SUPER-DADS

Since yesterday was Father's Day, here are my memories. The first one about my dad and the second one about my husband:

My dad was a great gardener. He landscaped our home, including putting in rock walls and steps. We had a flower garden on one side of the house where Dad had planted petunias. One time he called me over and showed me how to pinch off the head of the petunia after it had withered. He told me if I did this, then the plants would grow more blossoms. So everytime I passed that flower bed, I always had to stop and pinch off all the withered or dead blossoms before going on. Dad seemed to always know all about the flowers and plants and was always telling me about them. I can remember him even letting me mow the backyard sometimes, but he wouldn't let me mow the upper level. I loved our backyard and loved to play out there. We had lilac bushes all across the back of the yard and a peony bush - which was my favorite. Dad planted - I'm not sure if this is the right name - seedum - on the rock walls. I thought it was cool to pick a piece and squeeze it. I loved the stone steps he built on the side of the house and in the back, separating the two backyard levels. I used to play that the backyard was my house and the side steps and gate were my front door. One time Dad had got some 2'X 4"s for something. He let us play with them and we used them to "outline" a house that we could play in. We used leaves for dishes and found "forked" sticks to use - yes - for forks. I used to wish that I could just really live outside in my backyard. We use to put on neighborhood variety shows, using the upper level of the backyard for our stage. One time, after our cat died, we decided we would dig the cat back up - for what reason, I don't know. We "thought" we knew where Dad had buried him, so we got a couple of shovels and started digging. We dug a pretty good hole - at least 3" deep or more. Dad didn't seem to mind - mainly because he knew that was not where he buried old Scamper. He just told us to fill the hole back in when we got tired of digging. I always wondered where Scamper was buried and wondered if it was under the peony bush?

My husband "L" went to college for almost the first 10 years of our marriage. He worked full-time and went to school full-time the last 5 years. My kids don't think their dad had a lot to do with them as babies, since he was always studying at night, but he did. Several of my babies had problems with lots of colic. He always would take them and lay them on his knees and gently rub their tummies to help them get rid of the colic. My kids always spit up a lot when they were babies, and I remember many times when L "got it" all over his shirt or even down inside his shirt when he was rocking them. One time when my 2nd daughter was a toddler, I had to go to the store at night because I had been babysitting all day. I thought she would lay in my bed while her dad sat beside her at his desk studying. It took me about an hour since I had a lot of groceries to buy. When I got back, there she was sitting on her dad's lap. She had cried the whole time I was gone and he was rocking her. With daughter #1 he would go in her room to have a "tea party" with her. He would actually sit at her little table and let her set the table and bring him "tea". Whenever he would play his guitar, the girls loved to listen to him and "dance".

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO TWO GREAT DADS!