Super Dad Day

In honor of the upcoming Father’s Day holiday, and for the fine people at the Dollar Shave Club company, I’m writing this week to celebrate (early) my husband and our Super Dad, Mark.

I’ve really struggled with what to write for this post – not that there is any shortage of qualities that Mark embodies that deserve celebrating. It’s just that… how do I sum up who Mark is as a father? How do I celebrate this guy who, as shown here, would never balk at wearing a toilet-paper-tube necklace made with such love and care by our sweet daughter?

What’s the one thing that makes Mark rise above the rest?

Of course, he plays with our daughter any time she asks and takes care of her with constant love and patience. He frequently goes above and beyond the call of duty by getting up with her at 2am or taking over for me when I’m sick or just having a “blah” day. Last weekend, he brought her shopping to buy new shoes, and brought her home with bright blue and yellow Batman Crocs. “She insisted,” he explained. Fine by me.

But what really makes him stand out as a father, I think, is his sense of wonder and imagination. He is a philosopher, a writer, an actor.

He can do all the voices of her favorite cartoon characters, and when he plays with her, stuffed animals come alive, cars have different personalities, they really drive and launch over block towers. While I do dishes, when she watches a video, Mark watches with her and knows all the plots and characters. If I ask, “What’s going on?” he proudly and very seriously explains that “Wonderheart is trying to figure out what her belly-badge power is.”

“But didn’t she just get it to work?” I ask. Mark sighs and shakes his head sarcastically. “Do I have to explain everything? Wonderheart is just in training. Her belly-badge is lighting up, but we still don’t know what her special power is.”

Oh. Okay.

He also got way too excited the other day when he found a Care Bears movie on Hulu that seemed to explain the entire Wonderheart mystery, “Hey, Gretch!” he yelled from the living room, “There’s a movie on Hulu called something like, ‘Wonderheart Gets Her Belly Badge!’ I think we’re finally going to figure out what it does!”

“Are you serious?” I yelled back.
He laughed hysterically before finally admitting that yes, he was.

I realized, especially in that moment, that he was gone, as in, completely submerged in this entire parenting thing. He makes marble tracks out of tape-measures and roads for Matchbox cars, and he’s just as happy to play house and baby dolls.

He is smart and an expert answerer of all “why” questions, and I find myself looking up from cleaning poop off the floor and staring in wonder at this man who makes parenting fun, who makes me feel like a kid again, and who is raising our daughter to be smart and imaginative, an explorer and adventurer.

He is our Super Dad, and I couldn’t be prouder of our little family.