Saturday, January 16, 2010

the little man

While Charlie is gentle with all of our children, he treats our boys differently than he treats our girls. With Carolyn and Elizabeth, he's extremely gentle. He'll hug them and softly kiss their cheeks and tell them that they make his heart melt.

Which they do.

You've never seen a father more smitten with his daughters than Charlie is with our girls.

With our boys, he'll wrestle and throw them to the ground and tickle their tummies until they can hardly breathe they are laughing so hard. Charlie loves to play. But he is also very stern about the boys playing rough with their sisters. He will not tolerate the kids fighting and he gets particularly upset if he sees William hit his sisters. He'll pull him aside and say, "Little man, it is not acceptable for you to ever hit a girl. Do you understand me?"

Sometimes I worry that my husband doesn't show our oldest son the same kind of affection he shows our daughters.

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But then I'll catch a moment where he scoops him up in a tight embrace and he'll whisper, "I love you and I am so proud of you. You are the best thing to ever happen to me."

And my heart pretty much cracks in two.

17 comments:

  1. awww! I just found your blog and I LOVE IT! I spent at least three hours reading it last night.(Hope that's not creepy.) I found it because I'm 29 weeks pregnant and I googled "29 weeks pregnant" and got the picture of you pregnant with the triplets in bed. =) You are my hero, though! You're such a great mom and as someone who will be a single parent, I need some role models!

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  2. ooooh, such a nice post : )

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  3. I know the feeling, and have also caught my husband doing all those same things. It is one of the best feelings in the world.

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  4. awwww so sweet!

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  5. Aw this has me crying. What a lovely picture. My husband is very similar with our girls and boys but these moments are what will make them great men and fathers someday.

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  6. Thank you for sharing that experience, Jen. It's a motivator to hear about life's most amazing moments. Life is good!

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  7. Can we clone Charlie? What a MAN.
    He just does it right. He should have his own tv show.
    MOM

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  8. Very nice post Jen! Charlie's fantastic!! He's definately one of the top of an awesome Dad list! ;-)

    Now. If you could just learn a thing or two from him.....

    Hope to talk to you soon. Love, Marg.

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  9. They say a picture says a thousand words, that picture is more like a million.

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  10. I agree with your mom. We should clone him. My husband is your Charlie's long lost twin: an amazing father and husband. But most of my friends' husbands are idiots and I bet my friends would stand in line to replace their husbands with a clone of Charlie. And they would pay big money. :)

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  11. mine just cracked with ya! So sweet :)

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  12. Awww, that made me eyes leak!

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  13. I can't wait to have our own little William! :)

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  14. Every child should have a Daddy like Charlie! What a beautiful, perfect picture of a father's love!

    My son still gives his sixteen year old big embraces, hugs him to his chest, and affirms him... the big, over-grown, sixteen year old, with the deep voice hugs right back and kisses Dad on the cheek.

    Tell Charlie to keep it up as long as the boys let him....and I have a feeling they will still be hugging when they are teen-agers, too!

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  15. In tears just looking at that picture Jen. Love it.

    My husband has been jealous in some ways of the relationship I have with our sons. They are My Boys. My Princes. Sweet, adorable, little guys that love their Momma. (Which I relish in!) But I have often told my husband that I have the easy job of us. I'm the mom. I love, nurture, feed, affirm our boys. But his GOD-GIVEN job is to teach our boys to be Men. While my job is important now, in the early years...Not even on my very best days can I do what he can do! His job, while not really in full-force at this moment, is really the most important one in the long run.

    Thank God I have such an amazing husband that will do a great job...

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  16. Thank you for posting this. We have boy/girl twins (19 months) and beyond this being the sweetest post ever, it also prompted me to talk to my husband about it and re-emphasize the importance of affection from dads to sons. I feel that specific relationship often gets shortchanged in just pure expressed emotion and affection (even if it is a deeply loving relationship, as it usually is). So this was a great reminder to both my husband and I to make sure that our son gets as much outwards affection from his dad as he needs. So thank you!

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