part two: the role of the father

This may be slightly controversial. Chris is a great dad. He really is. He builds dollhouses, makes dinner, changes diapers, does hairdos (and dreams up future hairdos to do - he was looking up braids on youtube this week - NOT KIDDING!), plays games; and, nowadays, does the entire morning routine himself. He took Annie on a date a month ago: they rode go-carts and ate ice cream and she hasn't stopped talking about it. Now for the controversial part: he has no choice but to be a great dad.

Most families today rely on two incomes. Period. And if the mom is working 40+ hours a week and the dad is working 40+ hours a week, then both have to do their share of work at home as well. That is not to say that workload is always equal, but we have to be a team or our home is going to literally fall apart. Maybe dads (at least in my house) get a little more time off for happy hour or fishing than moms. And nursing mothers never get a day off. But this is the modern dad; he has no choice but to be great.

Modern dad in action:

wordless wednesday :)

I might have another thumb sucker on my hands

It's OK with me. I am pretty much neutral on the paci-thumb debate (we're not even working on Annie's thumb yet - soon but I'm not stressing it), but seeing Maren work her hand up to her mouth to take the paci out and work to bring the thumb into her mouth makes me think that avoiding the thumb might be impossible even if we decided against it. I changed her diaper, left her on the bed while I threw a load of laundry in, came back, and she was out.

Had a great Sarah shower weekend. The Cooks came over to, well, cook for the shower on Friday night and we had a fun time. These will be beers in 20 or so years:

I don't know about raising boys vs. girls but

Yesterday Annie brought me a matchbox car and a length of pink ribbon and asked me to tie the ribbon around the car "like a skirt."

This morning, I put on a cardigan for work, so she went and put her cardigan on. Then I put a necklace on, so she went and put her necklace on. The result:

And my smiley small girl:

many faces of mare mare

So today, Maren was all like, I am such a second child. You never take any picture of me. So we had an impromptu photo session (I tie-dyed her shirt last night).