in appreciation

The other day I was talking to my friend Hayley, who is a mother of five, about parenting and she said that whenever she gets stressed out about mothering her five little ones she just watches an episode of 16 and Pregnant and she feels much better about her own day-to-day. True story. The other day I was watching such smut (as my husband likes to call it ;)) and was stunned by one particular scene. In it, the young mom had been on the rocks with the father of the baby throughout the whole episode. When they got home from the hospital she was overwhelmed with joy and appreciation toward this guy for "rearranging the room so the baby's bassinet could fit." She was literally brought to tears because of this one "generous" gesture from the father of the child she had just given birth to. Without him. Alone in the hospital. Not trying to take anything away from that situation, but it stunned me because of all the many MANY things my husband/Henry's daddy does for us on a daily basis. Sliding a dresser over to make room for a bassinet wouldn't even make the list. Man, I'm so thankful for Dameon. He was there every second in the hospital, taking complete care of Henry while I was recovering from surgery. He had never taken care of a newborn before and he handled it with patience and ease. He skipped his band concert on the third day of our stay. And then there was the time he took a whole day off during his busiest season of work last summer to paint two of the nursery walls blue because I decided I really wanted them blue. And how about the night that I couldn't get a fussing Henry to go to sleep and, knowing there wasn't much he could do for a nursing baby at midnight, just came and laid on the floor of the nursery while I rocked Henry in the chair so that I wouldn't feel like I was up all alone. And let's not forget the fact that this guy works his tail off year-round including nights and weekends so that I can stay home full-time with our son. He even picked up extra work this summer so that we can feel a little more comfortable heading into year two of being a single-income family. Sheesh. Moving a dresser? I've got it sooooooo good. And this short list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. Especially since I didn't mention anything about the pre-Henry days.

With that said, Henry and I are so blessed to have the husband/daddy/leader that we have. WE LOVE YOU, DAMEON!!  Happy (belated) Father's Day.