You always had a feeling he was going to be a good dad. It was probably one of the reasons you fell for him in the first place.
In the early stages of your romance, you would picture him running around with your (adorable) imaginary children and boy did imaginary-dad-him look gooooood.
And years later, when it finally happened, you were so excited and nervous to tell him you were expecting. A part of you was worried you had it all wrong and he would hate the idea of upcoming fatherhood.
But the way his eyes immediately lit up and the look of love and unbelievable excitement on his face told you everything you needed to know. He was ready and you couldn't wait to make a dad out of him.
And he was patient, oh so patient, with you for the NINE long months of pregnancy. Tending to most of your demands, even if they were wildly unfair and at times (quite often) massively lazy and unwarranted. Taking your hormonal outbursts on the chin. Listening to you as you blabbered on and on and on about babies and equipment and symptoms and developmental phases and prenatal classes. For 35+ weeks (that's 245+ days). He would feign excitement, perking up only if there was researching of baby gadgets involved.
And when contractions started, he was your steady rock. Whispering words of encouragement, holding your hand, massaging your lower back, telling you how proud he was of you and how amazing you were...(you were pretty amazing to be fair).
And when the baby arrived, he cried right along with you. He cried with relief of seeing his love was safe. He cried because he had just experienced the most insane moment of his life and he cried because he couldn't quite believe that he was suddenly a father and this magnificent little blotchy, screaming, purple being was his daughter.
And you watched him try to navigate fatherhood. Figuring out how to hold his baby. How to change her and feed her. You watched him nervously bathing her and how he too, would constantly check that she was still alive and breathing during every nap.
You watched him with annoyance when he didn't do it your way, but that turned to gratitude as he walked around with her for hours, rocking her and humming a lullaby, so you could get some sleep.
And you watched how she slowly started to fall in love with him, just like you had years earlier. How hearing his voice would make her whole-body wriggle with joy and seeing him would make her giggle and squeak with excitement.
You watched him grow as a dad. You watched as he found patience and energy when yours had depleted. How he turned life and parenting into a game that your daughter loved playing. How he could be strict and stern one minute, but then switch to loving and empathetic the next. How he could be just what your child needed, when she needed it.
And you loved how your daughter could wrap him around her finger or how he would gush about every little thing she did.
You loved how the background picture on his phone was of her and how he could never go to bed without checking on her, adjusting her duvet and kissing her forehead.
Him loving your daughter with all his heart, made you love him with all of yours too.
And of course, parenting with him was hard as well. He didn't care about the things you cared about. You would be OCD about everything being sterilized, whereas his policy was "a little dirt never hurt anyone". You nagged about all the little things, while he preferred to look at the bigger picture. You were overly protective, while he was overly nonchalant. You needed things to be organised and he was perfectly content in a little chaos….
...But when you took a moment to look at the big picture yourself, you knew that the two of you provided your children with a wholesome balance. That perfect combination of sweet and sour and good cop, bad cop.
He was the Yin to your Yan.
You couldn't imagine how you would do it without him. Or you could, but you just didn't want to.
And you had been right, all those years ago, when you suspected he would make a good dad.
But you had completely and utterly underestimated just how wonderful a dad he would become.
Happy Father’s Day ❤️
written by The Mommy Poet
P.S.
I’m paddling pretty hard lately just to keep my head above water and a few of my ducks in a row. But don’t worry, I’ll back to writing about our life again one of these days.. Until then, take care!
Jo