Father's Day Tribute and Photo Update

I am lucky to have the following three amazing men to honor on Father's Day.

Scott is such a great dad to our girls. He is the funnest dad and he's constantly inventing new games to play with Kate, who adores her "Daddy Dear." Despite being such a fun guy, he's still great at being firm when the occasion permits - I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he's a better disciplinarian than I am. (I am too permissive.) He is also incredibly patient which is something that I often struggle with. I can't imagine a better partner in parenting.

Then of course there's my wonderful dad. Growing up, he was incredibly supportive of me in all of my pursuits, music in particular, and any accomplishments that I achieved probably wouldn't have happened without his guidance. We have always been close and I look up to him in a lot of ways - he is very intelligent, hardworking, and unselfish. I have always wanted to be like my dad.

Now I have a second father figure in my life - my father-in-law, Dad Swendsen. He is one of the warmest, most affectionate dads I know and is so inclusive of everyone. Most of all, I appreciate the way he raised Scott to be such a great person. I know that many of the wonderful qualities that Scott has, particularly as a father, come from following his dad's example. Happy Father's Day, dads!

Here are some recent pictures we've taken. Kate is pretty sticker-obsessed lately and below is evidence of the decreased supervision that comes with having a little sibling.

Obviously pants would get in the way of the total sticker count.

Jane is 6 weeks old now and weighs close to 11 lbs. I can't believe how fast she's growing. (Such a cliche, I know.) She's been smiling for a few weeks and we are loving it. Kate, despite occasional "Hold ME!" moments, is still very sweet and affectionate to BabyJane. She tries to involve her sister in conversations by asking her questions and then manually nodding or shaking Jane's head to indicate the correct response. Jane is fairly patient with this game.








Scott took Kate to Discovery Gateway last Saturday, a children's museum/fun center in Gateway mall. They had a blast while I enjoyed some quiet time with Jane. Scott took tons of pictures so I could feel like I had been a part of the whole adventure.

Kate as a newscaster:

They built this soccer ball themselves and then tried to kick it around.



A fake grocery store. They had one of these in the Houston children's museum that I used to visit as a kid and it's just as much a hit now as it was then. Kate showed off her knowledge of produce as Scott asked her to pick out things like asparagus, bell peppers, etc.

This was a maze of tubes - you could put your little plastic ball in and the air sucks it up, and you watch it go through all the tubes... or something like that. :)

They tried on lots of costumes, which Kate loved although she looks a little bored in this shot.

They ended the Daddy-Daughter date with some soft serve. What a fun day.

You can see how much Jane has grown in this picture in proportion to Kate compared to the last family photo we took.

Random: So I went to the grocery store by myself last Saturday (!!!) and it started pouring down rain while I was still shopping. I didn't have an umbrella so I asked for an extra plastic bag in the checkout line. Scott cracked up when he saw me and ran for the camera. I think this is a funny juxtaposition of being high maintenance (in order to preserve the hair) while resembling a homeless person at the same time.