Dad-dad-daddy-o!

I remember the first father's day I celebrated, officially it was totally unofficial I was a dad-to be.  While I had known the news since January-ish it was something that we didn't go about advertising at work.

My family knew, my very close knot of friends (a total of 3) knew, and my boss knew.
That made it all the more interesting when our not-dedicated Admin, came over to my desk and looked at me with a face that said "I'm not sure this is true, it's probably a mistake, please tell me it's a mistake" and gave me the Father's day gift the company had decided to bestow on us.

She even came with three other people just to make matters more interesting:
"Adri, I was told you ... you well to give this to you, it's a >
audible gasp< **father's day** gift".

I looked at her with my best smile and poker face and hugged her, took the gift (a keychain) and said, "Thank you!"

The three women standing across from me looked like they had just been hit with a firehose full of ice cubes.

Stood up, walked away, looked for my main buddy at the time and went to "smoke".
We didn't smoke, we just stood around talking, and had one of the biggest laughs we could.

Afterwards, the girl did come over again and said "I didn't know you were a father", so I did a bit of explaining that my son had yet to be born, but that officially, yes, I was now the responsible party of having shared 23 of my chromosomes with another homo-sapiens and indeed that gave me the title if nothing else.

She was still stunned.  It washed away with a few beers at our favourite watering hole later.

I'm a bit superstitious to be honest, not too much, not heavily, but I'm not one to count my chickens before they hatch.

Eight years from that surprise gifting, I am blessed to have my son with me, and tell stories, do homework, wiped tushies, cleaned up after a sickness and lost my head over him falling down and getting "hurt".

His tears break me down and his smiles make everything worthwhile, every single time.

Children change people, yeah, it's a cliche but it doesn't stop being true.

I'm happy that right now, I get the chance to live my life as a father, as a figurehead and example.

Hearing my son run like crazy upstairs at the hit of 8 o'clock because "he's late!" for his PJs is so fun it's unreal.  I fought kicking and screaming not to go to bed too early.  He is so punctual about it I have to restrain myself not to laugh a bit (we never know how kids will react to the wrongly timed smirk).

So, I'm told that it's late, he needs a story read and we're lagging behind on our Hobbit chapters.

With home work finished, teeth brushed and clean Pjs, I bid you farewell, may your day be as joyful as mine is, may your dreams be complete, and cherish the child inside of all of you while you spend time with children around you.