To the best Abby-daddy I know:
Thanks for getting me into this mess. Thank you for keeping me sane through 24 hours of labor. Thank you for holding the household together when I was a postpartum hormonal wreck. Thank you for getting up with Abby every morning, for bathing her every other night, for being more than just her favorite playmate, and for coming home ready to parent, not just ready for dinner. Thank you for your prodigious (if equally perplexing) faith in me.
Thanks for being my best friend and equal partner in all this craziness. It’s a privilege to share it with you. ♥
Feel free to omit this from your blog if it will embarass Dan, but I had to share it with you. For some reason this post reminds me of a moment during my freshman year of college; I believe it was in the fall. Heather and I were lounging on a blanket on the beach attempting to get some reading done but probably gabbing instead. To our pleasant surpise, Dan came running down the then-horrifically-named steps to the right of the beach wearing his signature yellow Cheerios t-shirt and khaki shorts. We called to say hello and start a conversation, and he was beaming, pleasantly said hi back to us, and sorry, but he couldn’t talk, he was meeting Nikki for dinner and couldn’t be late (though it seemed more like he meant that he didn’t want to be even a bit late), and ran off. We turned to each other and did the same raised-eyebrow-face that means “hmmmm… that’s something,” and cracked up happily at the thought of what might come of it all. That was in your early good friend days and I’m so happy that nine years later things are just the way they seemed they should be even back then. Happy Father’s Day, Dan!
That must have been your first semester, in which case I doubt even Dan realized that he liked me (I certainly had no clue). You and Heather were a couple of crazy Yentls. Although I suppose I have no room to talk, since I remember telling Dan and John how perfect you and Chris were for each other MONTHS before you started going out. Oh, Newman.
I don’t think we thought it was anything more than a friendship at the time- but just such a nice one with potential. Yes, matchmakers all were we. At least we had good instincts!