Renton Newborn Photographer

My favorite image from this Renton newborn photography session is the one of Brody with and his parents.  I love it because at this point in the session Brody was kind of tired of having his portrait taken and he was a little fussy.  Dad without any instruction from Mom or I gently started hushing his new son and Brody settle back into sleep just long enough to get a few more great pictures with his family.

I love Dads.  I don’t think we celebrate Dads enough.  Isn’t it amazing that they can bond immediately with their babies?  I mean us mommies have a whole nine months to bond as we physically carry and make the little people we bring into the world.  Dad’s don’t get that privileged.  They don’t get to feel the wiggles and kicks except from the outside.  They are disconnected into that moment when a mom delivers her baby into the world and for the first time Dad get’s to be a real part.  I think it is pretty amazing that right from those first few moments there is a love and connection between a father and his child.  How tender that moment was.  I almost didn’t want to take the picture.  It was such a wonderful feeling to just watch this warm hearted man shush his son.

As a Renton newborn photographer I get to meet all kinds of men.  And one thing that they have always been is excellent fathers right from the start.  I just read a really touching article yesterday about four words every father need to hear.  The article is written from the perspctive of a father of a daughter (which this daddy is) but I inserted son as it is more applicable for this post.  I thought I would try to paraphrase.  But it is just too perfect.  So here it is. From Jeff Bogle’s article which you can find in it’s entirety here:

“I have a simple, four-word message to all dads of sons, especially guys who are just now starting out on this journey, the guys welcoming newborn baby boys into their lives.  It only gets better.

Yeah, it gets challenging. No kidding Sherlock. Parenting isn’t always Pinterest-perfect cupcakes and Instagram-worthy rainbows, but why would you want it that way, anyway? What a colossal bore to have everything scrubbed and sanitized, silver spoons and phony-smile photo packages. Challenging is good! Entering into challenging situations makes us think, evolve, grow, change, get better — and helps us find new ways to love the people we adore so much already. Yeah, your precious little guy will eventually crawl, walk, talk, talk back, crave some overpriced technology, be sweet on girls, awkwardly grow into his tween years, have his heart broken, break a few himself, enter high school and maybe go off to college. That is all absolutely true, but there is nothing in your son’s timeline that you need to fear. Nothing. The only thing worth fearing as the dad of a son is not being there to share in his experiences.

As his dad, you get to be a steady knee to hold onto as he props himself up learning to walk; to be an example of calm in the face of adversity as he tests his limits as a toddler; to teach him how to be a good digital citizen on social media with his new phone; to hold him tight while saying nothing when he goes through his first breakup; to know that even though you are a “fixer” by nature, there are moments in his life when he’ll need to cry into your shoulder or scream his lungs out and to know that all that’s required of you in those moments is to be present, to live life not through him, but alongside him as daddy, mentor, confidant, counselor, consoling presence, friend, and dad again.

I need you to hear this and believe this, for I know it to be true: It only gets better.

The conversations get better. The jokes get better. The hugs get better. The laughs get better. The nights out get better. The Saturday mornings get better. The concerts get better. The love, it gets better. And stronger. It all gets better.

So, the next time some blowhard warns you of whatever impending doom he insists will befall you as the dad of a son, ignore him and know that it only gets better.”

True words.  It is hard.  Your bond will grow.  You are a super hero, a Daddy.  And it only gets better!