A day late and a dollar short, Father’s Day….

Being a Dad looks a little like this...

Father’s Day is a pretty big for me.  It doesn’t mean that I’m showed with presents or even get any ‘time off’, but there are a number of events that are a reminder to me of my roll as a dad.  Sure, wiping the buns of a 4 year old is a pretty true way of saying you’re a dad.  It goes a little deeper than that.

Sage just had a birthday on the 16th.  While I still need to take the time to write about that day, which was by all intents and purposes, a disaster, it is a reminder to me of the birth of my first born.  It was a complete mess.  No lie.  Megan’s labor was insanely long, and I fully believe that without modern medicine, she would have died.  When Sage came into this world, her mom was barely able to hold her head up, let alone hold a baby.  I got Sage for the first few hours of her life.  It was on a Friday, and she and I talked for a while.  She told me how I would someday have my heart broken by her, but that she would whole heartedly love me forever.  She told me there would be many moments where I would be proud, but it’d be mixed with other moments of sadness.  I know all too well from my own childhood that things get a little crazy with kids, and I’m girding up for it.

Allow me to digress.  Father’s Day is a good day.  Well, I’ll take that back, it’s a weird day.  The Father’s Day in my family is a family day.  Not family as in my own little family, but family as in Megan’s whole family.  This is a slightly odd tradition to me as Father’s day in the home I grew up in is more of a day for Dad…not a day for other people’s dad, grand dad, or in the case of Megan, step-dad.  I find it’s easier to roll with things in her family than cause a ruckus…mostly because they’re what I like to call family facists.  I’m not saying it as a bad thing, although i’m sure that’s what it sounds like, I’m just dropping truth bombs.  It’s great for my kids to get time with her cousins.  I just know that if one family tries to break ranks…well, lets just say that you best have your war hat on.  Keeps things interesting anyway.

My Father’s Day this year really started on Saturday.  I had a race, then we went and had family time after at not one, but two barbecues.  We all slept in, had breakfast together, and then participated in what I can only call a church marathon.  This consists of an hour or three of chasing my 1 year old around a church building finding some alternative form of spiritual enlightenment and edification. I can only assume it happens through osmosis because I’m not getting anything out of it.  It’s kind of like being fed through a tube: you’re getting nutrients, but you’re still hungry.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, helps you feel more like a father than fatherly duties.  That could also translate to fatherly doodies.  Changing diapers, putting down for naps, cutting up food, chasing down to save them from the ever impending moment of doom.  What makes it for me, however, is comforting my children.  Tired, hurt, upset, I feel like a father fulfilled when I can take my kids in my arms and hold them and make them feel safe in my arms while they pull themselves back together.

Oh, and I also got this for Father’s Day: http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/musical-instruments/d36b/. Lame? I think not. This thing has VLOG written all over it. Word.