First Father's Day
We spent a nice afternoon with Grandpa Boyd yesterday, and today we are hanging with Papa Joe. I am spending my first Father's Day as a father being conscious of all the Dads in our lives; what it means to be a dad, what we all have in common, what makes a good dad, etc.
First thing to note: Both of the dads in my life seem to have hurt their backs moving kitchen appliances. In true dad fashion, both of them asked me to come down to Salem this weekend and help them move refrigerators. Before those refrigerators could be moved, both of them hurt themselves doing other things and the refrigerator plans got put on hold. So, instead of physical labor befitting a son or son-in-law, I experienced not one but two fantastic Days of the Father that just simply made me thankful for those old men in my life.
Grandpa Boyd, (and/or his wife) were kind enough to buy me that 100 ft. hose I was coveting and a spray nozzle with what I have chosen to term "superb hand feel". Hey if food has "mouth feel" then my boring dad toy can have "hand feel". I'm making it a thing. It's a thing now. And it's not about penises either so stop imagining penises.
In the case of Papa Joe, his injury put a major kink in my Father's Day plans, as I had one day previously bought him a starter disc golf bag and filled it with a few discs so that we could go take the baby out for a quick toss. Instead, I had to drag his pained ass around Cascade Gateway Park because back spasms be damned, this is MY Father's Day too and I wanted to throw some effing discs. We spent the rest of the day messing around Mama and Papa's house, fawning over my child, making a fantastic breakfast (courtesy mostly of Adair), making a fantastic dinner (courtesy mostly of Mama Mary) and just enjoying each other's company. It was both the Dad's Day I wanted AND the Dad's Day I deserved.
The two fathers I have in my life, these two men who I love and appreciate as grandparents to my daughter, both essentially grew up without fathers of their own. I don't know how you become a man without a father, but it can't be easy. Lucky for me I never had to think about that. Lucky for Adair she had her Dad around too. Watching these two interact with my baby girl perfectly encapsulates in one image what pure human love looks like. The kind of love that saved baby Harry Potter's life and passed through dimensions in Interstellar and I assume filled plot holes in movies like Benjamin Button and When Harry Met Sally. Honestly it seems to me that the pure joy on a grandparent's face is plenty reason enough to have a child. If you don't have one already, I highly recommend it.
I hope we make it obvious to our Dads how much we appreciate them; they deserve our love and respect and patience and hugs. Either way though, I can tell you now as a dad myself, I never need my girl to prove her love for me through gifts or feats of refrigerator-moving strength on hot summer days. The look in her eyes when she looks around and sees me and smiles is enough to make being her dad easily the best thing I have ever done in my life.
Plus she mostly saves her poops for when Adair is on diaper duty which is hilarious and awesome and I love her for it.
First thing to note: Both of the dads in my life seem to have hurt their backs moving kitchen appliances. In true dad fashion, both of them asked me to come down to Salem this weekend and help them move refrigerators. Before those refrigerators could be moved, both of them hurt themselves doing other things and the refrigerator plans got put on hold. So, instead of physical labor befitting a son or son-in-law, I experienced not one but two fantastic Days of the Father that just simply made me thankful for those old men in my life.
Grandpa Boyd, (and/or his wife) were kind enough to buy me that 100 ft. hose I was coveting and a spray nozzle with what I have chosen to term "superb hand feel". Hey if food has "mouth feel" then my boring dad toy can have "hand feel". I'm making it a thing. It's a thing now. And it's not about penises either so stop imagining penises.
In the case of Papa Joe, his injury put a major kink in my Father's Day plans, as I had one day previously bought him a starter disc golf bag and filled it with a few discs so that we could go take the baby out for a quick toss. Instead, I had to drag his pained ass around Cascade Gateway Park because back spasms be damned, this is MY Father's Day too and I wanted to throw some effing discs. We spent the rest of the day messing around Mama and Papa's house, fawning over my child, making a fantastic breakfast (courtesy mostly of Adair), making a fantastic dinner (courtesy mostly of Mama Mary) and just enjoying each other's company. It was both the Dad's Day I wanted AND the Dad's Day I deserved.
The two fathers I have in my life, these two men who I love and appreciate as grandparents to my daughter, both essentially grew up without fathers of their own. I don't know how you become a man without a father, but it can't be easy. Lucky for me I never had to think about that. Lucky for Adair she had her Dad around too. Watching these two interact with my baby girl perfectly encapsulates in one image what pure human love looks like. The kind of love that saved baby Harry Potter's life and passed through dimensions in Interstellar and I assume filled plot holes in movies like Benjamin Button and When Harry Met Sally. Honestly it seems to me that the pure joy on a grandparent's face is plenty reason enough to have a child. If you don't have one already, I highly recommend it.
I hope we make it obvious to our Dads how much we appreciate them; they deserve our love and respect and patience and hugs. Either way though, I can tell you now as a dad myself, I never need my girl to prove her love for me through gifts or feats of refrigerator-moving strength on hot summer days. The look in her eyes when she looks around and sees me and smiles is enough to make being her dad easily the best thing I have ever done in my life.
Plus she mostly saves her poops for when Adair is on diaper duty which is hilarious and awesome and I love her for it.
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