Happy Father's Day 

Guest Author

Most of you know my husband is actually the writer and photographer of the family.  He really should be the blogger, not me.  But, I guess it's just not his "thing."  Regardless I begged asked him if I could post a story he wrote for his column last week.  It's just so sweet and I want to share it with as many people as possible!  Please take a few minutes to read his column below. Happy Father's day to my lovable hubby, my awesome dad, my totally great father-in-law, my handsome brother, my amazing brother-in-law and all the other important father's in my life

Just home from China.

Stinkers :0)

Sugar and a lot of spice
By Aaron Wade
Hemingford Ledger

Don’t forget Dad this Sunday. By the way kids, I’m registered at the bank.This Father’s Day is a little different for me. For the past five years it has been all boys in our household – 5-year-old boy, 3-year-old boy, boy dog, and I’m a boy (at least I was once). As you can imagine, the homestead is somewhat chaotic . . . and smelly. I always thought an added dose of estrogen would help with this, but . . . not so much.You know the old adage “Boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails while girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice?” Our daughter got an extra dose of spice.I’ll make one thing clear, that I wouldn’t trade her for the world. But the BIG personality that Emmy emits from her little body isn’t what I expected. For those of you that don’t know, we adopted Emmy a few months ago and when I first met her she looked at me with her big brown eyes and didn’t utter a sound. There was a look of concern in those eyes, as if wondering, “Why are these funny-looking people holding me.” She didn’t make a fuss as long as we kept giving her snacks, but I could tell she was unsure of the whole situation.We took her back to our hotel and she was content to explore the new surroundings, but she was still quiet. I kept wondering how I was going to connect with this “delicate little princess.” I did the only think I knew how. When she had her back to me I tackled her and started tickling her. That is how I play with the boys. We have all-out pillow fights reminiscent of Royal Rumble ’89 if Big John Stud were blowing raspberries on Ted DiBiase’s tummy.What 5-year-old quotes Macho Man Randy Savage (God rest his soul) when landing elbow drops on their dad? Answer: Mine (“Oh yeah bwudder”).So not yet used to being the daddy of a little girl I started roughhousing. She started giggling and when I quit, she let me know that she was not finished. We soon developed a game where I would pick her up and jiggle her saying, “Never shake a baby!” Then I would spin her in circles and say, “Stir a baby.” Okay, I’m never writing a child rearing book, but my strange practices were effective. If I wasn’t her Daddy yet, I was at least her buddy. And there was a good balance. I resorted to buffoonery, while her Mommy bonded with her by painting her toenails and showing off her pretty, new wardrobe.It didn’t take long for us to realize that she was NOT the soft spoken little creature we first thought. She never sat still and though she didn’t speak English, she was very vocal when trying to get a point across.When we got home, she definitely influenced her brothers, but not by bringing them a sense of serenity like I had first hoped. No, instead they now play with Barbies. They had an influence on her too - all of their bad habits. Son No. 2 usually greets me at the door much like Dino greets Fred Flintstone. Now he has a tag team partner to land a head-butt at the back of my knees.That isn’t to say she doesn’t have her girly moments. She already tries to use her looks to get away with things. She is cute (I can say that because I didn’t have anything to do with it) and she knows it. Once she smacked her brother on the head with a wooden spoon, flashed him a smile and they were soon both giggling. If that had been his brother, World War III would have broken out in our house.And yes, she uses her tricks on me too. And yes, they work more often than not.But for the most part, being a dad to a little girl isn’t much different than being dad to a little boy. It’s chaotic and many times frustrating. But being greeted by a high-pitched yet boisterous “Dada” every night makes it worth it.