One Like Daddy

My girls are just now getting to the age where there is lots of emphasis on who they like and who they will marry, etc.  Trust me I am quick to chime in that college graduation, getting a nice job, then getting married would be my preferred order of events.  But it's actually pretty cute to listen to them talk about boys. Their criteria for if they like a boy is still based on whether they are funny or goofy.  However, if you think about it isn't that the way it should always be.  I keep telling the girls they really should be just looking for someone like their Dad.  But am I just setting them up to spend their adult life looking for the unattainable.  

The big girls and I were sitting waiting for their swim lessons to start the other day and for some reason Gabby wanted to make a list of all the things her Dad and I do.  I told her I needed a half sheet, but that she probably didn't have enough paper to cover her Dad's accomplishments and hobbies.  I mean fine, he's won teacher of the year twice and is a rock star coach, but that barely starts to peel away the onion if you will.  Brewer, photographer, surfer, surf board builder, woodworker, home builder, green gardener, graduate student, perpetual learner...Uh I've gotta stop and take a rest.  See what I mean?  We are talking about an interesting creature here.  This is not your average come home from work, sit on the sofa, drink a beer and grunt at the kids kind of Dad.  You ask him a question and he helps you research it (but he's so darn smart, he probably already knows the answer).  You have an idea for something you want to make, he grabs his tools. He's action Dad.  

I can almost hear my poor girls now, "I really think this guys is cute but...".  I know I couldn't have married someone that does nothing but sit around.  My Dad is a builder, a reader, surfer...hummm I'm seeing a pattern.  I guess I did look for a lot of the same traits.  My only concern is my girls trying to find someone with all the traits or skills their Dad has.  He just has so many.  When I stop to think about him I truly become in ah of him.  Someone at work called him a modern day savant and jokingly asked me if I ever feel like Jan Brady.  If I didn't love him so much I would be screaming "Marsha Marsha Marsha!".

So what advice will I give my poor girls when they get older?  Your Dad is an original?  They aren't all like him?  Or should I encourage them to search for someone just as interesting as him?  I guess some combination of the above.  I would like to believe that his being with me and my family has helped expose him to some of the things he is interested in today.  Who knows if that's true.  I just know my girls have a great role model.  And I pity the poor fella who comes home to dinner and gets asked the dreaded, "so tell me about yourself" by ole RR.