"My Daddy is the best boy I ever knew" exclaims Jonathan while sitting on the couch snuggling with me and looking over at Scott with pure adoration. I glance over at Scott with tears welling in my eyes. I wish I could find those words that would make understanding how much our children love their Daddy easy to read. I can't find the right words, ones that are strong enough to fully grasp it.
Scott has to leave for work quite a bit in his profession. Recently he moved up to Borden, ON and the children and I stayed at home waiting to see if the Military would approve our family to move up. Scott was gone for six weeks, but he flew home for Thanksgiving. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Destyni, Jonathan, Alyson and I loaded up into the van to make the mini trip to the Halifax airport to pick Scott up. Arriving at the airport and waiting for Scott's flight I looked over at Destyni.
"Oh Des, I have butterflies, I feel as if I may get sick." And she comes back with, "Me too, Mom."
In Destyni's world Scott is her hero. They can sit in a room together and not say a word to each other. There have been so many times when I have walked by our living room and peeked in to see Destyni snuggling in with her Daddy. On Sunday mornings if you were to drive around my neighborhood you would see Scott jogging and very shortly behind him you would see Destyni pumping her little legs on her bike to catch up. You would hear Scott telling her she can do it, keep going Sweetie. If you keep watching you will see Destyni fly by Scott, laughing at him because he can't keep up with her and you will see him trying his hardest to keep up. To watch them it's like they have this secret society, only members ....Destyni and Scott. I love watching their bond grow stronger but I have no idea how Destyni is ever going to get out the door on a date, or move away from home for school or how Scott will ever give her permission to grow up.
And as Jonathan's statement reads, his Daddy is his best friend. When Scott goes outside to do yard work you would never see him out there alone. Jonathan is there helping, chatting Scott's ear off or he'll sing for Scott. Jonathan walks around the house carrying Scott's tools and tries to keep up with the house maintenance. And it's official that the passenger seat in Scott's truck belongs to Jonathan. There is nowhere Jonathan would rather be than sitting in that truck driving around. There were so many times when Jonathan was a baby that he would be perched on Scott's knee, at the computer, the couch or the dinner table. Or how many times I would climb the stairs to see what Scott was up to and the two of them would be snuggled in our bed together sleeping away a Sunday afternoon. As Jonathan gets older he reminds me more and more of Scott. His actions and behaviors resemble so much of what Scott is. It's beautiful to watch a son look up to his father the way that Jonathan does.
Even Alyson, as young as she is will smile every time Scott walks into the room. We were a little worried that Alyson may not have that special bond with Scott because he left when she was under two months old and was gone for quite a few weeks. Nova Scotia has an amazing birth plan in order for expecting moms. When you go into the hospital you fill out a huge list of questions and one them asks if you want to do skin to skin when baby is born. We said we wanted to and if there were any complications would we want the father to do the skin to skin. So after an emergency section our sweet youngest was sent off with her Daddy for some skin to skin. Their bond is so strong, when Scott came back from being away Alyson took to him like there was no time missed.
Life gets busy with work and chores, responsibilities and agendas. But somehow during it all Scott has never made his children feel as if he doesn't have time for them. And I get to watch it all unfold around me.
