(Aside to the internets: The Hotty Pediatrician has approved using sunscreen on Owen, so please do not feel that you are personally responsible for explaining to me that he is too young. Thanks.)
Dear Mia and Owen,
I want to tell you a little story about your Dad. I want to tell you this story because I know there will be times in your lives when Dad annoys you, or when you think he is totally lame (or whatever they are calling lame once you get old enough to think your parents are lame). And when you have those times, I hope you will think about this story and cut your old man some slack.
Yesterday, Mia and Mommy had a Girls' Day Out and Daddy and Owen stayed home together. Unfortunately, yesterday saw the arrival of one of Owen's rare bad moods and he spent three solid hours screaming at Daddy. And Owen can scream like the dickens when he sets his mind to it. Poor Daddy didn't want to interrupt Girls' Day Out, so he tried everything he could think of. He changed Owen's diaper, tried to give him a bottle, tried to interest him in toys. Daddy tried watching cartoons and tried putting Owen down for a nap (three times). He tried to take Owen for a walk, which seemed like it was going to work out, until he put on the sunscreen and Owen started screaming again, so Daddy decided that the sunscreen must be hurting Owen and gave him a bath. Nothing worked for long, and by the time Mommy and Mia got home, Daddy looked like he had gone ten rounds with a rabid wolverine. (Owen, however, was happy as a lark.)
The point of telling you this, is that Daddy may not always know what to do, and he may not always do the right thing, and sometimes what he does may even make things worse, but he will always do everything in his power to make you happy. You may not always appreciate that about him, but I think you will someday come to believe it is one of the best things about your father.
Love,
Mommy
Comments (19)
Sounds like a pretty cool guy to me. As an aside from the internets, are you really not supposed to put sunscreen on your infant? That seems rather counter-intuitive.
Posted by megan | June 15, 2008 8:05 PM
Beautiful :-) You and Chris are wonderful parents, I think.
Posted by Heather | June 15, 2008 8:06 PM
Happy Father's Day, Mia and Owens daddy!
Posted by Mr Lady | June 15, 2008 8:35 PM
That is one of the coolest letters I've ever seen. Owen and Mia are lucky they have such awesome parents.
Posted by Ross | June 15, 2008 8:58 PM
That was beautiful...
Posted by suze | June 15, 2008 9:43 PM
That was probably one of the best posts I have ever read, Beth. Seriously.
Posted by SciFi Dad | June 15, 2008 10:34 PM
(Attempting a second time since I got no error message, but the comment was not posted.)
That was probably one of the best posts I have ever read, Beth. Seriously.
Posted by SciFi Dad | June 15, 2008 10:36 PM
He's a great father! Most men, namely my ex-husband, would've driven to where I was and left the baby. Good men kick ass!
Forgive me, woman, for I hath drank from the Nyquil bottle and it doth cause the diarrhea of mine donkey door!
...I applaud you for talking to your doctor about sunscreen. My cousin's wife refused to put it on her 5 month old and took her to a photo shoot for 5 hours in the Texas sun. "But the doctor told me it's not good to cover her in it".
The baby had 2nd degree burns on her arms and legs, her nose and cheeks were so bad that they cracked & bled.
I know this is a shitty place to bring it up, but maybe one of you readers will understand that you can put it on an infant, so long as it's the tops of legs/arms, nose/forehead and tops of feet. The reason they tell you NOT to do it is because many people slather it on their whole body and the baby, not having sweat glands where they need to be, cannot release heat from their bodies, therefore causing overheating and worse.
I was so mad at the mother for letting her child get like that! I could've slapped her!
End of rant...Sorry.
Posted by Holy Schmidt! (Melanie) | June 15, 2008 11:14 PM
This is about the loveliest post a father could hope for.
Posted by Missy | June 16, 2008 12:14 AM
Awwww, poor guy just wanted mommy I guess! This is such a cute post!
Posted by Tirzah | June 16, 2008 2:32 AM
Yes, I think Chris is a great Dad. He may not be perfect, but he would go to the end of the earth for either one of his kids and their mother! Lucky you!
Posted by Maribeth | June 16, 2008 7:55 AM
Awww.
Posted by Fraulein N | June 16, 2008 8:45 AM
shows you how well i keep up with the times, i didnt even know they still had that rule...
Posted by shannon | June 16, 2008 9:37 AM
He sounds pretty amazing. So many dads wouldn't have known to do most of those things.
Posted by Brad | June 16, 2008 11:03 AM
Just proves that Chris is as wonderful as he sounds...Most men would've picked up the cell phone and begged for you to come home...girls day be damned. He is a wonderful father and husband, just as you are a wonderful mother and wife.
Posted by Krush | June 16, 2008 12:15 PM
wow. that's probably the best father's day gift you could give Chris.
confirmation that he's a fantastic dad.
Posted by ali | June 16, 2008 12:29 PM
I have NEVER heard you can't use suncream on babies, must be an American thing. That's crazy. Even the explanation (thanks Melanie) is crazy.
Surely you only put it where there arn't clothes?! There for there is plenty of skin that doesn't have it on (like showgirls and gold paint)
besides babies can get sweaty (bad sign, but possible) so don't understand the bit about not having sweat glands? maybe just not enough?
all in all, totally weired!
Posted by mamacrow | June 17, 2008 8:42 AM
A truly lovely letter full of wry tenderness. Thank you for sharing. :)
Posted by Cynthia | June 17, 2008 6:24 PM
Reading this makes me wish my mom would have kept a blog when I was a baby. I would love to be able to read stuff like this about my own dad.
Posted by Isabel | June 20, 2008 2:30 PM