Dear Jack: You’ve Decided to Play Football

13 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

Within the first couple of days of 8th grade at your new school in Alabama, you were approached by some of your new friends, as well as the coach, to play on the football team.

You instantly decided that is what you are going to do.

So I took you to Hibbett Sports to let you pick out some cleats and a solid mouth guard.

Naturally, for the mouth guard, you chose one that is sour watermelon Warheads flavored.

(Because that is a thing that actually exists.)

I did my best to turn you into a guitar-playing songwriter like me.

It just didn’t stick.

Sure, play football instead.

 

Love,

Daddy

On My Wife’s 43rd Birthday, Looking Back on When We Were in Our 20s

As we still continue to “pare down” our belongings from the move to Alabama, I came across a stack of the customized calendars I would make for my wife and I each month to keep at our desks at work, back during the first decade of the 2000’s.

It’s funny to think that there were a couple of years before we were married, before I started blogging, running my YouTube channel, and regularly writing new songs, that I would instead use my creativity to craft monthly calendars featuring pictures of what we had done together the month before.

Today my wife joins me in turning 43 years old. (I’m 113 days older than her.)

It has been interesting to look back through these now “old” photos of us when we were in our 20s! I was 27 and she was about to turn 27 when we got married in 2008.

These calendars stopped before we ever reached our 30s; in the 2010s. Two reasons: One is because we became parents at age 29. The other is that I began focusing on my role as Parents magazine’s daddy blogger.

So much has happened in our lives since I stopped making these calendars. We lived through our entire 30s- and as of today, we are a third of our way through our 40s.

Through all the stress that came with putting our Tennessee home on the market this year, finding a new home in Alabama, and making the move across state lines, it’s really rewarding to be able to stop for a minute and look through these old pictures of us.

It’s like I’m able to see our lives together from a 3rd party’s perspective looking in:

“Wow, we’ve shared an amazing life together so far. This is really nice. We both made a really good choice when we chose each other back in 2007.”

Happy Birthday Jill!

 

Dear Holly: Starting 3rd Grade

8 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

As I predicted last week, you lost your other front tooth just in time for 3rd grade. I admit, I felt sad after pulling it for you; as it hit me:

This is the last time I am going to pull one of my kids’ front teeth!

But you definitely have not been sad this week. Instead, you have been so excited to start 3rd grade at your new school in Alabama.

And somehow, don’t ask me how… you and your cousin Darla happened to get into the same classroom.

You are going to love 3rd grade.

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Your Favorite Vacation Ever

13 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

Turns out, I was right regarding how you would feel about experiencing the Pacific West coast for the first time.

Our first morning there, I took you out on Nye Beach. You were surprised by the chilly, choppy water; which was in obvious contrast to the beaches you have known in Florida.

Like me, you were mesmerized by the dreamy, never-ending ocean; further shrouded in mystery by the dense fog.

You enjoyed discovering the new marine life you have never been exposed to.

The “quicksand” also provided a bit of entertainment for you as well.

As we left Nye Beach that first full day in Nye Beach, you told me, “Daddy, this is the best beach I have ever been to.”

A few days later, as our family had just finished our giant dune buggy tour, you announced, “This is the best vacation we have ever been on!”

I’m so glad you feel about way. I agree.

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: You Definitely Weren’t Afraid of the Giant Dune Buggy Ride!

8 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

I admit- I definitely had my reservations about you going on the “intense” version of the giant dune buggy tour while we were on our family vacation in Oregon.

By all means, this was not a kids’ ride. Let’s just say that if it were a ride at Disney World, you certainly would not have been tall enough.

The entire time, I held on to you tightly so you wouldn’t be afraid.

But you weren’t.

Once the 30 minute tour was over, you immediately declared, “That was fun!”

To be sure, I asked you, “You really weren’t scared, not even at the beginning?”

You simply laughed off the notion.

Love,

Daddy