If You Can't Be with the Dad You Love, Love the One You're With!

Not that I don't already love the one I'm with! Because I do! Lots and lots!

But there are lots of great dads and I wanted to celebrate not only Rick (aka the one I'm with) but two others I'm not with on this day.

There's my own dad.

I was lucky in the good-dad department. Mine knew how to read stories well and tell them just as expressively!

He loved fishing and was very patient at cleaning those others caught (others being me who wasn't about to stick a knife into a fish, even though I'd already jabbed them with the hook!)

Dad loved animals and introduced me to my first cat.

He also put up with my garments-on-animals, a trait which unfortunately didn't die out after the age of eight (below, with Dad's dad. Those knee socks have got to go.)

Not every dad would play the Barbie Doll Game with his daughter. And not every dad would, some ten years later, find her after the senior prom parking with her boyfriend and knock on the car window. I lived through the shame. I miss him more than I can say. But there are other wonderful dads in my life.

Like Kevin, dad to our Baby Grand, Carson. He has his Weekend MBA stuff on Father's Day so we will be celebrating with our little guy and his mom. Then they'll head home and do the same with Kevin.

This is a special Dad's Day for him. I'm not sure Carson "gets it" yet, but he's much more for a party with every passing month.

And this will be his last one to be the only, as his baby brother is due in early July! And if he doesn't like that, he'll let you know!

And then there's Rick. I'm not sure any dad could love his kids more -- or get more frustrated now and then! Like the day public transit fan Rick tried to get them to appreciate the bus by taking the bus to the mall. We probably could have chosen a better day. Don't we all look happy here?!

Some of my earliest memories of them as a family involve cooking and they've had their hands into not only American food but Japanese and Italian as well.

And they still all love it, each with their own best-things to cook. Kevin and Rick will always argue gas vs. charcoal but both love the grill. Greg will create astonishingly healthy dishes. And only Kevin will clean the kitchen well.

Now there is a new boy in the family and he will have a group of Grandpas who will love him to pieces. And I'm sure the other two would argue with this -- but no one, I think, could love him more than Rick!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads from then, now and always.