Storytelling

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Dear Holly: I Particularly Love Your Ears

1 week.

Dear Holly: I Particularly Love Your Ears

Dear Holly,

Before you or your brother were born, I always thought all babies basically look the same. And for the most part, I probably still do believe that.

But as for you, there is one certain feature I have noticed from the very beginning that I just really find adorable: your ears.

Mommy noticed this too. The fold at the top of your ears are 90 degree angles. That’s not something we’ve ever seen before.

I love your ears.

No matter how old you are, you’ll always have your unique ears. I will always adore them on you.

Your eyes still have that bluish tint in them that newborns have, but it looks like it’s only to cover up brown eyes for the time being. I think in the next couple of months, it will be obvious to the world that you have brown eyes like Mommy and me, and unlike your brother Jack who has blue eyes.

Dear Holly: I Particularly Love Your Ears

As for your hair color, I’m seeing what appears to possibly be (at the moment) a sort of strawberry blonde color. I definitely see hints of red, but then your eyebrows are clearly platinum blonde.

Obviously, your brother Jack had blonde hair for most of his life. Only recently has it truly started looking brown, though he still has some platinum blonde in his bangs when I spike his hair up.

Speaking of Jack, you actually look a lot like he did when he was a newborn. I predict that the two of you will resemble each other.

I am enjoying seeing you in your girly clothes that we’ve had ready for you all these months. You are such a beautiful and precious little girl.

And you are particularly fun to hold. You are so mellow and so cute, that time just flies by before I realize it.

Love,

Daddy

j8

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized, vegan

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Going to Chili’s with Grandma

5 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

Dear Jack,

This week Grandma left to go back to California, as she’s been here since a week before your sister Holly was born on April 24th; as we’ve transitioned into life with a newborn again. It’s been so nice having her here.

On Sunday, for one of our last meals with her before her flight, we took her to Chile’s; a place that actually serves vegan burgers for me and has mac-and-cheese that you are crazy about: “Daddy, this is the best kind!”

On Sunday, for one of our last meals with her before her flight, we took her to Chili’s; a place that actually serves vegan burgers for me and has mac-and-cheese that you are crazy about: “Daddy, this is the best kind!”

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

The day before, I took you out for some adventure as Grandma helped Mommy with Baby Holly back at the house.

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

Since it was raining, we drove to Jump Street in Cool Springs, which is an indoor trampoline park. It was the best decision. Not only did you burn more energy more efficiently there compared to any other way I can think of, but you truly impressed me.

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

You showed no fear with jumping off a 10 foot ledge several times. Granted, you landed on an inflated cushion each time, but there’s no way I would have done something that daring when I was your age.

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

We took a picture of ourselves together right before we left. You were soaked in sweat! And that’s a good thing, because like I said, it was raining outside and you had too much reckless energy to stay home with Grandma, Mommy, and Baby Holly.

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

That afternoon after your nap, the rain had stopped so we decided to go “bug hunting” outside. I taught you the trick over turning over big rocks, in hopes of finding bug underneath.

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

The only luck we really had though, was apparently discovering the skeleton of a crawdad (crayfish). You proudly placed it in your bug case and took it home to Mommy and Grandma.

Maybe we’ll find more interesting bugs this weekend.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Bug Hunting, Base Jumping, & Saying Goodbye to Grandma

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Dear Holly: You are a “Fearfully Made” Gift from God

1 week.

Dear Holly: You are a “Fearfully Made” Gift from God

Dear Holly,

When you were born just a week and a half ago and I got to hold you for the first time, one of the immediate thoughts in my mind was this: How could anyone hold a perfect, innocent newborn and not sense God?

I know you were “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God. You are not simply the aftermath of a cosmic explosion billions of years ago.

I know God wove you in Mommy’s womb. You are more than just science.

You were created, beyond just your parents.

To be “fearfully made” means that we respectfully recognize God’s achievement and creativity in your existence.

As your parents, we could never simply say, “This is our child. We brought her into this world.”  It will always be much more complex than that, because God knew you before He ever wove you in the womb.

We recognize that children are a heritage from the Lord. You being here in this world is so much more epic than a Mommy and a Daddy deciding to have a baby.

Now, imagine this. You were born into a family where this all information will be intertwined into our family’s lifestyle and culture.

Dear Holly: You are a “Fearfully Made” Gift from God

Knowing that this same God who knew you before Mommy and I ever did, it’s only logical that our family is to serve Him through our lives, something we can’t do without loving our neighbors as ourselves.

And how can we love our neighbors, or even ourselves, if we can’t love our own family?

What that means to me as your Daddy is that I’ve got a particular responsibility to teach you to love. Of course, there is no better way to teach you to love than to demonstrate love to you and in front of you, along with Mommy and your brother.

