spirit fingers for Jake

I think Jake might be a future saint. The Saint of Fathers Who Have Crazy Wives and Posterity That Growls At Strangers.

Can you tell my knowledge of saints is negligible?

I promise to keep the public proclamations of cheese and gush to a minimum but after the past five weeks (really the past 6 years) I wanted to give a much deserved post dedication to Jake.

He deserves to be recognized for his great husband and father skills.  I wish I could say that it is not common for me to say something along these pleasant lines,

but sometimes I do and Jake just laughs and obliges because he is the best and I am the worst.

Here's the think about Jake...Jake takes care of everyone but no one really takes care of Jake. He is always there to make the sacrifice, go the extra mile, shoulder the burden and does it all with a smile and a little dose of loving sarcasm.

With Beck's arrival and my emotional state being a little wonky (round three of depression and anxiety...ready fight!) Jake has taken everything in stride and with his characteristic optimism.

In my most anxious, crazy-cake moments he is patient. He doesn't try to fix me. He just lets me cry all the tears. So many tears sometimes. Poor man. And he never gets annoyed when I ask him repeatedly to tell me everything is going to be OK.

As super dad he keeps the playground visits going, Costco braving, Julia "everything is fine" assuring, and house cleaning happening. When I was in the hospital I was positive he would need an occasional translator for Rad's multiple monosyllabic grunts that mean something specific and important and urgent but Jake did it all, no complaining.

When I put the kids to bed it is a big fat harried race to the finish but when Jake does it he takes the time to do it right. He lets the boys splash in the bath for as long as they want, reads them a book or books of their choosing, and he changes them out of their clothes and puts them into actual pajamas.

The boys love that he actually plays toys with them (not my best activity) and has incredible patience with teaching them baseball. He is also the gourmet chef of the family and because I am a picky eater he often caters to my cravings.

Jake loves his sleep more than anyone I've ever met, but never ever audibly grumbles about getting up with the kids in the middle of the night...even in the truly ugly and dark hours of the early morning. He often lets me sleep in and takes the boys down stairs to start the morning routine. He doesn't complain about the hours that he works to provide for the family nor does he complain about the fact that I complain about the hours that he works to provide for the family.

I think I've written before about how blown away I was by how nice Jake was when we first met and continues to be today. He is a genuinely kind guy and I can only hope that the boys inherit or at least emulate their father's nature.

We're very lucky to have him. :)

(Understatement of the year.)