For a few months after my sister’s husband left her, Dick and I were really nice to each other. I cooked his favorite meals (or at least I cooked: not sure if they were actually favorites). He started putting Spot to bed along with her sisters.
Of course he does this completely wrong, letting Spot play for “five minutes” in the big girls’ room before being banished to her lonely crib, but I accepted that it was a nice gesture.
We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and recounted our highlights, which consisted mostly of remembering fights in exotic locales (remember that discussion in Hyde Park when we went to Iceland and England for Spring Break at Columbia? There’s a reason people head SOUTH for Spring Break).
Then this weekend we went to my parents’ to celebrate my sister’s birthday. My dad got a little upset when I volunteered Dick for some outdoor labor, saying I shouldn’t “take advantage of his good nature.” I think my parents have spent the past ten years living in fear that my shrewish nature might finally push Dick over the edge, and I suppose now they’re really worried: What if Dick decides to follow the Prince of Darkness’s example and leave his innocent wife and three kids?
Well, I got news for you. First: I want Dick to know that if he ever left, I wouldn’t fight him for custody of the kids. It’d be a sacrifice, naturally, but he can have them all to himself. And second, I cannot imagine a person more different from my more-selfish-and-self-centered-than-Lindsay-Lohan-and-Bill-Clinton combined PoD brother-in-law than Dick. Whereas the PoD has both a Bentley and a Mercedes, Dick would like to buy a bike. From DI (like Salvation Army). Because riding a bike would be better exercise than the train.
I could go on, (I could mention our connubial life, and how superior Dick is in that area as well, but I wouldn’t want anyone to think that my sister and I compare notes on that sort of thing. But we do, and Dick is. Much.)
Mostly I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I am blind to Dick’s flaws. He does have a few.
Number one being that he is, in all honesty, a dork. I should probably look in the urban dictionary for a term from this decade, but “dork” just fits. Here he is, pretending to drown. How inappropriate.
dick pretends to drown, susan swims the length from jane on Vimeo.
Just ignore those pet names we have for each other.
And here is Sally doing underwater somersaults. I am afraid that I might be a dork, too. At least I didn’t attempt a Michelle Obama-style bump. It’s humiliating enough to have your high-five go unacknowledged.
sally doing flips in the water from jane on Vimeo.a>.
Dick thinks I should get the kids in swim team. I think he should try driving them everywhere before he starts inventing new activities for them to do. I know, Nana and Grampa, Dick was a star in swim team. But, remember how annoying it was driving him to all those practices?
What? You say that sort of hands-on parenting is what produces such wonderful, dorky grown-ups? Argh.
Well, swim lessons start again on Monday, and I’m planning to keep my dorky husband, and that’s what works for me this week!
Things That Must Go and an LLBean Tote Bag giveaway are this weekend!
Tags: daddy, daughters, fun, pool, summer, swimming
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Susan has a good kick!
My Princess Pinky has mastered the rotary breathing and is moving on up to the Guppy class in the big pool this week. She’s swimming, but she realllly needs to get her kick up!
Thanks for sharing…and I’m with you on the chauffer duties. How much is too much, I find myself wondering.
*sigh*
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I love this post, not just because I want a dorky husband too
Lady Lyns last blog post..It’s My Party and…
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You know does your parents and my mom discuss how evil and mean we are to our hubby’s? I mean my grandma and mom both sat me down the other day(we hit 10yrs in April) and explained that they know that Lance and I have been friends forever but really I shouldnt be so overbearing? WHAT? ME? No never ok well maybe a bit but hey its not like he didnt know what he was getting into when he started dating me. I think a healthy relationship you need to think of each other as dorks LOL
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Cool!
Yea, Steven was on the swim team even in college, but he doesn’t want our kids to join. His dad was a bit of a “little league dad” and it was no fun. And, there’s no way I would be able to wake up early to take the kids, if they ever did get good enough.
Tiffanys last blog post..Thighs
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Marianne — Somedays anything is too much! Hope the kick gets going. Susan needs to work on her arms. Always something.
Cassie — Exactly my point. Revel in each other’s dorkiness!
Tiffany — Thanks. That’s what I’ll say: “Oh, I just don’t want to push them or anything.”
Oh well. Swim lessons start again on Monday.
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That was incredibly well written and I’d say you have yourself one pretty awesome ‘dork’. (My vocabulary is right on par with yours…notice the ‘awesome’… but hey, if something works, why fix it?;)
Alyson, the 3 P’s Mamas last blog post..Parenting Lightbulb Time
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[...] family, and in the summers, we would flit from one large family reunion to another. Instead I got Dick, who, after surviving my dad’s family’s reunion, wanted to know whether family reunions [...]
Not bad at all, but this topic is rather little of interest. Please do not disappoint your readership.
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