Vanessa Bryant Celebrates First Father's Day Without Kobe Bryant by Welcoming New Family Puppy

Vanessa Bryant spent her first father's day without Kobe Bryant following his death in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. Many expected the day to be very difficult for her, but Bryant added a new member of the family. She welcomed a new puppy with a comic book-inspired name.

Bryant posted a photo of the puppy on her now-private Instagram account that showed Natalia Bryant cradling the pet. Bryant also explained that the family was working on finding the perfect name. She created a poll on her Instagram Stories, which featured Bodhi and Bobby. Ultimately, her daughter Bianka made the final call.

"Love seeing my girls smile," Vanessa wrote on Instagram. "Meet Bobby. Aka Bobby ganoush, bobbyrooni, bobbooshka. J/k he's named after iceman from x-men (blue eyes) Plus, BB said so." This post followed other tributes to Kobe and Gianna on her Instagram account, including one that showed the late Los Angeles Lakers star posing with all of his daughters.

"Happy Father's Day to the BEST daddy in the world," Bryant captioned a throwback photo of the family. "We miss you so much. We love you forever and always. Love, Nani, Gigi, BB, Koko and VB." She also posted another throwback photo showing her and Kobe with the newborn Capri in honor of the child's first birthday.

Many fans have missed out on posts due to Bryant making her Instagram account private. There were questions following the initial decision, and some Twitter users expressed the opinion that she made the choice due to criticism about her tribute posts. However, Bryant later provided clarity.

"[Thanks] so much for all the love. [Natalia Bryant] and I have unfortunately had to block fan pages because it's really hard to go online and constantly see pics of our beloved Gigi and Kobe under every single square of our explore pages," Vanessa wrote in a long Instagram post in mid-June. "Blocking the fan pages has helped change the algorithm. We [love] you all but please understand that we had to do this for our own healing not because we don't appreciate your [love]. Xo."

This change meant that many fans didn't see the tributes to Kobe and Gianna or the post celebrating Capri's birthday. They also missed out on learning about the new puppy. For Bryant and her daughters, however, making Instagram accounts private was a perfect way to avoid constant reminders about Kobe and Gianna's deaths.