Daddy

We celebrated Father's Day today, one morning early.  Brent is going away tonight on a two day fishing trip (positive vibes in the direction of Ventura the next two nights would be much appreciated - this will be our first night without Daddy in the house).  The kids hid Brent's present in their closet for over a week (I didn't dare tell them what it was until this morning - they're horrible about keeping surprises).  Needless to say, they were super excited to give it to him...

He was happy to receive it too, but maybe not so happy to wake up on the 
kids' schedule.

Yep, I totally did it.  For Brent's first Father's Day I got him an appliance.  We're starting years of Father's Days gifts off on the right foot.  Its not any old appliance, however...its grill to cook injera!  We also got the book You Can Make Injera (google it, I can't get the link to paste into blogger right now), which I've heard great things about (and its proceeds go to building clinics in Ethiopia!).

Brent's an amazing cook.  He can whip up a mean Thai curry, knows tons of Indian dishes (from scratch), makes a wonderful Saturday morning shakshuka, and can grill almost anything to perfection (except for that one time with the turkey legs, but we won't talk about that).  He's the kind of cook that can dig through the refrigerator and the dry goods cupboard when there is seemingly nothing to cook and put together a tasty, healthy feast.  He does the majority of cooking in our house.  He's been wanting to try making injera since before we traveled to pick up the kids, but we just didn't have the right cooking surface.  We buy injera from time to time when we go to Little Ethiopia in LA, but, in general, our kids suffer from serious injera withdrawals.  No longer!

Parenting with Brent these past four (yep, four already) months has been incredible.  Tough, yes, but truly incredible.  Shortly before we traveled to pick up Ashagre and Elsa, I read a blog post that caused me to pause.  It started somewhere along the lines of "I feel like no one told me this...they told me lots of things, but they never told me this...having kids is hard on a marriage."  I read it to Brent.  We made a plan.  Keep communication open.  Respect the other parent's parenting style.  Try not to take things personally.  Support each other.  Keep communication open.

Our plan has been working - really well.  I might just admit, and I think Brent would agree, that parenting Elsa and Ashagre has actually brought us closer.  Brent is an amazing dad, and when I see him with our kids I can't help but love him even more.  He's silly and playful and loving and supportive and consistent and understanding and creative and gentle and dedicated.  The kids and our family are the center of his world.  Parenting with him is fun (I don't know how many nights we sit around and giggle after the kids are in bed as we practice our best impressions of their adorable accents and phrases).  Parenting with him is a collaborative effort in which each of us have equal say and support.

So here's to the man that gets our kids ready and off to school every morning with nutritious lunches, well moisturized skin and hair, clean teeth and matching outfits.  Here's to the man that will be an injera master in no time.  Here's to my best friend, my partner in everything, my husband.  I love you Brent.  Happy Father's Day!