My Thoughts on Father's Day

(Warning: Wordy post with pictures below to make up for it)
It's been a while since a "Reo" post showed up on here, so I thought I'd end that trend. Tomorrow will be my third Father's Day as an actual father. Being a father, or a parent in general for that matter, isn't always easy. For example, did you know that a two year old boy's favorite thing to do is whatever you have just told him not to do? I had no idea. Anyway, this past year has been especially tough for me, what with juggling work and school and family. Being away from Holden and Julie has been difficult. However, there are two good reasons why being a father this past year has been significantly easier than it could have been, given the circumstances:

1. Juliana. Simply put, she has been an amazing wife through all of my time away from the family. I seriously have no idea how she does it. I always tell her that her job is much more difficult than mine. There are times when I'll call her during the day and Holden is going nuts in the background and she is holding it together like a champ. I could never do that 10 - 13 hours a day, five days a week. I just wanted to say thank you to Julie for taking such good care of Holden and our house while I've been busy with work and school. You really are the best.

2. Holden. Seriously, he tries my nerves sometimes. But honestly, could you stay mad at this kid?


P.S. Sorry for the weird affects and colors, I took the pictures with some weird app on my phone, but seriously, how cute is that kid?

Being Secure in Your Manhood is....

Not being afraid to always need to have your tea set close by.

Even when you are playing video games.

In case you were wondering--
Yes, my son's current favorite toy is a tea set.  Judge if you feel the need, but as long as it continues to buy me a solid 45 minutes of play every day the tea set is a friend of mine.
Yes, he is playing some sort of Nintendo gaming system circa 2005.  I found it in a drawer, and again, friend of mine.
Yes, Holden is having a particularly heinous hair day.  That one is my fault.  His baby chick texture hair continues to best me day after day.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Reo had last week off of school (yay!) and was also getting ready to start a new job (YAY!!), so the stars aligned and we had 5 straight days of uninterrupted family time last week.  And we enjoyed every second of it.  Well, I did.  And Holden did.  I am pretty sure Reo was really ready to go back to work after hanging out with the two of us non-stop for so long.

Here's a glimpse at some of the ways we wasted away those vacation days:

Little boy's dream come true:  Riding the train to the arcade.  Life doesn't get much better than this when you are Holden.

Unless maybe you also get to play Playstation with Dad.

There were French Toast breakfasts...

And after bedtime nostalgic movie nights for the grownups..

And we explored an awesome park, where Holden became more fascinated by whether or not certain birds were or were not "pooping" than by anything that the playground had to offer.



Not Pictured:

Eating out about a million times more than was probably necessary.

Local Celebrity sighting (Bob Harmon, of grocery store fame, for those who were curious).

Diaper changes done only by Reo the whole long weekend ( I know, right?  He is way more than I deserve.)

It was back to business for Reo today, but Holden and I kept the party going by having a long overdue lunch and shopping date with a friend.    It's a hard life.