I knew The Gorilla would be a good dad. He has a way with children - with people, really - that is undeniable. He is the Pied Piper of....everyone. He makes the most mundane task more fun. Any sort of party can be dead until he walks in the room. A day spent with him can be, without exaggeration, life changing.

These qualities, as you can imagine, work well in fatherhood. I predicted it, yet watching it come into being has still been so surprising, so utterly joyful for me.

I delight in my children, but The Gorilla’s biggest pleasure in all the world is playing with the kids. And I don’t say this lightly, as the man takes a lot of pleasure in life. I chose a partner whose steady soul calms my wringing hands. I married the fun to my practical.

So imagine my relief when he became the dad who gave baths, and makes breakfast every day, and remembers to pack the lunchbox according to strict preschooler instructions. He turns the tedious parts of parenting into belly laughter. Every day is a memory with you, my love.

The older I get, the more I turn into my father. We have the same soft spots, the same tendency to react this way or that. I have always seen my dad as a man of true integrity, but it wasn’t until I was a parent that I could appreciate what it takes to hold to your values in the face of adversity. When you’re unsure, or when people are telling you otherwise, when you have to point your heart due north and keep walking.

I force myself not to take my parents for granted, but they make it hard not to believe that everyone just loves their kids and loves on their kids, forever amen. They make the loving part look as easy as a knife through better.

I didn’t marry a man who is much like my dad in temperament or style. But my dad set my compass for truth, and I’ve tried not to waver.

Happy Father’s Day to you.

*top photo by sean cliver

After this post on signature style, I just wanted cutoff corduroys. And lucky for me, I had an old pair from J.Crew in my winter stash. So cut them off I did. (Don't worry, I washed them after this photo, so they would fray in that classy way.)

Earlier this week I tried on some pants at Splendid (I have currently having a Splendid love affair) that might have changed my summer. They're called "Athletic Woven Pants" which I frankly do NOT understand because I will be doing nothing of the sort while wearing them. Two words: elastic waistband.

Follow me on Instagram for more blurry shots of my legs.

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On the HH facebook page, we had a lengthy discussion about teacher appreciation gifts and about the most well-written tv shows of all time. You can like the HH page here to chime in with your own two cents (or just do what I do, and marvel at the diversity of everyone else).

For my column at allParenting, I asked Does Growing Up In LA Give Your Kid A Different Style Sense? I have my suspicions.

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For your weekend reading pleasure:

• Malibu Barbie Gets a Makeover from Trina Turk. Oh Trina, I just love your Palm Springs style. (LA Times)

• I shared this sort of rap/poem TedX talk called Unmasking Motherhood last week on the HH facebook page, but I want to post it here. Katherine Wintsch of The Mom Complex performed this talk at Mom 2.0 and I was just blown away. At about the 2-minute mark is when I got chills.

• The recovery in Oklahoma from the tornadoes goes on. Here's some insider thoughts from Lindsey Minerva, working there with World Vision.

• 5 Myths About Reading (guest post by Robert Bruce for Jeff Goins)

• This is one of the best things I've read on the internet lately. David Sedaris, you are good. Just so good. (The New Yorker)

• And it reminds me that Siblings Are A Gift, a look into this important relationship. (The New York Times)

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We have a super full and fun weekend planned with tons of houseguests and laughter and there may or may not be a cake involved.

Happy weekend!

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When I was young and pictured myself as a woman, one of the things I envisioned was hosting glittery dinner parties where I floated around in chiffon, my arms full of gold bangles. (Auntie Mame was and is one of my favorite movies, if you want insight into my aspirations.)

But evenings dripping candles and cocktails have not been my hostess reality. The Gorilla and I entertain a lot, all kinds of gatherings, but the intimate dinner party has eluded me. I get tripped up over the food. And what is a dinner party without dinner?

I’m a decent cook, but you know what I am? A stage fright cook. Dishes I’ve made a zillion times will fall apart if there’s a guest at the table. I simply can’t saute under pressure.

But a few weeks ago I had several new-ish friends that I wanted to introduce to one another and I was in the mood to really tackle the whole dinner party thing. I decided on Wednesday to host ten people for dinner on Saturday. And I didn’t want to cook. Naturally I turned to facebook for suggestions on this conundrum and Rachel from Club MomMe recommended Kitchit.

I went to the Kitchit site and GENIUS. You register, then input the style of gathering you want to host: size, fancy or casual, food restrictions, etc. Kitchit gives you personal chef options that you can browse and then choose your best fit. You can also add customizations like having a server for plated food (although I didn’t do that, we opted to eat family style).

Kitchit normally asks for at least 3 days notice, but maybe they heard the desperation in my plea. On Thursday before my event on Saturday, I was paired with Chef Ronnie Woo. We spoke on the phone and as soon as I realized we were on the same page, I booked him with a deposit.

Over the next couple of days, Chef Ronnie and I tweaked the menu via email and text. He was easy to work with and very friendly, even accommodating a last minute request. On Saturday he arrived two hours before my party with all the groceries and made himself at home in my kitchen. We used my pots and pans and serving pieces, and he was completely self-sufficient.

