s Day to Chris. That cute little girl of his has won the daddy lottery.