Daddy is a Little Overwhelmed

I swear I'm working on updating some recent videos to post on Charlie's site. It seems like she is doing so many "new" things these days, that by the time I get an evening to start editing movies, I find myself buried in 70 clips that I really want to put up. The big challenge? Taking all those clips, well over an hour worth of great stuff, and clipping it down to that "perfect" 3-minute movie.

Honestly, Charlie has been so active and playful over the past couple of months that by the time she goes down for bed at night, it's difficult to be motivated to do anything but relax for an hour or so before bed myself.

For the men out there who work 70-hour work weeks and come home wondering why your wife doesn't want to go out for dinner or just wants to take a nap... try it for a few days. You'll see. We have a great schedule that allows us to share the duties pretty equally. I just can't imagine either of us having to shoulder the entire responsibility.

Beck and I have a little angel for a daughter. Really. She is so well behaved it is scary. How did we get so lucky? But even with a cooperative little peanut, it's still exhausting by the end of the day. Especially as the weather gets cold and nasty. Nothing is more boring to a baby than sitting in the house all day... and boring = grumpy. Even for Charlie.

If we're fortunate, sooner or later, Charlie is going to have a little brother or sister. I can't even imagine how challenging that will be!! I guess you just figure that out too. I can still remember the incredibly quiet ride home from the hospital with Charlie. Beck and I silently thinking, "what do we do now?" It seems like yesterday.

Dads are funny

So I stopped by my printer this week to pick up my monthly newsletter and the guy who helps me normally says to me, "Hey, I really loved the article on the front page ." His name is Preston, and he was referring to the article about a little girl who blew kisses into a box, and wrapped it up for her Daddy.

I explained to him how the story touched me because of my baby girl and he shared with me that he has a 3-year old daughter. His face immediately lit up. He talked about her growing up and learning things and even kicking a soccer ball around with him in the back yard.

On a couple of occassions during our conversation, I could see that he had very slight tears welling up in his eyes. It was so obvious that he was just head over heels for his daughter.

As we talked further, we discovered that he and I actually went to high school together, AND actually played soccer together as 10th graders. We talked for nearly 40 minutes about "things".

Amazing to think that I been doing business with Preston for about 4 months and a conversation about out daughters led to this discovery!!

I am always encouraged at the number of Dads I see around who are spending time with their young kids at the mall, at sports games, at the park, where ever. It's nice to know that I am not the only one who is so smitten with his daughter (or son).