A Daddy's First Father's Day!

We had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating Father's Day! Saturday night Ilah passed a note to her daddy and told him to be ready at 11 a.m. the next day for a massage that mommy had planned for him : )

While daddy was away, we wrapped up his gifts and displayed them on the kitchen counter so that he would see them when he walked in the door....

Ilah got all dolled up for Daddy!.....

When Dele got home, he opened up the gifts that we got him {and Ilah helped by removing the tissue paper from the bags!}.

I found this cute little frame at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and printed a picture of Dele holding his baby girl within the first hour that she was born....

A few other small gifts....


1st Father's Day cards.....

I have to share the cute little card that I picked out for Ilah to give her daddy....

The outside read:

The inside read:

Hee, hee : )

After Dele opened his gifts and read his cards, I took a few pictures of daddy and daughter before we left for brunch!.....

Daddy with his girl.....

Fun times!.....

Ilah is always so good when we take her out. She got so many compliments from people around us who observed that she was so well behaved, happily playing with her toys! She definitely makes it easy on us....

{picture taken with my phone}

There were lots of babies and little ones out with their daddy's at the restaurant yesterday. Such cuteness all around!

We got home around 3 p.m. and all nestled in bed to take a nap together. Except Ilah was a bit restless so I took her downstairs to play and let daddy sleep. After a feeding, and more play time, Ilah eventually she wore herself out. When she got fussy for me to take her out of her exersaucer, I cuddled with her on the couch and she fell asleep on me {I just love those moments}. She stayed asleep for 4 hours! She hasn't had a nap like that in a very long time!

The rest of our evening was mellow, just hanging out and watching tv. We didn't eat dinner because we were still full from brunch! Besides...I'm sure with all the calories that we consumed at brunch, we didn't have any business eating dinner!

I'd say we all had a very wonderful day together!

- - -

For many years, Father's Day held an incredible amount of sadness for me because it was the day that my Father passed away - at 45 years old. Every year when the day would roll around, it seemed that so much pain would resurface and I would find it so hard to get through the day - and would even start feeling a shift in myself days leading up to Father's Day. I even used to skip going to church because I knew that the service would be dedicated to Fathers and it only would cause me to dwell on my father's physical absence all the more. And while although I definitely thought of my father today, the day {and the days leading up to today} was filled with anticipation and happiness as Father's Day is now a day that I get to celebrate the wonderful role that my husband plays in my daughter's life - and a day that I get to help Ilah express to her daddy how much she loves him. I'm thankful for the many Father's Days that I shared with my dad - and I am so thankful for my baby girl, and my wonderful husband, who share such a sweet bond. Today was a wonderful Father's Day - and I'm looking forward to all the one's ahead.