Uncle Hank

I think everyone already knows this, but Uncle Hank is our "manny." He's been taking great care of Zadie since she was about 6 months old -- home with her four days a week and then going to school at night. Hank lives in our basement, so he just pops up at 8:15am when I need to head to work, which is quite convenient. I feel very thankful to have such a good childcare situation and it makes me happy that Zadie and now Skip have a male presence in their daily lives.

Zadie LOVES her Uncle Hank. For those of you who don't know him, he's really quite difficult to describe. I don't think you will ever meet anyone with a kinder and gentler spirit -- he's certainly much more kind and patient than I am! Uncle Hank can match any child in terms of his ability to play for hours and to make up elaborate imaginative schemes. Zadie and Skip get to learn about all kinds of things that they would never hear from me about -- like the solar system and science fiction and fantasy animal creatures and all kinds of stuff that I have no idea about. And Uncle Hank also helps toughen these kids up -- he teaches Zadie to dust herself off when she tumbles and to push herself to the next level at the playground. You should see him get her flying on the see-saw! She definitely gets some air time.

Hank also is a willing participant in "Mommy and Me" classes. He hangs out with the local moms at Zadie's music classes and swim classes. And, when he's not doing that, he takes Zadie to the park almost every single day.

I know that Zadie and Skip will have great memories of their Uncle Hank!