Father's Day this year and such

Father's Day was beautiful and fulfilling for Jody. This makes my heart sing because, well most of the time I don't feel that I measure up or that he'll ever really feel like I'm quite good enough.
Kait and I got up and made him waffles. She busied around like a little bee chopping strawberries and arranging them on superfluous dishes and pouring his orange juice, chattering at a dizzying speed which was for some reason driving me crazy. I repeatedly hollered for Eden and finally climbed menacingly into her bed and drug her downstairs with breakfast cooling which added steam to my irrationally irritable mood. Somehow we did it all, and Jody loved his breakfast despite the portly steaming spouse at the table. I'm not sure how, but I got a shower before church. We sat in church and a father of ten got up and spoke to the fathers about "intentional parenting". I was SO convicted. It wasn't my special day but I guess I'm a special case of always wallowing in my inadequacies. Jody enjoyed it too, which really is the main thing and then we went to the Father's Day car show that the church has every year. It was nice. We went home and chilled for awhile. Gave Jody a random smattering of presents from Lowe's that he loved. I don't know deep down whether he really did love and need them or whether he just tends to be gracious about receiving gifts, anyway, he doesn't seem to intend to return the deep well sockets, the measuring tapes, the drill bits or the screw driver heads... which I have decided to chalk up as a score. We then all suited up, loaded up and headed to the new bike park on Valmont in Boulder. I would definitely say that the ride could have gone better but Jody was simply radiant that we were all riding with him at the park on Father's Day. I'm not sure how many times he thanked each of us for participating, yes even the portentous marshmallow wife rode. So, I guess we'll try to hit it again this weekend and hopefully things will go a little more smoothly each time until I'm to the waddle and squat point. Then we went home and grilled brats and hung out as a family. I call the day a success.
The kids have each had some special little moments as their anticipation of the baby grows. Nick now ascertains to me daily that the baby is a girl and still plaintively asks me if the baby is going to come out soon. One day he pointed at a picture of a baby at Costco and told me it was like OUR baby and pointed at my growing girth. He also informed Eden's friend who was here for a sleepover that there was a baby in his mom's tummy in a stage whisper. He loves my belly with complete abandon, even pulling my shirt up at the library today to whisper little messages with his lips smooshed against me followed by several wet kisses.
The other day I was telling Kaitlyn what all I needed her to do and she said "okay, but can I please visit the baby first? I haven't visited the baby in so long." She then pulled up my shirt, repeated her name about ten times to the baby, kissed my stomach and left.
Eden, after having tried to get her hand on my belly for a good kick for a couple of weeks announced to me that she thought that the baby stopped kicking when I told people, so she just wanted me to gesture to her and she would come feel it. I did this two or three times and sure enough, she finally got a good kick. When she got the kick, I stayed calm to see if she noticed it and her eyes widened and she looked ready to burst with glee." My nose got kinda burny and I know it's just the whole pregnancy hormone thing, so somehow I kept it cool and we just enthused together without mom falling apart into a weeping mess.
Kait had now of course just had it with the situation because Eden felt the baby move and she didn't so she wouldn't even try for a couple of days, but yesterday she did and got a nice big thump and the same glow came over her face. The expression of rapture again made my nose start burning, but I did my best to act normal and savor her moment with her as well.
All is well on the home front. I get bigger, summer gets hotter, kids get the summer crazies a little worse and Jody works harder, because that's what engineers do in the summer.
This is an article on the project he just finished called Fillmore Plaza in Cherry Creek, my old hood. And I guess, now he's hard at work on the phase II of the Erie Park which will be of great personal benefit to his family. I'm looking forward to it.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/06/23/cherry-creek-plans-renovation-party.html
He just showed me a night scene picture of it tonight.

It makes my heart burst with pride that Jody was part of something so American, so capitalistic, so successful at driving the economy in the only sure way to make it work. Just hard working people, putting their money to work and growing businesses and creating jobs without government handouts or interferences.

