I know, I know: This is too little, too late, since Father’s Day has come and gone. However, it must be said, in spite of its tardiness: My husband is a GREAT dad! And I owe the divine bearded one BIG PROPS for what he’s done today. In fact, he moved up my estimation ladder by several rungs.
When I was small, my parents took turns reading me all the books in the Little House on the Prairie series–and then I read them all again myself when I could. During that phase, I became slightly *ahem* obsessed with acting out scenes from the book while wearing a calico dress and bonnet that my grandmother had made for me. According to my mother, I wore it day in and day out–and could not be distracted from my prairie predilection.
Last week, Mark and I started reading to Ava from “Little House in the Big Woods.” She’d been hesitant to let me read it to her because “those stories have a gun in them” (Pa’s hunting rifle), but I was determined to have her like them as much as I did. Therefore, we bravely plowed ahead (so to speak). Well, turns out the apple really doesn’t fall too far from the tree: She was enraptured, even making me read one particularly funny chapter over and over to her again while she giggled. And now she has a visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Burr Oak pencilled in for next week, when she goes to stay with my mom in Decorah. It turns out that my mom still has the red-and-white prairie dress that my grandmother so lovingly made for me; however, the bonnet has disappeared. Ava was crestfallen when she heard the news
So how does the World’s Greatest Dad factor into all of this? He took this week off to spend time with Ava, and guess where they went today–for four hours. To a fabric store–and then to Home Ec, an awesome knitting and crafting store in town. He helped Ava pick out a blue-calico print, and together, they began making a bonnet. When I stopped into the workshop over my lunch hour, Mark was bent over the fabric, tracing patterns and cutting them out, while Ava stood by the workbench. I swear that I loved my husband more in that moment than I ever have before. Turns out I married a good one–beard and all.