Dear Dad

Hey Dad, how you doing? Jake here, and I'm just trying to keep up with myself these days.

As you can tell, Henry is getting bigger by the minute and its the funnest thing to watch him grow. I see myself in him all the time and it still reminds me of you when he laughs. I try to keep up with showing you all the big things that happen but they seem to happen on an hourly basis lately. He talks to me all the time if you consider "Blub blah da de bo" a meaningful conversation. For some reason it seems to make sense to us.

I'm starting to understand now why I didn't get to hear from you all the time. I had a harsh perspective on that for a long time but I'm not sure why I held you to such a strict standard while the world seemed to catch up to us and pass us by. Even today I'm having trouble trying to talk to Mom enough to let her know what's going on, and I've really been bad at keeping the closest of the family in the loop. I mean, when I count it up I got 3 brothers and 2 sisters that I need to be talking to on a daily basis. Add in Mom and Jimmie, Teresa and David, Jeff and Jodi, Grandma Wenke, Mike and Diane, and all 9 cousins and then the friends... damn. The way I figure it, I should be making around 3 or 4 phone calls a day to talk to everyone and just let them know what's going on with my family.

Don't forget Chandra, 'cause without her I'd be lost. Everyday I learn a bit more of what family means and I still don't know how to thank her enough. She takes care of Henry so well, so much better than I could ever manage too. I try as much as I can to keep up with him and still I can only manage a few hours a day. I don't see how anyone could manage this by themselves, not in a million years and with all the money in the world. I wish I could talk with Chandra for hours everyday, but it seems all I manage on some days is a kiss when I get home and some chit-chat about our day when we get the chance.

I want you to know that I love you, old man. There was a lot of mess in the middle that kept that from being obvious, but don't doubt for a second that it wasn't there. I always remembered your face, even when I wasn't looking at it in the best light. There might have been some jackass part of me that thought that I was just going to be better at this dad thing by sheer luck, but don't worry, reality has kicked me right in the ass on that one. I still wish there were some lessons that you could help me out with.

There is one thing I want to thank you the most for, Dad. Thank you for showing me that it's always worth it to keep trying... keep trying to get it done, keep trying to do it better than last time, keep trying to make a difference where it counts. I promise that I'll keep that up for you, the best way that I can.

Happy Father's Day. I miss you old man, sorry if it's a bit late.

New Baby Pics

Here's some new baby pics for everyone to enjoy. Henry is doing great and is growing faster than we can keep track of. It's hard to believe he is almost 3 months old already. His unofficial measurement is 14 pounds right now and about 24 inches, so he's getting to be quite a chunky monkey. We have lots of fun playing the smiling game and sticking out our tounge at each other. He just started to giggle in his sleep yesterday but we haven't figured out what he thinks is funny yet to get him to laugh when he's awake.



Click the slide show to go to my google pics and you can see all of them there and in hi-res if you need to download them for prints and such.

The Most Important Day of My Life

I am exhausted, worn, excited and hungry and I have never felt happier than I do now. Today my son was born. Henry Karl Wenke was delivered to Chandra and I at 12:55pm at Wesley Hospital in Wichita. He is 8lbs and 3oz and was 19.5 inches long when he was born. He is absolutely perfect and makes me smile everytime I see him. He has a full head of dark hair and looks like both of us in a perfectly shared way. Today, I am a perfectly happy man. Today, I am a father.