The Dad Department: Hawk and Ines

What’s your favorite kid-friendly Austin activity? Hmm…it has to be walking from our house to Fiesta Gardens and back with Ines and our dog, Lula. Either that or Baby Day at the Alamo Drafthouse — Ines saw her first big-screen movie at the old South Lamar location. It was Skyfall. She hated the ending.

What’s your favorite thing about being a dad? Cuddling up with Ines and a good book. Right now she really likes Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans and Little Owl’s Night by our friend Divya Srinivasan (we can’t wait to get our hands on her new book, Octopus Alone, when it comes out this spring).

What’s your most memorable dad moment so far? Ooh, tough question. At the risk of sounding like a textbook dad, pretty much everything Ines does is memorable to me. I love to watch her learn new things (this weekend she figured out how to roll onto her back for the first time!), and I feel like she teaches me at least as much as I teach her on a daily basis. But…if I have to choose something: she got her ears pierced the other day. It made her look like such a mature little lady. Totally threw me for a loop.

What do you admire most about your baby mama? Her strength. Sara has been an incredible woman for as long as I’ve know her, but becoming a mother has brought out a tremendous resilience in her. Ines makes her seem invincible, and it fills me with joy to see them together. There’s no doubt in my mind that Sara will do everything in her power to raise Ines to be at least as strong.

Swoon. There’s nothing like the love between a daddy and his girl!

What’s on your mind today? Our good fortune. I say that because Sara and I have been through the hardest years of our lives together. Our daughter Amalia died two years ago this February. She was 17 days old.

For a long time, I wasn’t sure if either of us would ever recover from losing her. It took everything we had inside of us to even think about attempting to bring another child into the world together. Then, finally, we decided to give it one more try. Somehow Ines joined us.

It’s truly amazing. Ines looks so much like her sister Amalia right now. Having Ines with us all the time is like a daily celebration of Ama’s memory. We’re unbelievably fortunate to have that.

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Thanks for sharing such an intimate glimpse into your life with us, Hawk! I’m sure I speak for all of my readers when I say that we couldn’t be happier for Ines’ arrival, and are beyond inspired by you and your family.

If you’d like to follow along with Hawk and Ines’ adventures regularly, you can find him on his blog or on Twitter as @hawkt.