And then, just like that, he's back to his old ways (When I forwarded this to my brother he promptly responded "What the hell is a bottie?")

I received the below email from my father this afternoon. A few notes:

Sue is my parents' neighbor. She's wonderful. The email includes a couple of the baby names recently suggested by my family. Those names (which will, by the way, probably not make the list) will tell you that J and I recently found out we're having a girl...

From: Fred Rotondaro To: Cara McDonough Date: Fri, May 2, 2008 at 4:38 PM

Just told Sue about little alfreda or is it bambi. She's going to sew botties for you. Pops

Not only does he give wonderful advice, but the grammar and spelling on this one is a B+

I was feeling pretty distracted the other day. The baby thing has suddenly become more of a reality, like, oh my God, we're going to have a BABY, and it's hard not to get excited. Like, excited all the time. Thinking of nothing else. And it's not that feeling excited is a bad feeling - quite the opposite. But I did find myself a little worried. Worried that I might not be able to concentrate on other things that have always been important to me, now that this big news is taking over our lives. Like work, and my life-long goals and aspirations. I mean, will I ever be able to regain my concentration? Well, of course I will, but the other day I wasn't so sure, so I wrote to my father and told him how I was feeling. And this is what he had to say... From: Fred Rotondaro To: Cara McDonough Date: Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 1:09 PM

It's so normal to feel as you do. You're agreat writer and you've done this for five years Ahappy and great wife And the best daughter for thirty years anybody ever had But you've never been a mother before. So this new phenomena. This new reason for being will quite naturally grab you and hold you and make everything else feel not quite so intense. The papa