Go Daddy!

No, not the website with all those annoying Superbowl ads. I mean "Go" as in hooray, whoopie, you rock, do the happy dance, and hot damn and hallelujah. And I mean "Daddy" as in wonderful man, wonderful husband, and most of all, wonderful and devoted father of two. In other words, Herb rocks.

[Happy Dance]

He got home this morning after having been away for four days. Now, four days is not a particularly long time. It's not like I was pining for him because I hadn't seen him in months and months. I talked to him on the phone a couple of times a day, we emailed each other often, we even had a Skype videoconference once. So how is it that I missed him so much? Well, for one thing, this is the longest we've been apart since we've been married. Come to think of it, other than that one week in October 2007, this is the longest we've been apart since we met! And for another thing, I had no idea how much I rely on his support dealing with Ryan.

He's fantastic in terms of giving me a break when he comes home from work. He loves taking Ryan and playing with him before dinner, which makes it a lot easier for me to make dinner. And as I've mentioned before, he takes care of tubby time and the last diaper change and bottle before bedtime. So I get a nice long break to clean up after dinner, throw in a load of laundry or two, empty the dishwasher - all those tasks I can't quite manage during the day. Not to mention just being able to sit down without a 23-pound sack of potatoes on my shoulder.

But above and beyond that, just having his emotional support is so much more important than I ever knew. When Ryan is crying for no particular reason and I'm feeling like it must be my fault for not being able to figure it out, Herb reassures me that that's just what babies do. And I know that's true, but somehow hearing it from another adult, one that I love and trust, makes it more believable. He constantly reassures me that I'm a good mother, that I have good instincts, that I take care of Ryan, and that I'm still a good wife to him on top of that. Sometimes I feel like he's getting the shaft a little because I need to spend so much time taking care of Ryan, but he reassures me that he doesn't feel left out.

So this is a public thank-you and acknowledgement of his all-around awesomeness. Go Daddy!