Father's Day

Our Father's Day started off with Ellison dying to give her Dad his cards and gifts. Let me start off by saying, that ever since she made his card 2 days before, she's been wanting to give it to him. I had to talk to her several times about it being a surprise, and that she needed to put it in a spot that Daddy wouldn't see. So she placed it carefully right next to the recliner in the living room, and put her Crocs on top of it. :-) It stayed there for 2 days. The morning of Father's Day, I told her I'd run down to get it, and as I was doing so, she WAILED! I wasn't really realizing why, I just thought she wanted me back upstairs. When I gave her the card to give to Jon, it dawned on me that she was devastated that she didn't get it out from the great hiding place to show Daddy. I felt like a pile of crap, and still do when I think about it. It meant a lot to her, and I ruined it. :-( After she stopped crying, she excitedly ran to get his present that she wrapped all by herself. On the day I was wrapping his gifts, I was busy working on the first one, and suddenly Ellison was asking me for some tape. I turned around, and she had taken an appropriate-sized piece of wrapping paper, and was actually wrapping the other gift all by herself! It was the sweetest thing! I helped her with the placement of a couple of pieces of tape, but other than that, this was it - a pretty great job for a 2 year old! It just melted our hearts. We're a couple o' softies...

E's little masterpiece, just for Daddy. :-)

Love it. One side exposed. ;-)

No, this was NOT a hint for Daddy. He has actually been working very hard on his bod, and he requested these gifts to start his new hard-core workout program. He has gotten back into his running, and has lost 22 pounds! Elli and I never thought he needed to anyway, but he looks great! Come September, he may even let me post the results. Here, Ellison had to try out some of the stuff to approve.

What a Father's Day - hard at work in the yard! He spent the day trimming branches off trees and knocking down some. Poor guy.

What did Elli and I do while he was sweating away? Played on the swingset. The day before, Daddy picked up this swingset for a deal on Craigslist, and got it all cleaned up and put together for her. She LOVES it! So do the mig-sized mosquitos. We're buying insect repellant in bulk.

She had to put Teddy in the baby swing, and asked me to keep pushing him.

Ellison and Teddy (with La-La), swinging away

Thanks, Daddy! You're the greatest!

We couldn't love you more, or think any more of you, Jon! It is so much fun being a parent with you. She is the luckiest little girl to be able to call you Dad!

[June 21, 2009]