Father's Day 2013

Growing up, I always remembered on Father's Day it was Dad's day to just relax while everyone else did all the work.  If you're a two dad family with a four year old, doing that would result in starvation, a crying child, and charges of neglect.  So we had to get up and make breakfast, dress and feed the kid, clean up after the dogs, cater to the whims of a four year old, etc.  In other words, it's a Sunday.

We did however receive these precious gifts to hang on the door to our room.  Following tradition they should share a lovely message, like "Go Away" or "Leave Me Alone", but these are nice too.  If you look closely, you can even see what appears to be a chef of some sort rushing to deliver a loaf of Father's Day bread.  At least I think that's what that is...

With this production quality, Nike will be contacting us any time now.

 

Giving us these gifts put the biggest smile on Sabrina's face.  I think she loves giving presents more than getting them.  To a father's eyes, something like this will always be better than whatever we get once she's grown and has a job.  OK maybe not better but at least more special.  I'm counting on her getting a really good job, so...

We may not be the perfect fathers; our parenting skills lie somewhere between Robert Young on Father Knows Best and Lord Darth Vader, but our little family works just fine.  Happy Father's Day everyone!

Father's Day + 1

I know, I didn't post anything yesterday, my first Father's Day as a father. I meant to. We had a busy weekend. Saturday we had a dinner with some of the guys from the Dad's Group. I think it was a nice way to start Father's Day weekend, being with other adoptive gay parents and their kids. We like for Sabrina to be in that environment as much as we can, that way as she grows she'll always have the support of friends that are in the same type of families as she is. There was one slight mishap, as we left I needed room in the car to get on the seat and buckle the little nipper in. I put her Baby Einstein DVD on the roof, and well...let's just say I owe her one now! Those Baby Einstein videos facsinate her. They're really about color contrast and movement, plus we have the soundtrack and we play it in her room all the time so she's used to the sounds. We don't really want to expose her to a lot of TV already, but they work when we're cleaning house or showering or taking the newest batch of meth out of the oven. (Just kidding, we don't clean house...)

Sunday, the actual holiday, found us scrubbing away getting ready for our social worker's visit today. The weekend is our normal cleaning day anyway, but we needed a little extra "umph" this time. We let Sabrina take us out to dinner, and that was fun. She's becoming quite the foodie; Monday was D'Vine Wine Bistro to celebrate my cousin's birthday, Friday Gregg just said "NO" to cooking so we went to Buca di Beppo, and then Red White and Brew last night.

I thought a lot about my Dad this weekend. He did everything he could to always make sure his family was well taken care of. Many times he'd work two jobs to keep things going for us when we were little. We never had lots of money but there were always great family camping trips, birthday parties, and I know the debt meter was off the scale at Christmas. My dad taught us to always do the right thing. Maybe we didn't always get along growing up, but I wouldn't be the person I am without him. I don't really feel like a true father yet; it's only been nine weeks. But as I walk the room with the lights out at night, getting her to sleep, I find myself walking for an extra fifteen minutes with her in my arms, and some tears going down my cheek. She started out as Finster, became a home study, a letter, then a website, but now she's Sabrina and I can't imagine how I'd live without her.