father's day
20 june 2023
this past sunday was my first father's day. it was a lot of fun! i got to wear matching shirts with my daughter, she gave me a handwritten card (with help from her mom), and i got a huge texas-sized donut. i spent the day doing mostly nothing and watching movies with my family.
it was a good time to reflect, too. it's hard to think that two years ago, we were living blissfully unaware of how much our lives were about to change. looking back at photos, everything feels like it was a lifetime ago. pregnancy, the birth of our daugther, and the months since have been so chock full of memories (and stress), that life before feels like a fuzzy half-remembered dream.
i wouldn't change a thing, though. you hear it everywhere, especially when people find out you're about to have a child, that there's nothing like it. you get all kinds of (often unsolicited) advice, many times contradictory. and sometimes the advice is just ... bad. the kind of bad that makes you really wonder about that person.
but i found that, of all the advice we got, the only one that really resonated and feels applicable to us is what i heard from my previous manager:
the best advice i can give you is no advice. nothing i say, nothing anyone says, would apply to your unique circumstances. but i know you'll figure it out.
and truthfully, that's the only piece of advice i remember (well, except for one _really_ bad piece of advice to put whiskey on a baby's gums to help them sleep. yikes)
it has been a wild ride, but it has been the most amazing time of my life.