Sunday, June 21, 2009

We made each other

Since the day Kaylani was born, there have been many times when we'll look at her and go "we made you!" Today being Father's Day made me realize that I didn't just make Kaylani, but she actually made me. Without her, today wouldn't have nearly meant as much to me. Sure it meant a lot already since I love my own Dad (Happy Father's Day Yea Yea!) and would celebrate with all the other dad's I know, but this year I could join in on the celebration, thanks to Kaylani.

The day started off great with Kaylani sleeping in until 7am (only because she woke up at 4:30am and Mommy nursed her and put her back down). Then, after a quick breakfast with Jes and Brian, we headed off to a post-wedding brunch for Tommy and Gretchen. To end out the day, we made a 5 hour drive home that took us 8.5 hours and 4 stops because Kaylani was over tired and sick of being in her carseat (luckily a quick "human swing" session at a rest stop put her to sleep for the last 2.5 hour stretch). And even though it sounds like a long, tiring day, it didn't matter because this was the best Father's Day ever (and yes, it was my first Father's Day ever). But in all seriousness, I couldn't be any happier being a Dad. To top it all off, I got an unbelievable gift from Kaylani (and Mommy).

For the past 4 weeks Mommy has been hiding in our office doing something at night. With Kaylani not napping, Mommy was forced to do all her "work" at night. Every night she would be in the office for 2+ hours at a time and I had no idea what was going on. This morning I was let in on the secret. Turns out that Mommy had been working on our first album. Not just Kaylani's first album, but actually OUR first album ever. And it wasn't just a collection of pictures. The amazing part was that it chronicled our first 7 months together with Kaylani through pictures and through excerpts taken straight from this blog. I was speechless as I flipped through the pages. In fact, I'm still in awe of the time and thought Mommy put into making this for me on behalf of Kaylani. It involved going through all 226 of my posts to date, plus the 11K+ pictures that we've taken in that timeframe. Then, she handpicked the pictures, the right quote, and added some color. Incredible.

My words are failing to do this any justice, so instead, here are 6 spreads from the 30+ that were in the album. These pictures won't even be enough to showcase the album the way it deserves, so if you want to see the real thing, come on over. It's proudly displayed on our coffee table. All I can say is that I feel like I'm the luckiest Dad ever. Happy Father's Day to the rest of you!

5 comments:

Cindy said...

Nice! Thanks for that great post JT - happy belated dad's day and happy belated mom's day to BT!

Miss you guys!
Hugs to Kaylani! :o)

SurprisedMom said...

What a wonderful, thoughtful gift your wife made you for Father's Day. I know you'll enjoy it for years to come. I hope you had a great Father's Day!
And Daddies make the best human swings, don't they?

Unknown said...

Hey buddy, Happy Father's Day again!

Brenda, that looks amazing and unbelievable! Nice work and I can't wait to see it!

<3

Melisa Wells said...

WOW! That's a great gift, truly one from the heart. I used to scrapbook (when I had more time!) and know how much work she put into that. It looks gorgeous. Glad you had a great day!

JonnyTam13 said...

Thanks everyone! I'm still completely in awe of the gift and of the great first Father's Day I had. Looking forward to many more!