pregnancy

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Dear Holly: Your Due Date is Exactly 3 Months from Today!

27 weeks.

Dear Holly: Your Due Date is Exactly 3 Months from Today!

Dear Holly,

Today I visited Brilliant Sky Toys and Books and bought you your first official stuffed animal from Mommy and me.

For a few months now, we’ve had our eyes on this particular Jelly Cat bunny with a flower design for its ears: Blossom Bunny Posey.

It instantly made us think you; not overly dainty and princess-essy, but instead; sweet, eclectic, and understated.

I could be wrong, but that’s how I see you: sweet, eclectic, and understated.

The question: What kind of little girl will you be?

It’s something I think about constantly. Here’s my thought process so far…

Mommy is obviously beautiful, classy, and diligent in all she does. I know you will be like her in those ways.

Your brother Jack is creative, intelligent, and independent.

As for me, I am innovative, good at communication but horrible at math, and charming in an old-world sort of way.

We are the family you are being born into.

Over the next couple of years, you will develop your personality based on and around us.

I see you as artsy. I don’t see you as someone who demands attention. People will be drawn to you because you will be confident in who you are.

Something I assure you of as your Daddy is that I will instill that confidence in you, every day.

You will know you are beautiful. You will know you are loved. You will hear these things from me every day.

That’s one of my roles as your Daddy. I take pride in that job.

Granted, I will also brainwash you into believe that Frozen is an asinine movie because the parents locked their daughters in the rooms, not allowing them to communicate just because they were different.

Therefore, I will celebrate with you the better Disney girl movie choice, Inside Out. It demonstrates how good parents raise their daughters; from an emotionally intelligent perspective.

Yeah, your Daddy’s going to be a little bit different… maybe even a little bit kooky. But you’ll never have to wonder about my love for you.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

27 weeks.

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

Dear Holly,

As I mentioned last week, you received a Graco RoomFor2 stroller, from Mommy’s registry at Target. Well, we unboxed it this weekend and your brother Jack already started putting it to use.

Not the actual stroller, but its unattached wheels.

He immediately began using them as cannons for Pandy to shoot across the living. Soon after, his panda bear collected an army of other stuffed animals to help shoot the artillery.

From there, Jack insisted a make a video of him racing his cars, so I did. As you can see in the video, by this point it was Ellie the Elephant who was using the stroller tires as markers for the race track.

https://familyfriendlydaddyblog.com/2016/01/21/dear-holly-your-brother-jack-is-playing-with-your-toys-already/

That night, Jack went ahead and also broke out your new bath toys, which are a gift from some friends we met for lunch on Sunday.

So I’m thinking this is going to be a reoccurring thing. In the upcoming 3 months before you are born, Jack will inspect and test out any of your new toys or gadgets that could possibility provide entertainment and engagement for him.

I suppose it won’t hurt anything. After all, it’s not like your’re going to be aware of whether or not your new belongings were “lightly used” beforehand.

And I think it’s good for your brother Jack because he gets to be more involved with your arrival.

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

He can truly feel a part of what’s going on. It’s important to me he doesn’t feel left out or overshadowed once you get here.

I want to proactively do my best to give you both equal, yet separate and unique, attention and quality time.

Because of the 5 and a half year difference between the two of you, I think it will be fairly easy.

I won’t be catering to 2 babies, but instead, one baby and one boy. Those are two different worlds, as far as I’m concerned.

However, it has become apparent that despite your age difference, you’ll both be sharing your toys.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

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Dear Holly: Your Official Baby Blanket and New Graco RoomFor2 Stroller

26 weeks.

Dear Holly: Your Official Baby Blanket and New Double Graco Stroller

Dear Holly,

For the past few weeks, Mommy spent hours upon hours on Etsy, finding the perfect baby blanket for you.

Not just any blanket, but the baby blanket.

We had to find the one that best matched the color scheme as well as the “Rock-a-bye Baby” theme of your bedroom. Plus, the blanket had to be of nice quality and look modern.

Not to mention, we had to find one in our budget. Though in the end, your Nonna and Papa (my parents) quickly offered to pay for it once they heard about the blanket.

You can thank them when you get here.

So this is it: This is your official baby blanket that will show up in all those pictures while you are a newborn and small baby.

http://www.gracobaby.com/products/pages/roomfor2-classic-connect-stand-ride-stroller-metropolis.aspx

We put a lot of thought into finding a blanket that represents what we imagine you will be like. As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t see you as this dainty little princess.

