Dad's Day

Today is Father's Day and, I have to admit, because Michael received his gift yesterday, I didn't feel too bad about asking a few favors of him today! (Tisk, tisk...I know).

My first favor was that we all attend mass this morning. I figured since it was at 10:30, it wouldn't  encroach too much on his obligatory Father's Day sleep. Not only were we on time for mass, but Zoey was able to stay in/near our pew for most of the time! The timing of her final outburst was actually kind of comical. Right after Michael scooped her up and took her into the vestibule, the priest asked all of the fathers to rise, so we could offer a blessing (go figure!). All around me, men began to rise, and I just looked back at Michael through the glass. He, too, was standing and showing exactly why he is such a great dad to Zoey! She and I are very blessed to have such a great guy to call "Hubby"/"Dada".

Smiling, even though he was ready to leave :)

Our church is so beautiful; the entrance is one of it's most stunning features 

(I couldn't get all of it in this picture)

Our little family

My second favor of the day: installation of the living room blinds. The existing blinds in our living room window broke a few weeks ago, and even before that, we had been discussing how we were going to afford to replace all of the blinds in the house. We have decided to do them one room at a time, and it only made sense to start with the broken one. We had already purchased  the blinds and brought them home to make sure we liked how they looked, but they needed to be cut (at the store) and installed. 

While Mike ran to Home Depot, Zoey and I did a little Father's Day artwork. I found a cute printable coloring page online, and once Zoey was in the appropriate attire for marker wielding, the fun began!

They say those markers are washable, but you never know! I'd much rather her color on my old t-shirt, than her own clothes. Plus, she looked so dang cute! 

Initially, there were markers flying everywhere!! 

Then, I wised up and gave her one at a time!

Applying stickers :)

Playing with the materials while I mounted her pretty picture.

Ta-da! 

Michael was thrilled to return home to this "colorful" surprise.

Once the blinds were installed (they look great, btw!), Michael retreated to the garage and brewed some beer. That (the brewing) was exactly how he wanted to spend his day, and I'm glad it was able to happen, among all of the other typical weekend chores that still needed to get done. 

As he brewed, Zoey and I ran to the store to get ingredients for the dinner he requested (a giant salad, with grilled chicken and tons of veggies). 

Experiencing a bit of a wardrobe malfunction while trying to help put the onion away! 

I know it's "Father's" Day, but Zoey gave me a few treats today, too. As we were leaving the grocery store, she was holding my driver's license and looked down at my picture and said "Mama!"!!! Now, she will say "Dada" all day long, but it was just a few days ago that she started saying "Mama" very clearly, upon request. She is still pretty stingy with her use of the word, so I was thrilled to not only hear her say it, unprompted, but to have it paired with an identification! 

She is also working on her pointing, which is exciting to see. She mostly points with her whole hand (arm out, fingers pressed together), but tonight she did a bit of pointing with her index finger! (I realize it may be hard to understand why this is so exciting to me, but this is my life! I spend all day with this little girl, so when she does something new, something that shows me she is learning and growing...my heart soars, my eyes well up...it's a big deal!!) 

We decided to take advantage of the day's developments and practice some pointing and identifications.

Pointing to "Granny"!

Pointing to "Mama"

This made me realize that I really need to get some pictures of the rest of her relatives up, ASAP!

Most of the time when she points, she says "dis". Sometimes she even tries what sounds like "please" ("pisss" and "peesh")

This was Michael's second Father's Day, and when I was making last year's FD shirt, I knew I wanted to make him one every year. Obviously, eventually it will be Zoey providing the shirt design, but until then, it's up to me.

A pretty accurate description

(There are many, many other positive words and phrases that could have been added to depict his awesomeness, but the shirt is only so big!)