The Parra Patch: Fathers Day

Let's take a little trip down memory lane....David first found out he was going to be a father on June 30, 2003. While Jacob was a planned pregnancy, David had this skewed notion that it would take us months to get pregnant so when we got pregnant the very first time we tried, he was not prepared. In fact after seeing the positive pregnancy test, he locked himself in the bathroom and crawled into the empty bathtub fully clothed and sat there for at least an hour. When he came out of the bathroom he still didn't say one word to me. It took a couple of days but he eventually decided that impending fatherhood was something to be excited about. This is David with 2 week old Jacob. (Sorry about the quality of the picture - this was before we owned a ditigal camera.)

With Adam, David was ready for a second child. In fact I had to tell him I wanted to wait until the summer was over because I didn't want to be sick and pregnant during the summer. We got pregnant the first month with Adam also. In fact I was sick and throwing up a week before I even missed a period. Still David didn't believe me and wanted a pregnancy test. I took the test and left it on the counter and went back and laid in bed. David went in and read the test and said it was negative. Well, I had taken it 5 days before I was suppose to so I wasn't worried. I knew I was pregnant. Being that sick was only caused by one thing and that was pregnancy. About an hour later I went into the bathroom and saw the stick and it was positive. David had read the test wrong!! Here's David with 2 days old Adam.

Matthew was a different story. It took us six months to get pregnant with Matthew and it didn't happen until we stopped trying so I could have my gall bladder out. They did a pregnancy test on my blood the day of my surgery and it was negative. I had my surgery and was recovering well but was still feeling very tired. Ten days after surgery I thought to myself "I haven't been this exhausted since I was pregnant with Jacob." And then it clicked! I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. I wrapped the test up in a box and had David open it when he got home from work. Apparently I was pregnant the day of surgery and who knows what happened with that blood test. Once again David was shocked beyond words, however he recovered quickly and the bathtub meditation session wasn't required. Here's David with 1 day old Matthew.

David is wonderful, fabulous father. My favorite father quality about David is that he is willing to do anything I do for his children. He changes diapers, gets up at night to feed a bottle, gives baths, cleans up body fluids and does any household chore. It may not be what he wants to do or likes to do but he's still willing to do it. Also almost every day he takes all three of the boys for a while so I can have some alone time. As long as the weather is good you can always find David taking the three of them for a walk after dinner so I can have some peace. Thank you for being an excellent father, David. I love you!

David with his boys and their presents for him. He got some shirts and cards from the boys and I gave David two new suits and ties.