When You're At Your Worst, or Happy Father's Day

What if someone saw every weak moment you had as a parent and when you are at your worst at parenting?  Every frustrated sigh.  Every time you snapped "no" on accident because you were stressed, doing three things at once, and overwhelmed.  Chris and I see almost every single one of eachother's weak moments as parents because we both work from home, so we're almost always around Eliot with one another all day.  I see every time Chris says "no" to playing to cars.  I know nearly every time that Chris loses his patience--and he also knows each time I'm not the best parent as well, but he never gives me a hard time.

I see him at his worst, and, you know what, Eliot is lucky.  Chris's worst is amazing.  And his best is unbelievable.

When I met Chris, kids weren't on our minds.  I was 17; he was 18.  We wanted independence, to be recognized as adults, and to stand on our own together.  And somewhere between getting married, buying our first house, getting jobs, and working on our doctorates, we got there.  And then we desperately wanted a family.  We were blessed with our Eliot quickly and ever since Eliot came around, he has been Chris's world.  With Jack on the way, Chris has said that he feels like he "won the lottery," and it is all about to get even better with another son to share life with.

Chris swims in the freezing pool with Eliot almost every day.  He has Eliot help him with chores, like washing the cars or cutting the grass.  He plays sports with Eliot and throws him higher in the air than I can.  He takes Eliot on one-on-one adventures, like to the aquarium, Busch Gardens, the zoo, for runs, and (perhaps silly sounding but Eliot's favorite) out to breakfast for a plain biscuit from McDonalds.

I recently found this photo from last summer.  I had completely forgotten about it.  Maybe I didn't post it because I thought it was too grainy or the colors weren't right, but right now, it is one of my favorite photos of my husband and son together.  I thought Eliot was so big back then at a year and a half--he looks tiny now.  And I think Chris is so handsome.  It really shows how comfortable Eliot is with his dad.  And I love Chris for being such a great dad, for caring so much, and always wanting to be there.

Eliot and Jack are two of the luckiest boys in the world.