Love is nothing without respect...

Twoops,

Your mother told me something yesterday that made me terribly happy.  And since it had to do with you, I wanted to share it with you.  There's a pretty important message enclosed inside what she said.

She was talking to a co-worker at the hospital about your big brother.  I don't know exactly what they were talking about, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that Liam is just a crazy little ball of nonstop energy.  He's not really one for snuggling up with us, which is a quality that apparently your mom also possessed when she was his age.  I don't specifically know that they were talking about that, but I know that it was some kind of topic involving the similarities between Liam and your mother, because the co-worker said to her:

"Well, maybe the next one will be more like your husband."

Just thinking about your mother's response makes me smile.  I don't actually know the exact words that she used, but she basically said:

"Yes, that would be great."

Apparently, however she said it, she said it warmly enough to make the co-worker realize how much your mother loves me and respects me.  The co-worker responded to your mother with:

"You really love him, don't you?  That's so great to see."

This caught your mom a little off-guard.  Of course she loves me!  But the co-worker quickly pointed out how rare it is to actually see couples that love and respect eachother the way that your mom and I do.

So,  I guess this is the first meaningful message that I will be offering to you.

When the day comes that you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, make sure that it is someone that you respect.  It should be someone amazing, who challenges you and pushes you to be a better person.  To put it simply, when you look at whoever it is, you should ask yourself...


"Is this person better than me?"

If the answer isn't at least a "Wow, they might be!" then you might be barking up the wrong tree.

I love you, Twoops, and I can't wait to meet you!

95 days!

Love.

Dad

Introduction

Hi Twoops!

I'm not sure how old you will be when you first start reading this.  At this point, I don't have any particular plans about when I will reveal this to you.  Will it be when you go off to college?  Will it be when you first learn how to read?  I honestly have no idea right now.  I only know that I will be writing this for a long time before you first read it.

As of this moment, you are four months away from being born.  So, we don't even know whether you are going to be a boy or girl yet.  So that's why this post just calls you Twoops since we don't have a name for you yet.  Twoops comes from 2.0 (you know, you're the second edition!).  In case that doesn't make sense whenever you're reading this, things used to be labeled as 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, etc... depending on which version of the original they were.

By way of introduction, I'm 42 years old at the time of this writing.  So, yeah, as I'm sure you know by this point, I'm a little older than the average dad at the time of your birth.

As I am sure you also know, I am absolutely thrilled to be your father.  Your mother has given me a lot of amazing gifts over the years (and more, I am sure, by the time that you read this).  Of all of them, though, the decision to have you and your brother is the absolute greatest.

The point of this blog is to try and chronicle some of the things that are going on in your life as the years go by.  I'm going to try to add in a few highlights each week.  This is designed to be a sort of living scrapbook so that later in life I can share all kinds of things that I might have otherwise forgotten.

I love you!

Your Dad