Dear Jack: You are Now a Green Striped Yellow Belt in Taekwondo!

11 years, 3 months.

Dear Jack,

This week, our family watched you take your new test and earn your next belt in Taekwondo.

No more plain yellow belt.

You received the 3rd belt in Taekwondo: Yellow with a green stripe.

It seemed quite effortless as you completed your forms, your sparring, and your board breaking; as well as counting to twenty, in Korean.

Though you normally go twice a week for lessons, you insisted on going four times this past week, to be best prepared to pass your test; to advance beyond the 2nd belt.

You’re now on Level 3!

Obviously, we are so proud of you.

But most importantly, you are proud of yourself…

As you should be!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: Our Living Room is Your Personal Gym

5 years, 9 months.

Dear Holly,

I suppose I was distracted by getting dinner prepped. That must explain why I didn’t even notice you bring out a yoga mat and hand weights, while wearing a sweatband around your forehead.

You had been doing sit ups with the weights for a few sets before I even processed what you were doing.

And there was no agenda of yours to bring attention to yourself. No, “Hey everybody, look at me!”

It was completely your idea to entertain yourself- and no one else.

No suggestions whatsoever from Mommy or me. You have turned our living room into your own personal gym and fitness studio.

You have to keep yourself busy and moving.

Most days it’s running across the floor, practicing what you learn at gymnastics.

And every night now before you go to bed, instead of reading you a story like I used to, you require me to throw you, and I mean throw you, into your bed at least five times.

You like to move it, move it.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: You’re Planning Your 6th Birthday Party, Which is Still 3 Months Away

5 years, 9 months.

Dear Holly,

For the past few weekends now, you have begun planning out your upcoming 6th birthday party.

And by upcoming, I mean… 3 months from now.

You started a list of all the activities you want to plan for all you and your friends to enjoy.

My personal favorite is “Twizzlers”.

That’s just it’s own event.

You all get to eat Twizzlers.

Because when you’re 5 going on 6… Yeah, that’s an event all in itself.

But specifically, here are the  birthday activities you’ve got on your list, so far- in what I’m assuming in chronological order:

  1. Gifts
  2. Cake
  3. Ice Cream
  4. Pizza
  5. Popcorn
  6. M&M’s
  7. Goldfish
  8. Apples
  9. Twizzlers
  10. Toys

Gifts first, of course. Pizza after ice cream? Sure, why not!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: You’re in the 97th Percentile for 5th Grade Math at Your School

11 years, 3 months.

Dear Jack,

It’s easy for me to see you as the fun-loving kid that you are. Sometimes I tend to forget you’re actually at school most of the day… you know, learning stuff.

This week you brought us home a report from school, certifying that you tested better than 97% of the 5th grade students at your school.

So yeah, that’s a big deal!

Granted, you’ve been receiving math awards consistently since Kindergarten.

Mommy and I made sure to let you know how proud we are for having a Math Whiz for a son!

I can assure you, I was never, at any point in my life, as good at math as you already are now.

Seriously.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: It’s Hard to Get a Picture of You Not Making a Silly Face

11 years, 3 months.

Dear Jack,

I feel like, in the past 11 years, this isn’t the first time I’ve said this; but it’s more likely that you will make a silly face when I take your picture, as opposed to you genuinely smiling.

Honestly, I can understand how you feel. We take a lot of pictures of you. Because as your parents, we know that you are going to look back on the pictures we took of you when you were young, and you will appreciate it.

But you don’t appreciate it right now.

So this past weekend when we went out to Nashville to go snow tubing, I saw a statue of a snowman and insisted you get your picture taken.

I assured you that I didn’t need you to smile… only to make the same ugly face as the snowman.

And you did.

Love,

Daddy