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Dear Jack: How You Got Papa to Buy You a Fursians Stuffy at Addie Kate’s (with No Words Exchanged!)

5 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack: How You Got Papa to Buy You a Stuffy at Addie Kate’s with No Words Exchanged

Dear Jack,

As we walked down the closed main street of my hometown of Fort Payne for their annual Boom Days festival, you saw that I was catching up with some classmates I haven’t seen in 17 years. You knew it would be a while; as you stood there holding Papa’s hand and while Nonna held your baby sister.

So you discreetly tugged on Papa’s arm, asking him to go with you to Addie Kate’s, a store across the street.

I saw this happen peripherally, thinking to myself, “Why would Jack want to go into that store? It doesn’t look like there’s anything for kids in there.”

About 20 minutes later, you and Papa emerged from the store. Turns out, Addie Kate’s does have something kids would want.

You proudly lifted up a new “stuffy”… a Fursians snow leopard named Slushy, with a huge tail but tiny legs.

“Look at what Papa got me!” you excitedly announced, as Papa stood next to you attempting to hide a smirk.

Papa explained, “Yeah, and he didn’t have to even ask me for it. He just looked around at the stuffed animals, picked up the one he liked the most, and looked up at me with those eyes. Then I walked up to the counter and paid for it.”

I couldn’t stop laughing, yet I wasn’t surprised.

It is hilarious to imagine that whole process.

You then admitted, “Daddy, I saw some stuffed animals in the window, from the street where I was standing.”

Your plan worked: See toy. Take Papa into store. Speak no words. Exit with toy.

Yes, you are a clever boy. I’m guessing from the moment we left Nonna and Papa’s house for downtown, that you had already reminded yourself to look for an opportunity to find a toy for your grandparents to buy you. I have to give you credit for your dedication to a plan clearly worked.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: You Become a Sleepy Marshmallow When Either Nonna or Aunt Dana Holds You

21 weeks.

Dear Holly: You Become a Sleepy Marshmallow When Nonna or Aunt Dana Hold You

Dear Holly,

One of my main roles when I am holding you or playing with you is to challenge you both physically and socially.

For example, I hold you to where your feet are touching the ground, so you have to stand up; therefore building your muscle and improving your balance. Plus, I am constantly testing your social reaction time by making different noises and moving objects around you to see your heard turn to follow and to make noises back at me.

Truly, it’s an intense and involved process when you’re with me. Granted, the whole time I’m telling you how cute and adorable you are…

And it’s not that Mommy nor your brother aren’t cooing over you either, because we all treat you like the adorable, lovable little girl you are.

It’s just that I couldn’t help but notice whenever you are back in Alabama with Nonna and Aunt Dana, it’s like you become this different little baby… because you know you can get away with it.

In such a relaxed environment away from the hustle and bustle of the Nashville life we are used to, you know you get to just be lazy.

So when Nonna holds you, it’s as if you just melt into a marshmallow state of being. You just get sleepy and take a one hour nap like it’s nothing.

But first, as I joke to everyone, your IQ drops first…

Even though you have developed social and physical skills in your 4 and a half months out of the womb, it’s like you just forget about all that; instead pretending to be a newborn who doesn’t know any better.

I witnessed this hilarious situation with you when Aunt Dana had you: She sat you in her lap and wrapped you up in a blanket, leaving only your head exposed, as your watched your brother Jack and cousin Calla play for nearly an hour.

It took me several minutes to even see you there, as you never made a sound. You just quietly chilled out, as if you were hiding.

This is proof that different members of the family, in a more relaxed environment, can bring out a different side of you when you are around them.

When you’re with them, you can get away with just being a sleepy marshmallow.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: “Naughty Nick”- My Awesomely Bad Video Series on YouTube

5 years, 9 years.

I Dedicate My “Naughty Nick” Video Series to a Special Boy Named Hatcher, with Down Syndrome

Dear Jack,

You and I spent hours working together on our Jack-Man superhero video series (23 webisodes) on YouTube.

Additionally, I spent even more time on my children’s program Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest (27 webisodes). Those were shows I created that I truly cared about.

But over Labor Day Weekend, I decided, on a whim, to make a fake WWE audition tape… just for fun, while our family was at Nonna and Papa’s house. I therefore invented and became the wrestling character, Naughty Nick.

