parenting

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Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets, Made from Brown Paper Sacks

5 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets Made from Brown Paper Sacks

Dear Jack,

Monday evening I came home from work, to discover a trail of 5 homemade cat puppets made from brown paper sacks; beginning at the front door, ending at the kitchen.

When I asked you about them, you just smiled but gave me no explanation.

By dinner time, about 30 minutes later, you began opening up.

You shared their names with me: Bouncy Cat, Wizard Cat, Shape Cat, Letter Cat, and Surprise Cat.

Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets Made from Brown Paper Sacks

I quickly noticed that each character had a related symbol drawn on its chest with a marker.

Bouncy Kitty had a red bouncy ball. Wizard Kitty had a magic hat.

I had to ask you, though: “Why does Surprise Kitty have that name?”

You immediately demonstrated. You stuck your hand inside the puppet and opening his mouth; revealing his teeth.

Turns out, Surprise Kitty is the only cat puppet has teeth when you open his mouth.

That’s the surprise.

Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets Made from Brown Paper Sacks

As you were gathering your cat puppets from off the carpet where you had them lined up, Mommy pulled me aside to explain, with a smile:

“Jack made ‘Care Cats’ today at school.”

Mommy and I figured out the story without having to say another word to each other:

This past weekend, as a family, we watched The Care Bears Movie on Netflix.

You were obviously inspired to create your own version: Care Cats.

After dinner, you went on to demonstrate how the Care Cats double as a juke box/CD player.

Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets Made from Brown Paper Sacks

You gave me some quarters to insert inside a Care Cat, which was lying between two pillows. But instead of a song playing, you just started dancing; inviting me to join you.

The next day, I came home to 3 new Care Cats. You insisted I feed them quarters “so they can go poop.” Obviously, lifting the Care Cats upright, causing the quarters to fell out, meant that they were relieving themselves.

Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets Made from Brown Paper Sacks

On your own, you found the old sock money dog bed that I used to place you in when you were a newborn, and you made that the bed for your Care Cats.

Dear Jack: Your “Care Cats” Puppets Made from Brown Paper Sacks

They sleep next to your bed now, so that you can keep an eye of them.

You are such a sweet and creative boy.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Your First Scary Dream, Which was Based on Actual Events

5 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack: Your First Scary Dream, Which was Based on Actual Events

Dear Jack,

Tuesday at 1:00 AM, I shot straight out of bed and ran upstairs. I didn’t use to have such stellar hearing when it comes to a child crying in the middle of the night, but that skill has evolved over the past 5 years.

When I arrived in your room, you were sitting up in your bed. You explained, “I had a scary dream. The house was on fire and the fireman came.”

I quickly assured you, “Well there’s definitely no fire in our house. I’m here. It was just a dream. There are no firemen here. Just us.”

You and I both knew why you had that bad dream. The morning before, as our family was about to leaving for school and work, we all noticed a strange chemical smell in the garage.

I thought it smelled like nail polish remover; you thought it smelled like chlorine in the swimming pool.

After Mommy pulled her car out of the garage, much of the smell went away; though the smell was still very strong inside my car.

Our plan was this: When we get home, let’s not park in the garage. Instead, let’s keep the garage door closed, that way we can walk into the garage through the smaller door, to see if the smell has replenished itself.

That is indeed what happened, but I also had Mommy call the non-emergency line for the fire department.

When I arrived home, you and Mommy were sitting in Mommy’s parked car in the driveway; as the fireman explored our garage, and house, in all their fancy equipment.

Dear Jack: Your First Scary Dream, Which was Based on Actual Events

Interestingly, after their thorough investigation, they found no sort of gas or chemical leak. They found no reason for concern.

The best theory they, or we, could come up with is that we had recently opened the box for Holly’s new stroller; and somehow the “new smell” from that accumulated into the garage, which is on the other side of our living room.

This marks the first time I ever remember you having a scary dream and calling me up. I wish you didn’t have to dream that, but I’m glad we had our place professional inspected to make sure we truly are safe.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

27 weeks.

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

Dear Holly,

As I mentioned last week, you received a Graco RoomFor2 stroller, from Mommy’s registry at Target. Well, we unboxed it this weekend and your brother Jack already started putting it to use.

Not the actual stroller, but its unattached wheels.

He immediately began using them as cannons for Pandy to shoot across the living. Soon after, his panda bear collected an army of other stuffed animals to help shoot the artillery.

From there, Jack insisted a make a video of him racing his cars, so I did. As you can see in the video, by this point it was Ellie the Elephant who was using the stroller tires as markers for the race track.

https://familyfriendlydaddyblog.com/2016/01/21/dear-holly-your-brother-jack-is-playing-with-your-toys-already/

That night, Jack went ahead and also broke out your new bath toys, which are a gift from some friends we met for lunch on Sunday.

So I’m thinking this is going to be a reoccurring thing. In the upcoming 3 months before you are born, Jack will inspect and test out any of your new toys or gadgets that could possibility provide entertainment and engagement for him.

I suppose it won’t hurt anything. After all, it’s not like your’re going to be aware of whether or not your new belongings were “lightly used” beforehand.

And I think it’s good for your brother Jack because he gets to be more involved with your arrival.

