Beyond a shadow of a doubt, there are five things that I positively have done right in my life....Ryan. Colin. Pryce. Mason-Kate. Maddox.  I blog most often about my children but I must take a moment and blog about Ry.  Three things.  There are more, of course, but these three are very noteworthy in our everyday life.
The dishes.  Where I cannot handle having dishes in the sink, Ryan cannot handle the way I throw everything in the dishwasher.  So, he does the dishes.  I throw them all in the dishwasher and he diligently takes them all out and methodically loads the dishwasher the Ryan way - and washes the rest.  And then unloads the dishwasher.  It is his baby.  Dare I try to load it to be helpful and actually turn it on to wash, gasp.  I am pretty sure it won't work out.  Ever.  Even if I meant well.  Ryan is the only man I know that when asked what he would like, he will most always respond, a new dishwasher.  Thankful for my dishwashing obsessed man?  You bet!
The baths.  Colin was a mere three days old when we decided to give him his first bath.  And he screamed the entire time, mostly because he hated his bath but partly due to the fact that he grabbed a handful of his jet black hair and pulled on it not knowing that he was causing himself pain.  And the screaming continued every single time we gave him a bath....two weeks in and I threw my hands up and said I could not handle it.  I felt like I was torturing him.  In walked Mr. Wonderful, the bath whisperer (and wife calmer!).  He gladly took over the job of bath time and within a few months, bath time became their time to bond.  And later, enter Pryce.  And MK.  And Maddox.  Ryan traveled a good bit when the boys were little.  They would literally tear up when they realized mommy was going to bathe them, knowing I would just do a little scrub here, a little scrub there and POUR the water right over their little shampooed heads.  Not daddy's way and the tears flowed.  Thankfully, they have forgiving hearts and they recognize that mommy can do other things just right!
Bedtime.  It is all a system.  And I was reminded last night that it is not my system, but Ry's.  Ryan and his selfless self had gone to the store for me and I told him I would get the girls to bed.  First up, brush teeth....Maddox immediately yelled, "Dat not how daddy do it!" She was mad, mad, mad at me for pulling her little lip up to brush her top teeth.  MK came in and instructed me, "Daddy lets Maddox brush her own teeth and then he does it.  Take turns with her, mommy!"  Ok, ok, I am just a mommy trying to fill a daddy's shoes, sheesh.  Then we go into their room for stories.  I was all ready to cuddle up on one of their beds and read two stories with them all snuggled in close.  Oh no, no, no....definitely not how daddy does it.  Daddy reads Maddox's story on her bed, and MK's story on her bed.  So, of course, we did just that.  Then, prayer time.  I turned off their lamp to pray, thinking it would be relaxing.  Oh no.  Immediately the cries of, "That is not how daddy does it.  He turns the light off AFTER we say prayers."  Of course he does, sigh.
Thank you Ryan, for being the daddy and husband that you are!  Thank you for having your special ways of doing things with our children.  So glad you have your special ways with our children that I know nothing about and will never be able to do like you. And thank you, thank you for making all of my dreams come true!
**And thank you for taking care of the dishes:)  One day, one day.....we may just have a dishwasher that meets up to your standards.  Until then, keep loading/unloading away honey....we love you!