Best Grandpa Ever...starting in about 3 weeks

Move over other Grandpa's.  Your time is over.  Meet Super Grandpa.

Daddy and Dixie Rayne...practicing to be a Grandpa

Once upon a time, so the story goes, my dad was not all that sure about the whole having kids thing.  It's understandable.  He and my mom had some pretty great adventures in their 20's.  They looked like hippies, they had a huge green van with enormous speakers in it.  They camped in every national forest with their crazy big dogs.  They went to 70's rock concerts.  They were, as all parents are, a version of themselves I can hardly imagine, being one of their kids.  To me, they are simply Mom and Dad, and lucky me, the BEST Mom and Dad in the world.

The man in the above picture has sat through countless ballet recitals, rehearsals, Nutcracker performances, choir concerts, rehearsals, competitions.  Done ballet hair.  Washed leotards and other girlie things.  Checked years worth of math homework, put together science bug collections, found many a lost fill-in-the-blank-crucial-lost-item when frantic girls were tearing around the house running late, killed wild spiders, bees, beetles, ants (we're girls...we don't do that).  This list could go on forever, my dad is our protector, our champion, our hero. 

He was my first dance, my first date, my first Valentine, the first guy I ever loved.  He was the guy all other guys I even considered dating had to match up to.  Somewhere along the line, this guy who was not so sure about kids, became the perfect Dad.  I mean, he doesn't just do the job, he thrives in it, he shines.  He just was made to be a Dad.  So now, I'm pretty excited to see him as a Grandpa.  I've been watching him for a few years with all the great-nieces and cousins that have been roaming tearing through our house on the holidays, and it's pretty spectacular.  He is just amazing.  Those little girls can see it just like I could as a kid, the man is magic.  So as the days dwindle until Bean arrives, and as I prepare to be a mama, I have to admit I'm just as excited to watch him become a grandpa, a real one, to one of his actual grandchildren.  I have a feeling it will be pretty spectacular.