9 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

I’m sure I’ve pointed this out before, but I’m officially the person in our family who says “no”. It’s written into my DNA and therefore my role as the patriarch of our family.

Not only do I say “no” to questions like, “Can we get a pet dog?” and “Can we get a pool?”, but I also am the person who initiates what time we will go to an event and what time we will leave.

I’m the gatekeeper and the timekeeper. As I like to think, I keep things fun by creating and promoting the boundaries.

Accordingly, I make sure that you and your brother get to bed on time, and more importantly, get to sleep on time, each night.

It is of course your instinct to delay the bedtime process every single night: “I need a hair tie first… I need some water first… I need some lotion first… I need my stuffed animal first…”

I learned to proactively say, “Okay, Holly… it’s time to go take your shower. Before you do, I need you to go get your hair tie, your water, your lotion, your stuffed animal… your roller skates!”

Part of our nightly routine is for you to respond to my silly joke, “Daddy, I don’t need roller skates to go to bed!”

So when it came time for you to create your trucker hat this past weekend at the “hat bar” at Mommy’s work party, in addition to the shell I suggested to represent our last name, you obviously also chose to include a roller skate patch!

Love,

Daddy