Happy Father's Day!

One day when I was pregnant with Lyla I was thinking about being a mom to a daughter and what kind of person I hoped she would be, and what kind of role model I needed to be to achieve that.  Then a country song came on the radio about a dad going fishing with his daughter and making memories, and it dawned on me that as important as my role would be, Ryan's role as her father could very well be even more important in shaping the woman our little girl would become.

You dads are charged with a pretty daunting task.  You are responsible for teaching our sons how to be good men, and for turning our daughters into strong, confident women.  You teach our boys how to work hard, respect others and love women.  You teach our girls what it means to be loved by a good man, how it feels to be respected. 

You are more important than you know.  You are leaving legacies in your children which will affect many generations to come.  For that you are loved and appreciated every day, but most especially today. 

Our family is blessed to have a lot of good, strong dads and granddads.  I am so thankful for each of them, and especially to have a good man by my side, raising our little baby.  His legacy will be an amazing one.  Love you a million, Ryan.

xo

- K

She Said Dada!

keeping warm

again with the credit card

As you already know (because Kassi has been rubbing it in your face) Lyla has been saying "mama" for a couple weeks now --- usually when she doesn't want to take a nap.  And though I have been playing it cool, it has been gut wrenching for me to think that I haven't been around enough for my little monkey to say "dada".  It also doesn't help that every idiot who finds out this little tid bit goes "oh wow!  THAT is soooo weird... babies ALWAYS say 'dada' first."

Well, as you also may know Kassi has had to travel last week and this week giving me the perfect opportunity to teach her a few things.  Not only did she say "dada" this last week but she also took her first steps tonight at only 9 months old... can't wait to tell Kassi when she gets home tomorrow night ;).

- R

Dad's Turn- Drawer Monsters

I tease Kassi once in a while when she is getting ready.  Actually I tease her all of the time but whenever she gets dressed she tends to pull every clothing item out of every drawer and throw it on the floor.  Seriously, there is shit everywhere.  My favorite quip when this occurs is "it looks like there was a drawer monster attack in here".  For those of you who don’t know my wife she has lots of clothes and lots of shoes and for the last year or so she has steadily been building a wardrobe for Lyla that most grown women cannot fathom.  I have gone along with this ridiculous behavior for two very logical reasons; one, my wife does whatever she wants and two, so does my baby.  What I didn't know though is how easy it would be to create a little drawer monster.  A drawer monster that even at 8 month is extremely cognizant of both her attire and her accessories.  A little drawer monster who while most infants won’t keep a hat on for 2 seconds will still be rocking a sparkly headband 2 hours after being dropped off in day care.  While watching these two is obviously super cute and makes me love them even more... it also makes me wonder exactly how long I have before L asks to reinvest her college fund in Christian Louboutins.

- R

Dad's Turn

doing tricks with dad

Let me begin by saying that I don’t read blogs.  When Kassi suggested that in addition to being a stay at home mom AND working a 40 hour a week career she would start a ‘blog’ to document our lives; I thought she had finally succumbed to the insanity of sleep deprivation.  When she really did it I decided I had better chip in.  I also made the mistake of saying 'well I am the writer of the family so it wouldn't make much sense if you wrote everything and I just sat idly by’.   So here we are.  In regards to our little family I would say that the one thing the books leave out about having a child is that no matter how hard it is... it will inevitably get harder.  That is relevant for us right now as just this last couple weeks Lyla has not only began crawling around but also seeking incessantly to prop herself up and then dive head first off of everything she can find.  So in addition to having to change diapers that look more and more like they were filled by an adult, teething, and fewer naps there are also the apparent suicidal tendencies to deal with.  Coming to terms with the fact that I may never again relax and watch a football game with my feet up is something I battle with everyday.  Come share in the journey with us.

-R