Four Ways To Celebrate A New Dad

Thank you Snapfish for sponsoring this post! Make this Father’s Day extra special with personalized photo gifts from Snapfish. 

I have written a whole lot in this space about my transition into motherhood and all the ways it continues to challenge me and bring me joy.  Being a mom is beautiful and impossibly hard at the same time and I always want to be honest about that.  But as I look back over my posts, I’m realizing that I’m forgetting to honor someone incredibly important: my husband.

Jordan has transitioned into his role as a dad with grace, joy, and humility. He encourages me, makes me laugh, and affirms me in a million ways I didn’t even know I needed as I’ve become a mom, and I don’t know how I could do it without him.

Dads like my husband are worth celebrating every day, but with Father’s Day around the corner, today I’m sharing four of my favorite ways to honor what my husband brings to our family in his new role as Daddy.

1) Step back and let him be Dad in his own way.

I’m around our son 24/7 and it’s so easy for me to think that MY way of soothing, feeding, diaper-changing, etc is the ONLY right way to do those things.  When it comes to those little things, Jordan parents differently than I do and that’s okay. I’m learning to step back, keep quiet, and let Jordan figure out parenthood at his own pace.  Sometimes, I even learn new tips and tricks from him (like when he started whistling while rocking Caleb one time and Caleb’s eyes closed immediately.  Who know whistling could be so effective?).  Jordan brings a fresh perspective to parenting when I feel overwhelmed and that deserves to be recognized and celebrated!

2) Affirm all the positive ways he loves you and your little one.

When I do see the things Jordan is doing to love our little guy (or me), I want to affirm those things as much as I can.  He is so quick to get me snacks or a drink while I’m nursing, snuggle Caleb so I can go on a walk alone or make a Target run, and rock Caleb to sleep if he’s fussing in the night after he eats.  I love all these ways he loves us well and writing a sweet note, sending a text, or just saying out loud that I love and am grateful for what I see is a great way to build him up.  Bonus points? Do this in front of other people so they can know how awesome your husband is too!

3) Give him a gift that honors the unique ways he loves and serves your family.

After a few weeks with Caleb, we had a conversation about how we have all these adorable pictures of him on our phones and nowhere else.  We hated the idea that these photos would only ever live in cyberspace or worse, get lost or deleted somehow! I decided to use that conversation to find a sweet gift that would actually use all the photos that capture those memories (gifts are a big part of my hubby’s love languages!).

To make Jordan’s gift, I used a fun site that I’m quickly growing to love: Snapfish.  Snapfish is an online photo site with tons of fun options to use your photos ranging from photo books, prints, mugs, calendars, and lots more.  It seemed like the perfect way to take all of our photos from our phone and family photo shoots and make sure they ended up somewhere where we would constantly see and remember them! I chose a few options to surprise Jordan.

First, I made him a photo book.  I love photo books because they’re such a great way to capture a season or event without the cheesiness or work of making a scrapbook.  I used to be all about making scrapbooks when I was in middle school (okay, high school) but now I love the clean looks of photo books.   Snapfish‘s themes and designs had beautiful, crisp, and clean colors and layouts so our pictures really popped.  It was also super intuitive and easy to figure out the designing system, so creating this whole photo book only took an hour or two once I got the hang of it!  We keep photo books on the bookshelves and coffee table in our living room and they are a fun way to give guests a glimpse into our story.

I also made two more fun little gifts.  Jordan loves calendars (yes, it’s super dorky and yes, I love it) and I used Snapfish to make a fun photo calendar to hang in our kitchen so he can write down important events to his heart’s content.

Finally, the one that made us giggle: this ridiculous coffee mug.  Jordan is so sweet and playful with Caleb and brings out the most ridiculous of his facial expressions.  I chose Jordan’s two favorite silly pictures of Caleb to go on a mug that cracks us up every time we look at it (or as we call it, the mug of Caleb’s mean mug).

I love all these gifts and they were such a great way to celebrate my hubby in one of his primary love languages: gift giving!  If you’re looking for a fun way to celebrate your hubby or another dad in your life, taking your favorite pictures of him as a dad and making a fun gift with them via Snapfish is a great idea!

4) Give him time away without a guilt trip.

Yes, hubby does get to go to work and get a break from baby duty every day, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t still need the occasional break to do things he loves or spend time with friends.  I’m learning to give Jordan time to do the things he loves without making him guilty, knowing that these things recharge his batteries and enable him to be more present and loving with our family.

Just like new moms deserve to be spoiled and celebrated for all the work they put into taking care of their little ones, new dads deserve to be celebrated too.   I am so grateful for all the ways my husband loves me and our son and can’t wait to celebrate him on his very first Father’s Day with some fun gifts and lots of sweet baby snuggles!

What are you doing to celebrate the dads in your life this Father’s Day?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.