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

He can truly feel a part of what’s going on. It’s important to me he doesn’t feel left out or overshadowed once you get here.

I want to proactively do my best to give you both equal, yet separate and unique, attention and quality time.

Because of the 5 and a half year difference between the two of you, I think it will be fairly easy.

I won’t be catering to 2 babies, but instead, one baby and one boy. Those are two different worlds, as far as I’m concerned.

However, it has become apparent that despite your age difference, you’ll both be sharing your toys.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

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Kids’ Show: Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest- Webisodes 12 & 13: Beanie the Bat and Petey the Possum

Kids’ Show: Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest- Webisodes 12 & 13: Beanie the Bat and Petey the Possum

As part of my plan to quickly build the library of my newest web series, Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Kingdom, I am now shooting new webisodes during my lunch breaks at work.

One of my coworkers just happens to be one of my most faithful watchers, so I didn’t really have to twist his arm in order to convince him to be my camera man/assistant director on these “during our lunch break at work” video shoots.

Last Thursday, we shot two new webisodes; during one 60 minute period.

First is “Webisode 12: Beanie the Bat”, where Uncle Nick serves as a real estate agent to a bat who likes to live in trees; with a sort of “House Hunters: Animal Edition” style of plot line.

During the shoot, I sliced my hand on the tree I was climbing. I just wrote it into the script.

The other webisode we filmed is “Webisode 13: Petey the Possum.” There is no doubt this is one of the most stand-out webisodes of Uncle Nick.

Very close to where I work, there is a drain tunnel the same height as me. I decided it would make the perfect setting. I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Not only do I feel the plot line is captivating, but the tunnel itself is intriguing because it’s a rare event to get a tour down into something so mysterious.

I’ll say this; I wouldn’t be willing to walk in there alone.

So now I can make videos throughout the week, instead of having to just wait for the weekend.

I feel my Uncle Nick series has so much potential and that kids would really like it if they watched it. But for now, it remains undiscovered in the corner of YouTube.

But that doesn’t stop me from continuing to grow my collection.

Uncle Nick has plenty more up his sleeve!

Here’s an overview of what some previous webisodes are about:

Webisode 7: Paulie the Puppy– When Uncle Nick decides to hike a new trail, it leads him to an empty old building and a mysterious barking sound.

Webisode 8: Pokey the Pot-Bellied Pig– Uncle Nick must figure out a way to cross the river to save the little pot-bellied pig who is stuck on the other side.

Webisode 9: Ralph the Red Panda– While hiking later in the evening, Uncle Nick discovers a rare animal as it begins getting dark outside.

Webisode 10: Slither the Snake– Freddie the Fox gets trapped by a hungry snake at the top of a large rock. It’s Uncle Nick to the rescue!

Webisode 11: Barry the Bear– When a scary-looking bear is soon in the Enchanted Forest, Uncle Nick decides to investigate; leading to a lesson about not judging a bear by his cover.

Barry the Bear was first introduced 4 months ago in my other series, Jack-Man:

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Dear Jack: Taking You to See Stars Wars (The Force Awakens) was a Top Parenting Moment for Me *No Spoilers*

Dear Jack: Taking You to See Stars Wars (The Force Awakens) was a Top Parenting Moment for Me *No Spoilers*

5 years, 2 months. 

Dear Jack,

I had been preparing you for over a year for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The time finally came this past Saturday.

Easily, I can say in confidence, it was one of my most epic experiences as a parent, to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the first time, together with you.

We arrived about an hour before the movie as supposed to begin. Even though it had been out in theatres for a month already, I wasn’t willing to risk not getting a good seat, or any seat at all.

Good thing I approached the situation the way I did. We were there at the 4:05 matinee when, technically, the least amount of people are supposed to be interested in seeing a movie.

When we walked in, there were only about 15 or 20 seats taken; so we got our choice seats.

But within 30 minutes, the only seats remaining were the 3 separate front rows, where the floor is flat and you have to look straight up at the screen.

So the good news was that we got good seats by being there an hour before show time.

The bad news was that the commercials and previews started at “show time”, meaning that we were sitting there for close to an hour and a half before Star Wars actually began, meaning we both had to “go potty” as the show was finally beginning. That was the downside of making sure we were fully hydrated for the movie.

However, the movie was so enthralling that we made it through the entire movie, which was 2 hours and 16 minutes; we stayed all the way until the credit ended.

The whole time, you sat on my lap. Each time a new character appeared, you would whisper to me, “Daddy, is that a good guy or a bad guy?”

That’s an especially relevant question when watching a Star Wars movie, when that’s one of the underlying themes in most Star Wars movies anyway: Is he a good guy or a bad guy?

During the most intense action scenes, you would sit straight up on my knee. You were so into it!

I am so happy were you born in 2010; making you 5 years-old when the first new J.J. Abrams/Disney Star Wars movie came out.

That is the perfect age for you to start watching these movies with me.

Having seen all the previous Star Wars movie, I must say that this new one was everything I’d hope it would be.

I was so impressed. I can’t wait for us to watch it when it comes to Redbox. Mommy is pretty intrigued by us talking about it so much, that now she looks forward to seeing it with us.

We love Star Wars!

Love,

Daddy