When my husband was very little, his dad left the family. He has played a very, very small role in Sa's life and even though the only lives a few blocks away from us now, we only see him a few times a year. Sa rarely talks about him, but on occasion, when he's really frustrated about it he'll say, "It's HIS fault I don't know how to be a dad!"
Every time he says this, I'm stunned. Sa is the most AMAZING father. In everything he does, he tries to involve the kids. Take today for example...
This morning we decided we needed to run into town to grab some things and we wanted to leave pretty quickly. We send the kids to go get dressed then Sa turns to me and says, " Babe, you go ahead and shower and I'll get breakfast together." That was music to my ears! I happily run and jump in the shower. After taking far too long in the shower I return to the kitchen. Reed is cutting up portugese sausage and Sa is doing the dishes while instructing Brooklyn how to crack and scramble eggs. He even stands over the kids while teaching them how to cook everything! Could he have done it faster on his own? Absolutely! Was the extra time he took to teach the kids worth it to him? With out a doubt.
We've had an awesome day! We went shopping, took the kids to swim lessons and then to the movies with my sister's family and my mom.
When we get home Sa tells me, "Go ahead and start dinner while I change the oil in the car." While I fix dinner, I hear the kids outside talking and I figured they were just watching Sa. When I go outside to call them in to eat, I am greeted with this picture...
The kids weren't just watching Sa, he was letting them help! I walked out in the middle of him saying, "Now, when you go to buy the filter, you need to make sure you tell them the make, model and year of your car..." They each took turns screwing, tightening, placing the oil box, examining the filter...what ever job that needed to be done, they were doing it. Did I mention that the three out there are 9, 6 and 3? He even let them each pour a quart of oil.
Did you notice it's dark outside? It was getting late, we've had a busy day and you'd think he'd just want to get the job over and done with so he could finally relax! Instead, it was more important to him to have the kids out there helping and learning and slowing him down. This is the kind of father he is and he didn't need anyone to teach him that!
