Differences

Kelly and I have always marveled at how we are each other's complete opposite. Where she is weak, I am strong and vice versa. It really is quite amazing how it is always that way - there is always a strong person and one who is not so strong at any given task. For 10 years now, it has worked really well in making sure that we both stay on track.

Parenting has been no different. We both bring gifts to Bailey's life that she would be lacking if the other parent were not there. Last night, I was thinking about the two of them as I was falling asleep. Kelly is so incredibly sweet with Bailey. I'm much more no-nonsense. I am task-oriented. There are things to do and I strap Bailey on and do them. Bailey and I cook together, we clean, we make bottles, we take out the garbage, we grocery shop. With her strapped on with the Baby Bjorn, I teach her about our life and the rhythm of it.

Kelly is perfectly capable of doing those things too, and she does...but more often than not, she likes to spend time playing and loving on Bailey. And their relationship shows that. Bailey just adores her Mommy. When she is overstimulated and needs to calm down, there is no better place for it than on Kelly's lap. When she needs to be cooed and and loved over, her Mommy is her favorite person. When we are all together in the house, she spends so much time just staring at her Mommy, with smiles and love beaming from her eyes.

Bailey does that with me, too. Since she was born, I've given her every single bath she has had, except for two or three of them. I am the one that gives her the final bottle of the day, and there is something so precious about those few moments right before she falls asleep when she is staring up at me with those big blue eyes and resting her head on my breast. Nobody could replace those moments, and without them, Bailey would be lost. But for the most part, Bailey and are more about getting stuff done together.

Anyway - there really wasn't a point to this post, except to say that I really love how Kelly and I parent together. I think that we are good parents...and if the proof is our child, then I'm right. Bailey is engaged, happy, sweet, affectionate and feels safe in her world. She is outgoing and knows how to get her needs met. I don't think that we can take credit for all of that...after all, Bailey is her own person with her own personality...but we can say that we're doing a good job of helping her figure out this living business.

I'm proud of us. All three of us. We have figured out how to be a family together and we are pretty good at it.