Struggle will always be present in life, but it’s a matter of how we choose to deal with it as it comes. We as a family can make a daily choice to be more than conquerors, though God’s love.

So I will lead our family to choose to be victors, instead of victims. We will make a choice to do what is often unnatural to the human experience, in attempt to love each other and to love God.

Here’s a little cheat sheet I crafted to remind me:

Victors versus Victims

Victor: compliments others

Victim: criticizes others

Victor: embraces change

Victim: fears change

Victor: forgives others

Victim: holds grudges

Victor: always learning

Victim: thinks they know everything

Victor: accepts responsibility for their failures

Victim: blames others for their failures

Victor: has a sense of gratitude

Victim: has a sense of entitlement

Victor: sets goals and develops plans

Victim: never sets goals

We will be conscious of these things. We will be conscious of our responsibility to love and serve the God who fearfully and wonderfully made us.

This is the family you were born into…

We are a family where we will choose for love to be patient and kind, where it does not envy or boast, where it is not proud or rude or self-seeking or easily angered.

We will choose a love that keeps no record of wrongs. We will choose a love that not to delight in evil.

We will choose a love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

Because if we choose this kind of love, we will choose a love that never fails.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: You are a “Fearfully Made” Gift from God

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Dear Holly: I Never Realized How Badly I Needed a Baby Girl

1 week.

Dear Holly: I Never Realized How Badly I Needed a Baby Girl

Dear Holly,

For years, I was convinced I was perfectly happy having only a little boy. But now that you’ve been in my life for a week, I realize I was wrong. I needed a baby girl in my life.

I love everything about your brother; he’s the perfect little boy. With you here now though, I see that you provide the proper balance to our family.

Dear Holly: I Never Realized How Badly I Needed a Baby Girl

With your brother, I get to be rough and crude and adventurous, as I should be with an all American boy. I get to drive through the mud with him and take him to PG-13 rated super hero movies that some say are inappropriate for him. I love that I get to feel sort of rebellious in parenting your brother.

Dear Holly: I Never Realized How Badly I Needed a Baby Girl

With you, I get to make sweet cooing sounds directly into your face as I stare at you for no less than an hour at a time as I hold you. I am so in love with you.

I have never got to experience this before. Despite being a parent for 5 and a half years, having you here is completely different. You are such a sweet, adorable, and mesmerizing little girl.

You’re so easy to stare at. I love your amazing little smile. I love your uniquely folded ears. I love your tiny little cry.

Had you born a boy, I would have been just as happy; because I couldn’t have known what I was missing. I already knew how much I loved having a son, so I knew things would have been great.

But instead, you were meant to be Holly Joy. I was meant to have a daughter.

I’m not saying there’s no possibility of you never having a younger brother or sister… but I do know that our family has never felt so complete- like the way it does now that you are here.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: I Never Realized How Badly I Needed a Baby Girl

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Dear Holly: What Our Family Did before We Left for the Hospital

Newborn.

Dear Holly,

When we woke up Sunday morning, Mommy and I both knew you were going to be born; based on Mommy’s contractions. So I made sure to document the order of events along with the way.

Since had I been making a weekly “baby bump” Instagram (@nickshellwrites) of Mommy each week, I decided to make a bonus shot: 40 and a half weeks.

Dear Holly: What Our Family Did before We Left for the Hospital

Then I helped your brother Jack burn off some anxious energy by walking around our neighborhood with him while we wore his “monster teeth” that he won as a prize at Chuck E. Cheese a few months back. The idea was to scare cars passing by.

Later that afternoon Mommy insisted that she put out new mulch in the backyard. So I unloaded the 3 huge bags of mulch from my car, which your brother Jack and I had picked up at Lowe’s the day before.

Obviously, I offered to help, but Mommy wanted to make herself physically useful during her final hours of pregnancy; so she insisted that just she and Jack did the landscaping job. So I let it happen.

Mommy had also sent me to Whole Foods to pick up some vegan hot dogs to prepare with the vegan chili she had in the pantry. So we had a hearty lunch, which soon after increased her contractions.

It wasn’t too long before she was doing yoga-like positions in the floor, in accordance with her contractions. Jack quickly joined her, wanting to genuinely support her. That was my cue to text Nonna and Papa to make sure they were on their way, since they would be taking care of you while I was with Mommy in the labor and delivery room.

I remember how anxious I was getting, pacing the living room floor; meanwhile Mommy was calmly dealing with her contractions on the couch.

Once Nonna and Papa arrived at our house, I left with Mommy and Grandma within 15 minutes, at 4:20 PM. We arrived at the Vanderbilt at 5:00. And just 3 hours and 8 minutes later, you were born.

I’ll tell you all about that in my next letter. I have so much more to say and so many more pictures to show you!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: What Our Family Did before We Left for the Hospital

Love,

Daddy