The Summer of Daddy

The second theme I noticed in our pictures from this summer, was the many different activities that DADDY (Wade) was present for!  This was the most "home" that Wade has probably ever gotten to be since the summer we were first married.  With three years of grad school in the summer, and then a few years of varsity coaching with related duties that kept pulling him away during the summer, he hasn't had much of that "summer off" that people talk about with professions in education.

For a good chunk of this summer, he was home with the kids 3 days a week while I was working.  He frequented the pool with the kids, either at the Y or at his parents' new house (at their development's pool).

He was able to take a whole week truly off with us as we road tripped to Atlanta to visit friends, from there to Chattanooga to visit more friends, back through Atlanta, and to the beach with my family.

Another pair of hands to put on sunscreen, brush teeth, give baths, read books, fix meals, dole out discipline & instructions, answer the kids' 182083387 questions a day, dress, wipe, clean up, even brush & dry Lindley's hair!  It was magnificent!

I know he was around more by the fact that the kids have started mistakenly calling me "daddy" when they're calling me or talking to me!

I know he has loved getting to have more time with his family this summer, and hopefully we'll work to keep a better balance, as best we can, into the school year.

One thing Wade is MUCH better than I am at doing is *teaching* the kids things (go figure lol!).  He is so much more patient, more willing to let them make mistakes and learn from them and not have things be perfect at the end.  He would invite Caden to help him make eggs, while I still cringe at letting the kids help me with anything in the kitchen (I'm trying to let go, I really am!).

He got to do a lot of yard work - putting in a drainage system on one side of our house so we don't get a lake when it rains, clearing out the entire back of our lot that was brush & trees & poison ivy (he amazingly did it without GETTING poison ivy, which is actually incredible for him), staining our deck, spreading pine needles, mowing the lawn (until 2 months of upper 90s killed all the grass), etc.

So along with our kids becoming friends with each other, they also got a summer filled with memories of doing stuff with their dad.

I guess this was a pretty great summer when you sum it up!