If recent events have taught us anything, it’s to love the people in your life a little harder. June was filled with a lot of family time and celebrating someone super special: my hubby, Robert (aka baby daddy). His birthday was June 1st and Father’s Day was two(ish) weeks later on the 18th. I’m using this post to share a lot of photos I’ve been holding out on from those events (mostly because life is busy and I’m not a huge “sharer” on social media), and have a much overdue brag sesh.
My family has been hit with what feels like gigantic meteors hitting Earth at full speed, not once, but twice in a four month span. Our lives have gone from top of the mountain to the very bottom, and just as we started learning to climb back up, we were thrown back down. But, amidst all the sadness and loss we have experienced, I feel so incredibly fortunate and grateful for the good things we’ve been gifted in life. First and foremost, our sweet little sunshine, Beckham, who gives us more life and purpose than I ever dreamt possible. He fills every single day with laughter- even the hard ones. He truly came into our lives when we needed him the most. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s like the cutest ever, amiright?
Aside from all the baby giggles, smiles, and sweet cuddles, he’s definitely not the easiest in terms of being able to do anything else in his presence. He has a full-on demanding personality, wanting to be held or played with 24/7. And as sweet as it is that he loves his mama and daddy so much, it also makes getting things done a lot harder. Thankfully, his daddy is basically a rockstar and makes life so much easier. In June, we had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks celebrating the wonderful man that he is.
June 1st | Robert’s Birthday
Robert turned 39! Because I am basically the worst gift giver and can never hold out until the day of an event to give a gift, Robert unwrapped his birthday present the night before. He had been talking about the Amazon Echo (“Alexa”) for like FOR.EV.ER. and I pretty much thought it was like the most pointless, laziest concept, but I bought it for him anyway. I’m happy to report that he loved it, but surprisingly, I ended up loving it more.
The next morning (his actual birthday), we went and had breakfast at IHOP, a tradition we unintentionally started a few years ago. Beckham stares at food like he knows what it is, so he wasn’t in his usual selfie mode.
We spent the day shopping and made plans for just the three of us to have dinner at Saltgrass Steak House. I invited our family to join as a last minute surprise for Robert. We showed up at the restaurant, and he was super surprised to see his sister waiting on us. It took him a minute to realize that it wasn’t a coincidence and that she was actually there for him. Being that it was the middle of the week and our family lives all over the metroplex (not to mention horribly last minute on my part), not everyone was able to come, but he was so happy to spend the evening with the people who were able to make it. And darn it, I didn’t end up getting a group shot like I intended, but that’s probably a good thing because Robert may have fallen out of his chair in embarrassment had I orchestrated that.
We had a birthday celebration at our house a few days later on June 3rd. If anyone knows me well, they know I love a good party (planning one, that is). I always have a lot of fun with party details. My best friend, Silvia, brought over a pretty cake the day before, which went perfectly with the colors I chose, and was seriously the most delicious thing ever. Robert decided that he wanted to play poker for his birthday this year, so we ended up having a cookout and a few people stayed all night to play. Our sister-in-law, Suzanne, who is seriously AMAZING at making cupcakes, came over a week earlier to teach me to make fondant and “help” with the fondant pieces for the party. She may or may not have done 98% of the work, and they turned out pretty darn cute. A few of the kids that came thought that the dice were marshmallows, and ended up snagging them off the tops and eating sans cupcake. I had the most fun making banners with photos of Robert I have collected over the years and some that his family sent me from his childhood… umm, hilarious! I ended up stringing them everywhere I could and we may have left them up over a week after the party.
We rented a margarita machine for the night, which was like the best decision ever! A few hours in, all of the kids serenaded Robert with the “Happy Birthday” song on a microphone over the rails of our second floor, and was probably the loudest, cutest, but most awful sound ever. Our group photo was taken after about 10-15 people left; needless to say, our house was filled! We had so much fun and were so happy to see so many faces we love.
June 18th | Robert’s First Father’s Day
Father’s Day was a good one. Beckham and I had the chance to spoil Robert and tell him how grateful we are for all that he does for our family. We started the morning with gifts (which, some he had to re-open because again, I’m a terrible gift giver and had already given him a few.. ha!). His favorite of all the gifts (other than Beckham, of course) was this leather-bound journal I had custom made from a shop on Etsy. The purpose behind the journal is for Beckham (and our future babes) to write notes to their daddy in lieu of cards for birthdays, Father’s Days, etc. over the years. Years from now, I picture all of us going back and reading all of these little notes from different seasons in our lives and laughing and reminiscing on those times. We love the idea so much, I am going to order one for Beckham for us to write in to gift him on his 18th birthday (if I can wait that long 😜).
