Life in an Instant: The Dad Days of Summer

When I read Stacy's post about the number of days before our kids leave home, the clock has been winding down in the back of my head.  I have 3958 days before Anthony turns 18.  And many of those days I will be sick.  Hopefully less than more!  But its a fact of our lives.  But worse than me being sick, many of those days will be missed by a man who loves these boys more than anything in this whole universe.

Its hard not to see how much David loves the boys.  Everything he does is for them.  Including working like a maniac.  I look around at other families who has a parent gone most of the time and am in awe of how composed they are.  Most days, I feel like everything is going wrong.  The one constant is that David is at work.  Yesterday morning, as he was rushing out the door, I told him he deserved to be a little late.  Yes I know its not very professional.  But its true.  He is working himself sick.  His reply was "yes, but I hate being late!"  Its true.  He is all business when it comes to work.  Never calling in, even when he is down with the flu.  He takes a shot of Day Quill and is on his way.  I actually just bought another bottle yesterday knowing that he is bound to crash soon...

Last weekend, the boys were itching for some time with him.  Every morning last week and so far this week, Alexander cries when he leaves.  And every night Anthony tells me how much he misses having daddy home at dinner.  So when he offered to take us out to lunch and some fun, we were all super excited.  As tired as he was, he answered every little question they asked him.  He ordered them pancakes and chocolate milk, yogurt and then took them for ice cream.  And we also took a detour to the park, which was the highlight of the day.  Don't get me wrong, we go to the park as often as we can but this time, he set aside all his tiredness and put on a good show for the boys.  They took it all it and are still talking about it.  I will forever smile at the thought of him just letting go and having some fun.  We were kids again.  Leaving behind all the troubles and enjoying what he have.

Hes a quiet man.  Reserved till you get to know him.  He is easy to love.  Serious on most days, but on days like this he is just simply dad.  I don't think we will ever be able to give back to him what he has given us.  But you had better believe we are going to try!