Father's Day Special

I can't remember a single Father's Day from when I was a kid. I can't remember a single thing I did for my dad, but he is wonderful and I hope we made them special and I just forgot. I see a lot of myself in him. My kids want me to take them off to do something and I want them to all pitch in and help me get caught up so I can enjoy it too. They just don't get it, and I don't think we did as kids either. I've always been very close to Dad and I think it's because I grabbed whatever opportunity came my way to go be with him. My siblings tend to complain about Dad always being too busy when we were kids, but I think I spent more time with Dad than not. I helped him sell and install water softeners, fetched water or tea to the hayfield, rode the tractor with him, hauled hay with him, went to the sale barn with him, listened to him talk about everything under the sun to other grownups while I twirled on the counter stool at the hardware store or the tractor parts store or traced the design of the oriental rug in the front room at Culligan. I counted inventory in the back of Culligan with him (I never knew it stuck but I know the diameter of any pipe or fitting on sight), played around in the haybarn and on the pallets of salt in the back of Culligan while he loaded and unloaded. And it had a million rewards. I know songs that other people my age don't even know exist, I've had an ample supply of mounds bars and nehigh peach sodas. I've acquired things like a beaver fur hat custom made for me and taken home a kitten on his whim. I've been on roads in Arkansas and Missouri that most people will never travel and have memories of watching the hay baler knotter being repaired over and over and over. I've chopped wood, helped repair a sickle bar, sharpened chainsaws and smashed my fingers stacking firewood more times than not. All the while, going to church anywhere from twice to five times per week, and hearing the Word over and over and over. Some would say that on Father's Day, we celebrate the dads for taking us to theme parks or going skiing, but for me, it's a day I celebrate being included in EVERYTHING in my Dad's life, being taught at his knee and having more memories with him than not from my childhood.

A boy is a wonderful thing...

Pinata booty, which was then supplemented by Cam, a darling "big kid" who graced Nick's party.

I love my boy. He be celebrated his fourth birthday two days ago and I have such a hard time remembering life without his wonderfulness. Four years and two days ago, I was thrashing around in a birth tub, struggling for words to tell people to turn off the damn lights and turn on my Sarah MacLachlan music. Then, Eden was announcing to the room at large that he was a boy. My boy. Jody's boy. Such a real boy. He saunters, he talks about cars and trucks, holds me and kisses me every day, loves his nerf gun and zooms around on his strider bike like a wild man. The night before his birthday, I prayed for him and he grabbed my hand and held it and said "Mom, lets talk about cars." I begged him to stay three for another year and he obligingly agreed. The essence of Nick is yellow crocs, a ball cap, a bag of chips and either a car, a backhoe a bike or a gun. I love every minute with him. The other day he found a thumb tack and brought it to me. I asked him what he had found and he drug the point of it down the arm of our leather chair. I jumped and screamed. Tears filled his eyes and his lip wobbled, "sowwy Mom, sowwy!" Eh, who cared about the dumb chair anyway? He loves his dogs to a painful degree. Sometimes I don't know how they endure being the bad guys for at least half of the day but he does make it up to them with those painfully tight love holds. He plaintively told me he wants to play with the baby today. He's tired of waiting for it. I'm not tired of waiting, but I'm glad he is. I love my Nick. If I want a cuddle, he seems to always be handy, he will hold me, kiss me and nuzzle me in the most endearing way. He loves blankies, snuggling and reading stories. I can't think of anything Nick doesn't love. He's enthusiasm and joy from life gives me a thrill every day. The face he had when the waitresses sang "Happy Birthday" to him at Red Robin, was priceless.
I know for certain that the children we have been given are the greatest and most undeserved blessing of our life. The gift of spending our days and nights enjoying their presence is purely a gift. The gift of joy, time, love and memories. I hope I hold the pieces inside like a treasure and open the trove from time to time, so I can remember the cute little words, the hilarious facial expressions and the unexpected offerings of love.
Nicks birthday weekend was complete. He had a grand pancake breakfast made by Daddy, a dinner out, a huge party the next day with water balloon fights, a pinata, a cool tipi, hot dogs, cake, ice cream and water guns. It was a great "little boy" birthday party. It's been awhile coming. His birthdays up to now haven't amounted to much and I think this one was tops! We decided since he doesn't have very many little friends, we would have a family style party and invite anyone who has been a friend to Nick, and that turned out to be kids anywhere from the age of 1 to 12, with a total of 18 kids in attendance. For me, it was so great to have my guests arrive on foot or on bikes. We have such a fantastic community of people here and I've been lonesome for that for a long time. The second thing I realized and personally appreciated, were the benefits of having big kids at a little kids party... well the right kind of big kids, the kind that hand me paper plates, and remove difficult packaging for toys, give the little guy part of their pinata booty, let him whack them with swords during a serious water gun fight and clean up the remains of a pinata massacre. That kind! That last pic, is of Nick nailing Kieli with a water balloon.
I love you so much little boyo. My little Boo.