Today we celebrate Dad

Okay, so we celebrated dad yesterday. But I'm still celebrating dad today, thank you very much :)

I would first like to talk about my dad. My hero, my first love. The guy who has always shown me love, encouragement, and has endless faith in me. His high standards for me have helped me become the kind of woman I am today. From my father I get my creativity, my love of family photos, my wonderment of the holidays, and my ability to talk through conflict. He's the hardest worker I know and I look up to him now more than ever because I know what having a child is like. I can't imagine taking the kind of care he did of us while working and being a single parent 50% of the time.

Here are some shots from the past few years (my favorites from what I have digitally)

My dad has also taken Ritchie on as his son and for that I am so grateful.
He's seen me through all of my milestones...

And was there to "share me" as he said on my wedding day.
And then he became a Papa. And my love and admiration for my dad grew as I watched him love my own son and began to understand the kind of love he has for my brother and me.

I love you, Daddy. Thank you for being the man that you are.

The other Dad was celebrating his first father's day. On September 24 he was made a father. He was given a son. He filled the father shoes with ease and made it look easy. When I felt frazzled and overwhelmed, he was calm and certain. I couldn't have survived the beginning of motherhood without him.

Oh, and how he loves his baby boy! He plays with him and teaches him. I catch him having conversations with our little 8 month old and explaining big vocabulary words. He works on baby signing during dinner, they play during bath time, he sings him songs and reads him books and gives him so much love that it makes my insides burst.


A picture taken today. See how happy Max is with his daddy? Swoon.
Both of the celebrated dads with Max, who I know one day will be celebrated for being an amazing father as well because of the role models that he has of what it means to be a father.