Therefore, a pink blanket just didn’t do it for me. I wanted to see more character in your baby blanket, as well as the room’s décor.

I feel we’ve done a good job of making that happen.

Meanwhile this week, we also received another important baby gift for you, in the mail…

A double stroller!

Some close friends of the family decided to buy you (and your brother) a Graco RoomFor2 double stroller.

I never imagined we’d ever own anything so nice, or practical. Seriously, I am so happy about receiving this stroller.

It’s one of those things on our Target registry that I of course wished for, but didn’t actually expect to receive.

By the way, you’ll be here in about 3 months. It’s really not that far out in the future at all. So it’s not too early at all to be receiving your baby blanket and stroller.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: You’re Over Halfway Ready inside of Mommy’s Tummy

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25 weeks.

Dear Holly,

It was 4 months ago this week that Mommy and I started telling everybody about you. I first officially revealed the news about you in an episode of my 1st web series, Jack-Man.

With your due date on April 21st , the day after my 35th birthday, Mommy is now more than halfway through her pregnancy. As crazy as it sounds, you’ll be making your arrival in just a little more than 3 months from now!

I was telling Mommy this week how weird of a thought it is that when you turn 5 years-old, like your brother Jack is now, I’ll be 40 years-old.

But I would choose 35 or 40 any day over being 25 or 30. I like how settled life is these days. Life is good. It wasn’t that way when I was officially “young.”

With us living in our new house for a year now (we moved in January 29, 2015), our family has basically been on cruise control, in regards to any kind of major challenges.

We’ve survived debt, getting out of debt, car issues, and even job insecurities since your brother was born; in addition to adapting as a family raising a child for the first time.

It looks like you will be born into a stage of our family’s life when things are calm and stable.

Granted, one of my life quotes is this: “Life is either bad and about to get better, or it’s good and about to get worse.”

I believe it’s important to never take for granted when you are going through a smooth patch in life. I am just as aware of God’s grace now as I was when our family lived through those stormier years.

Hopefully, the upcoming challenges this year won’t dramatically alter our smooth sailing days.

Between 1) welcoming you into our family, along with 2) my New Year’s resolution of attempting to do what it takes to go full-time with my blog and YouTube channel, as well as 3) our family possibly replacing at least one of our vehicles, this year is will have its fair share of positive challenges.

I want those kinds of challenges.

Mommy and I have been cleansed by the fire; we have been forced to mature. Now we’re looking forward to keeping life on cruise control, just not staying on the same roads.

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on marriage, parenting, Pregnancy, Uncategorized

Dear Holly: I Would Marry Your Mommy Every Single Time

24 weeks.

Back in Nashville 032 Crop

Dear Holly,

Mommy and I are going on nearly 7 and a half years of marriage and if I could go back and do it all over again, I can say with confidence, that I would marry her every single time.

That confidence comes from knowing that we’ve survived through some life-changing and mind-altering experiences together.

Like digging our way well into, and then way out of, over $50,000 in debt. Like raising your brother together for the past 5 years. Like selling and a buying a house or two.

Even more minor things like becoming vegetarians/vegans 4 years ago together and seeing her quickly rise to become the stellar vegetarian/vegan chef that she is for our family.

I still am so impressed by her, on a daily basis, after all this time so far.

When we met we were, by default, two 26 year-olds who were less mature and experienced than we are now. (Pictured above.)

Now we are two 34 year-olds who are at the best place in our lives so far.

Apparently age 34 is officially the happiest time in a person’s life. While I could easily agree with that so far, considering we are more secure in our jobs and finances these days than ever before, I have to believe that things still get better beyond age 34.

Because, after all, you are due to be born right around my 35th birthday, in April 2016.

After having shared my life with your Mommy for this long, I am more convinced than ever that I couldn’t have made a better decision.

I am grateful to the 26 year-old version of me who, in my immaturity and inexperience, was able to recognize that Mommy was the one for me. Plus, I am grateful that version of me had what it took to convince Mommy to fall for me.

My life couldn’t have been any better than it is right now had I not met your Mommy. She is quite the catch and I will be overly aware of that every day for the rest of my life.

I bet my life on her… and won.

Love,

Daddy