Father's Day

The concept of Father's Day breaks my heart, as it seems to throw in my face all that my boys are missing out on in life, growing up without a father. And it also breaks my heart thinking of the 50+ years of being a dad that Jared was robbed of. He truly loved and appreciated being a dad more than anyone, and was so good at it. It just breaks my heart beyond words thinking of all that he and our boys will never experience in life. But I am so happy that he did get to experience those 1.5 yrs of being a dad, and had the thrill of knowing our second child was on the way, and got to enjoy one Father's Day as a dad. Needless to say, today had the makings of being a pretty down day. But I had a few nice surprises that provided some much-needed lifts.

First, I had a great chat with Ca, hearing all about their fun week in Nantucket. Chats with Ca always brighten my day :) And then Grammy and Nance stopped over after a walk, and Grammy fed Luke his lunch (while Nance played with Kyle and I watered my planting beds). This gave me a much-needed break from that whole feeding nightmare! And Grammy had a MUCH easier time with it than I've been having...I tried her "vitamin bottle trick" at dinner and also had a much easier time...hopefully we're on to something!

And then Er and adorable baby Matthew (Luke's BFF, who is just 1 month younger than he) stopped over for a fun little surprise visit and brought yummy eggplant parm and pasta salad for dinner, which was a wonderful and unexpected treat. As you'll see in the photos, Kyle enjoyed the visit too and wanted in on the baby action, rolling/crawling/snuggling with them :) In one of the pictures, it looks like Er is even trying to show them a few moves! Visits with Er also always brighten my day :)

I took the boys to the cemetery this afternoon after their naps. I don't really feel like Jared is any more physically there than anywhere else, but I like that there's a tangible place I can bring our boys to help provide a connection to their wonderful father as they grow up. Kyle liked putting pine cones, sticks, leaves and rocks on the "special stone". Hopefully Jared was able to feel our infinite love and appreciation today. And I also hope my dad felt our presence and love there today too...he sacrificed so much to make the best life possible for his family, which epitomizes what it means to be a dad.

PS: And for those who are wondering, Kyle slept until 5:20am this morning, not 7am :( And his late night seems to have screwed him up a bit, as he was still in there fussing almost two hours after I put him down tonight, which is very out of character. I've already been in there a couple times :(

Fun Dinner Visit

We had a nice visit today with Nonnie, Auntie Jayne, Great Grampy and Uncle Mike, eating dinner outside at Great Grampy's country club. Kyle's highlights included: trying to stuff an entire dinner roll in his mouth in one bite, eating in general, checking out all the golfcarts ("like that golfcart"), escaping into the ceremony area of an outdoor wedding that was underway, walking around with Nonnie, and did I mention eating?

Luke's at a tough age for excursions like this, because he doesn't really like sitting or being held but there's no place for him to crawl around. And we all know that occupying him with eating/drinking is out of the question, so he was a little antsy but overall did well. He especially liked hanging out with his Auntie Jayne :) And I especially liked Auntie Jayne hanging out with him while I ate my meal :)

It was already past their bedtime by the time we left, and Kyle's overtiredness definitely caught up with him on the drive home. Despite having his video on, he just kept REPEATEDLY screaming/crying about the same very irrational things: "want breakfast", "want Luke on rug", and lots of "want to go back to that [fill in the blank...yellow car, big truck, bulldozer, bridge, or whatever else we happened to pass on the highway that he wanted to see more of]". Luke kept trying to doze but was continuously jolted out of sleep by Kyle's yelling.

So by the time I got Luke fed (an abridged version of his dinner because I didn't have the usual 1+ hr to feed him!) and got them ready for bed, it was 8:30, which is a full two hours past their usual bedtime. So of course this means that Kyle's normal (horrible!) 5am wake-up time will be 7am tomorrow morning, right? I wish, but for some reason with kids (or at least my kids), late to bed usually means up even earlier. But it sure would be wonderful if he proved me wrong tomorrow!