Before we headed out for the day, Beckham and daddy got a little snooze in.. a full morning of cartoons can wear you out, ya know?
We headed out to do some shopping and met my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and their other nephew (just a week older than Beckham!) for dinner at Mi Cocina and a date at Top Golf. Y’all… it was HOT, like we were frying it was so.darn.hot. But we had a good time anyway and ate way too much food!
Now I’m going to get into full brag mode and tell you how completely awesome this hubby of mine is. I knew he was going to be a great dad just by how loving he is and how he cares for our (ahem, five) animals, but he honestly far exceeded all of my expectations. I took a 3 month maternity leave when Beckham was born, and we were fortunate enough to have Robert home with us for the first 3 weeks. During that time, he let me sleep… like a lot.. like, more than I’m willing to admit. He did everything: he cleaned, cooked, got up with Beckham most nights, changed diapers and did all of the less glorified things when it comes to new babies. He proudly went to every doctor’s appointment with me and made more than a few 2 am Walmart runs without hesitating (we thought our sweet boy was colic and had to try every formula and gas remedy known to mankind). I took the backseat (literally) during that time and let him do most of the work while I sat back and stole most of the snuggles. When it was time for Robert to go back to work, he made it very clear that he wanted me to spend my maternity leave sitting back and relaxing with our baby boy. Despite Robert’s sweet request, I spent every minute Beckham was sleeping to clean, do laundry, cook, etc. (which a newborn sleeps A LOT, so I was doing a ton of “work” during the day). Knowing that I was exhausted, Robert came home during his lunch hour almost every day so that I could shower and have a small break (and to get some snuggles in himself). Each day, he spent 40 minutes driving just to spend 20 minutes helping me with the baby (several times he spent that time vacuuming or doing something so that I wouldn’t have to). Fast forward to May 9th, when it was my turn to go back to work. Putting Beckham in day care and watching him cry his face off on the video monitors the day care provided us access to, was one of the hardest things we have ever done. Both of us went to see our babe each day over lunch, and counted down the minutes the rest of the day until we could rush out the door from work to go scoop him up and plant huge smooches on his squishy cheeks. After a lot of going back and forth on a decision (mostly in my own head), we agreed that I should quit my job so that I could be home with our sweet boy, just three days after returning to work (mind you, we lost my mom in April, so I was (and still am) dealing with a lot of personal things on top of going back to work and being away from our little munchkin). A lot of people have asked if I had to fight him to let me do that, which surprises me every time. Every decision we make, we make together- he actually wanted me home because he knew that would make me happy. And that’s what he does every single day; if he knows something will make me happy, he just does it. He’s one of the most selfless human beings I have ever met in my life, and continues to give of himself until he’s exhausted, and then he still manages to do more. He helps me with B’s entire hour+ long nighttime routine (bottle, bath, dress, rock to sleep) every.single.night. And I say “helps me” very lightly; what I really mean to say is that we do this together. He’s a 100% hands on dad, and doesn’t think anything is solely my responsibility when it comes to Beckham just because I am the mom. In fact, he does just as much as I do when he’s home (cooking, cleaning, running errands, taking care of B), and always lets me sleep in on the weekends! Again, he enjoys making me happy and also loves bonding with our baby in the mornings (I would argue that Robert loves cartoons more than Beckham). He proudly wears the baby carrier, diaper bag backpack, and loves dad duties, even changing diapers in the men’s restroom. Beckham’s face lights up when he sees his daddy, which melts my heart more than anything in the world. No one can make our sweet boy laugh more than his daddy can, and vice versa. The love they have for each other makes me excited for all the years to come (and future babes we will fill our lives with one day).
On top of being an amazing dad, he is so so good to me. He encourages me, supports my goals and stands by me in every decision I (we) make. Aside from being my rock, he’s the definition of a partner in life– he always tags along to birthday parties and events for my friends, chauffeur’s me to hair appointments an hour away only to spend 2 hours finding something to do with a baby while he waits, and will drop what he’s doing to make a coffee run for me. He readily takes care of anything and everything on my (usually very long) “Honey Do” list, and literally puts everyone above himself. He’s not just an awesome father and husband, but a great son, brother, and friend. I know his mom is beaming down, proud of the man she raised. I could go on for days, but at the end of the day what I really mean to say is that I’m thankful for a man that wants to give his all at work to be able to provide for his family, and then come home and devote his time to us. I couldn’t imagine doing this life with anyone else and just thank my lucky stars every day for both of my boys. They are a daily reminder of the good things in life.
To Beckham (and your future siblings): your daddy is something pretty special, but you already knew that.
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