My guests arrived and we had cocktails for a bit before wandering over to the dinner table. Before each course, Chef Ronnie introduced the food and answered any questions. He left quietly during dessert, as previously arranged. All payment and gratuity is taken care of through Kitchit, so there’s no awkward host moment where you must leave the table to settle up.

When I went into the kitchen after dinner, it was spotless, the dishwasher was running, and the leftovers were in containers in the fridge. Shopping, cooking, serving, cleaning, DONE. It was like there hadn’t just been a party of ten wining and dining on the patio. I could focus fully on my guests and not worry for a moment about the quality of the main event.

Okay, so, having a personal chef come into your home isn’t something you’d want to do weekly or anything, but for a special occasion, I can’t recommend Kitchit highly enough. The cost is comparable to taking a group to dinner at a nice restaurant, but the atmosphere of the evening was so much better. The Gorilla and I have already come up with new dinner party ideas and Kitchit’s service makes me so much less afraid of pulling them off.

Kitchit is available in LA, the Bay Area, New York, and Chicago.

I read Gillian Flynn's Dark Places in 24 hours. Granted, I was recovering from strep throat, so I was stuck in bed. But still I tore through that book. It was captivating.

I loved Gone Girl - and I know that not everyone did - but it was one of my favorite things I read last year. Then when I was in Vegas in February, I read Flynn's Sharp Objects and was really disappointed with it. It wasn't bad, but it was no Gone Girl. Then several people told me I really needed to pick up Dark Places, so it's been sitting on my nightstand for months.

If you like thriller/suspense/murder, you will totally dig Dark Places. I was heavily invested and, like Gone Girl, the various twists and turns surprised me. It's pretty gory, so if ax murders aren't so much your thing then steer clear. And warn your family first: no household chores or homemade meals will go down once you've started it.

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I read Lean In because it's such a huge part of the feminist conversation right now, something I find really fascinating. I frankly have no idea why this book is so polarizing. Sheryl Sandberg had an obviously elite education and career path, but her thoughts on women in the workplace are relevant (and interesting) to everyone, even those of us working in very non-traditional arrangements.

I read Lean In while at a women's blogger conference, appropriate I thought (I do love a good theme), and it was quick and quotable. You don't have to be on the executive track to appreciate Sandberg's insights. A lot of the book was about women's behavior in general, an analysis of women in (and out of) the workplace since the 1960's, and why certain progress hasn't been as steady as one might have hoped. As a woman, some of it was hard to hear, but cringing women are who will change the gender dynamic.

"Whenever a married woman asks me for advice on coparenting with a husband, I tell her to let him put the diaper on the baby any way he wants as long as he's doing it himself. And if he gets up to deal with the diaper before being asked, she should smile even if he puts that diaper on the baby's head. Over time, if he does things his way, he'll find the correct end. But if he's forced to do things her way, pretty soon she'll be doing them herself."

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I'll be honest, I bought the hardback copy (instead of reading it on my kindle paperwhite) of Me Before You because I liked the cover so much. That's silly, sort of, but covers matter.

This was an easy, fun, heartstrings book. Perfect for a beach read, or the airplane. This might be THE vacation book of 2013. Maybe it's the just mood I was in when I read it, but I feel like you could read Me Before You lightly (swooning over the romantic parts) or deeply (since the serious themes are very serious). It's almost like this book is made of play doh: it is what you make of it.

I liked it. I'm recommending it as a great summer read.

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Are you reading anything worth mentioning? My stack for the summer is sky high and I couldn't be happier about it. Modern Mrs. Darcy has a free summer reading guide called Ultimate Beach Reading that I just signed up for (it puts you on her montly newsletter list), so I'll be diving into that soon.

You can follow me on goodreads or watch my book page to see what I'm currently reading or have read recently.

Amazon affiliate links included in this post. This means that if you click through to amazon from HH and make a purchase, you support this site at no additional cost to you.

Pigtail was in the car while I was on the phone with The Gorilla. His big voice comes over the speakers through the Bluetooth system when we're talking, frequently making the kids giggle and wonder where he is hiding.

He was telling me about his night out and mentioned that he met up with a well known athlete.

"Was he swamped?" I asked, meaning by fans that sometimes make a dive bar scene a little less cozy.

"Not really," said The Gorilla. "A little, but it wasn't bad."

"What does swamped mean?" inquired the little voice behind me. Once we prodded her to ask what words meant if she didn't understand, I've been forced to try and define most of my lexicon.

"In this circumstance, I'm asking daddy if people approached his friend to take a picture with him or get his autograph."

"Why would people want to take his picture?" she wondered.

"Because he's on tv sometimes, so people know who he is."

I was at a stoplight, my foot firmly on the brake.

"Just because he's on tv?" she furthered, still confused.

I glanced in the rear view, at my little child who didn't understand that being seen by the public on a regular basis was in fact a phenomenon.

Her daddy finally piped in.

"If Elmo were sitting and eating lunch, wouldn't you want to go talk to him?"

"YES." she said, in awe of picturing Elmo eating a meal but also in reverence to the name alone.

"It's kinda like that." He finished, triumphantly. I smiled to myself and moved the car forward to make my turn.

Pigtail stared out the window, a little bored.

A few minutes later as we entered the freeway she asked, "Is there traffic?"

Oh, my baby Angeleno.