After I made that first video with my phone on selfie mode, I decided to make 4 more webisodes. Papa helped out with the 4th and 5th, serving as the villain.

I suppose my motivation in making this series is ultimately to add to my Rolodex of sketch series on my YouTube channel. I believe it’s important to showcase my abilities as an actor, director, and writer.

The Naughty Nick series is admittedly a farce of the media’s perception of masculinity, with a throwback to 1980’s professional wrestling.

Naughty Nick presents his own fictional YouTube audience with his fantasy version of reality; though to him it’s actually real. In his world, no one can ever be more masculine or American than he is; nor can anyone ever defeat him. These are things of value in the character’s life.

With nearly 700 videos uploaded on my YouTube Channel and 540 subscribers, I am building The Nick Shell Network. I want serious stuff and I want silly stuff. I want something for everyone.

My hope is that one day, I can catch the right person’s attention with my amateur, yet ideally popular, videos.

Now that you’ve seen the first 5 Naughty Nick videos, you now want to be a part of the series. So I suppose we’ll make that happen in the near future; like maybe this weekend!

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Your Special Friend, Jenna/Sk8ter Boi/Glue Vs. Ice: The Movie

5 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack: Your Special Friend, Jenna/Sk8ter Boi/Glue Vs. Ice: The Movie

Dear Jack,

You love being grown up. Kindergarten is cool. You were so ready for it.

Every morning, I drop you off at Holly’s daycare; from there, you ride the bus to your school. After just a few days of our new routine, you started telling Mommy and me about a new friend named Jenna.

Apparently, from Day #1 she has taken the initiative to be a special friend to you. It sounds like it all started when the two of you starting walking onto the bus together and sharing a seat.

We’ve yet to meet Jenna; as she apparently shows up after I drop you off each day. But we do know that she’s older; she’s in 1st grade.

Sure, you like hanging out with the boys and girls in your actual Kindergarten class, but undoubtedly, there’s something special about that 1st grader, Jenna.

As for now though, she remains a mystery to your parents.

Meanwhile, I love watching you develop your style and interests. As I took a picture of you last week, I thought to myself, “He looks like a little skateboarder.”

Then over the weekend, Mommy was telling me how you’ve been talking about wanting a skateboard.

In our cul-de-sac, it appears that boys ride skateboards while girls ride bikes.

Here you are, going on 6 years-old, and you don’t know how to ride a bike. But thing is, you don’t seem to care. Instead, you want to ride a skateboard.

As your parents, we’re here to support your interests and talents.

Therefore, our kitchen table is currently covered with different colored pieces of construction paper, in which you’ve drawn the names of each person in our family… in glue.

Wednesday evening after you finished dinner, you looked up from the paper plate with an ice cube on it, onto which you were squirting glue.

You suggested, “Hey Daddy, they should make a movie called Glue Vs. Ice.”

I’m confident you were inspired after this past weekend when you and I watched the straight-to-Netflix movie, Airplane Vs. Volcano.

When I asked you who you thought would win the fight, you confidently replied, “I think it would be the glue that wins, because it would just stick to the ice; but the ice couldn’t stick to the glue- it would just explode.”

Sounds like a great movie to me!

Love,

Daddy

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Throwback Thursday: My “Non-Human” Appearance in 1990

Throwback Thursday: My "Non-Human" Appearance in 1990

Today my sister found an old picture of us when my friend Will Biddle was spending the night, back in the summer of 1990.  Her caption simply read:

“You don’t even look human in this picture! I can’t stop laughing!”

After I saw myself, on the far left, I had to instantly agree. I’m assuming my mom was holding the camera, saying, “Okay, now let’s do a silly picture!”

What you see is the result of that.

I guess I was doing my impression of a Goomba from Super Mario Bros. mixed with Steve Urkel? I’m not really sure.

Standing next to me, in the middle, is my friend Will; who sadly, a few months ago, passed away.

And on the far left is my sister.

In an age where posting current pictures of our own kids on Instagram is the norm, it can also be a lot of fun to do the opposite: To show the world the funny kid-version of ourselves from the 80s or 90s.

This photo is 25 years ago.

I hope this picture brought joy to your life today, as it did mine.

Man, we were some funny kids.