Happy Father's Day to my partner in crime

We all know that Cort is a great dad. He loves, loves, loves his kids. And they love him beyond words.

He's not just a great dad, though. This parenting gig is a team job. And he is the perfect teammate.

He never bats an eye when I have an obligation that requires him to take care of all the kids. In fact, he is far more likely then I am to just load them all up and take them to do something fun.

When I read parenting books or come up with new strategies for dealing with the kids, he patiently listens to me. This despite the fact that on most other subjects, he stops me halfway through and tells me that I talk too much, and he's got it.

When we have to be somewhere, he often manages to get himself and all four kids ready, while I am still drying my hair. When I forget to do things to prepare, he does them (thanks for ironing Will's tux shirt for the wedding, babe!). Then he gets all the kids buckled in the car, while I rush out at the last minute to hop in the passenger seat to put on my makeup on the way to the event. He occasionally gets a bit exasperated, but mostly he just smiles a little ruefully because, truthfully, he knew all along that this is how things would go.

He has wholeheartedly supported my decision to work less in order to be around more for the kids. This makes me more of the primary child caretaker, and he now shoulders the burden of being the primary breadwinner. At the same time, he manages to leave work early to take our kids to multiple ballgames and practices per week. And he has gone to work late numerous mornings this summer because the little kids have swim lessons at the same time that the big kids have to be at camp.

Yes, he sometimes gets the kids riled up right before bedtime by pretending to be a monster or pretending to lose a stuffed animal that is actually sitting right on top of his head (the latter is the kids' favorite!) But afterwards, he almost always apologizes, and then takes the lead on getting four now crazy, giggling kids to bed.

On this Father's Day, as this is being posted, he is not getting to sleep in or be pampered in any way. Instead, he has taken the whole family on a weekend camping trip. A trip that he spent hours planning and packing for, while I did very little. And we are having a great time and making lots of memories!

So Happy Father's Day, Cort. And thanks for being my partner in this journey called parenting.