"Baby Girl, I'm Going to Miss You Today"

My husband went back to work today.  He typically rides with three other guys in a carpool which leaves at 6:30 am, but he couldn't pull himself out of bed in time.  For starters, he's not a morning-person in the first place.  But I could see that it wasn't just the waking-up part that was getting to him today...it really was hard for him to leave Ella.  He finally left the house around 8:30 am.

I admit that I teared up a bit when he leaned over and kissed her and said "Baby Girl, I'm going to miss you today" before finally rolling out of bed.  Once he was showered and ready to go, he picked her up out of the cradle and just held her for a few minutes, gazing at her in adoration, before leaving.  I promised to send him picture-texts throughout the day to hold him over until he comes home.

He really is an amazing father and I can tell that he loves her so dearly.  He still is squeamish around diapers, but he reads to her, explains baseball to her, and teaches her the words to our fight song.  There is so much that he's looking forward to doing with her as she grows up. 

Ever since our first date, I knew that he wanted to be a dad.  I can still perfectly remember that conversation about kids.  Over dinner that first night, he said, "If I have kids--no, scratch that--when I have kids, I want to be the type of dad that plays catch with them in the front yard".  He had me right there.  I knew, then and there, even after splitting a bottle of wine, that this man (who yes, I admit, I met in a bar) was the perfect partner for me.  It took us a long time to get to this point of "when I have kids", but I am so thankful that we're here, and I'm so glad that he's the one here with me.

My recent blessing was recently hearing that two special friends are both expecting.  The first is my childhood friend who taught me so much about true friendship, and she was the inspiration behind Ella's name.  She is now about 11 weeks along at this point with her second baby, and I am so thrilled for her.  The other friend is the wife of my college guy-friend, who I had reached out to earlier in the year and had learned that they had also experienced loss.  She is now about 15 weeks along, and everything is going well.  I'm so happy for both of them!