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.
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.
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.
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.
Today I visited Brilliant Sky Toys and Books and bought you your first official stuffed animal from Mommy and me.
For a few months now, we’ve had our eyes on this particular Jelly Cat bunny with a flower design for its ears: Blossom Bunny Posey.
It instantly made us think you; not overly dainty and princess-essy, but instead; sweet, eclectic, and understated.
I could be wrong, but that’s how I see you: sweet, eclectic, and understated.
The question: What kind of little girl will you be?
It’s something I think about constantly. Here’s my thought process so far…
Mommy is obviously beautiful, classy, and diligent in all she does. I know you will be like her in those ways.
Your brother Jack is creative, intelligent, and independent.
As for me, I am innovative, good at communication but horrible at math, and charming in an old-world sort of way.
We are the family you are being born into.
Over the next couple of years, you will develop your personality based on and around us.
I see you as artsy. I don’t see you as someone who demands attention. People will be drawn to you because you will be confident in who you are.
Something I assure you of as your Daddy is that I will instill that confidence in you, every day.
You will know you are beautiful. You will know you are loved. You will hear these things from me every day.
That’s one of my roles as your Daddy. I take pride in that job.
Granted, I will also brainwash you into believe that Frozen is an asinine movie because the parents locked their daughters in the rooms, not allowing them to communicate just because they were different.
Therefore, I will celebrate with you the better Disney girl movie choice, Inside Out. It demonstrates how good parents raise their daughters; from an emotionally intelligent perspective.
Yeah, your Daddy’s going to be a little bit different… maybe even a little bit kooky. But you’ll never have to wonder about my love for you.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One shared stereotype between atheists and vegans is that they bring up the topic within 5 minutes of meeting people. In theory, they both have extreme beliefs and lifestyles that many other Americans don’t feel comfortable with accepting.
Atheists deny the existence of God or any kind of higher spiritual power. Meanwhile, vegans deny the need to consume any animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) in order to be healthy.
Both extremes deny things that most people can’t live without: God or edible animal products.
It’s almost an impossible question; to ask, “Which is more difficult, to become an atheist or a vegan?”
(That’s of course assuming you’re not already an atheist or agnostic; or vegetarian or vegan.)
I think much of the difficulty in legitimately asking and answering this question in a public online forum is that it might be easier for the participants to become more focused on bashing each other’s beliefs than it is to actually simply answer the question I am proposing. Hopefully, that’s not the case…
If you live your entire life believing in God (or at least some kind of spiritual higher power), it seems it would be nearly impossible to just switch off that fundamental belief; especially knowing that to believe in God is to accept accountability for your life, once it ends; assuming there are eternal rewards and consequences, accordingly.
It seems that if you truly believe in God, even if you’re a “lapsed Catholic” or a “backslidden Baptist,” you still wouldn’t be able to declare there is no God; because in your heart, you still would believe there is.
In my mind, to choose becoming an atheist over a vegan means you are already heading down that path of non-belief; that you’re already quite skeptical of God, or at least of the general public’s view of what God is supposed to be like.
But my perception is, that is not how most people (at least here in America) are.
On the other hand, if you are used to eating meat, dairy, and eggs, you could switch to just eating veggies, fruit, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. However, it would take much education to realize it could be done.
Most people still believe the myth that vegans don’t get enough protein. But I feel I’ve done a good job of busting that myth.
Look at me. I’ve been a vegan nearly 4 years now, and a vegetarian more than a year before that, and kosher (no pork/shellfish) for several years before that.
At 5’9”, 155 pounds, and age 34, I have remained in the perfect weight range. Notably, I am clearly not underweight.
If I wasn’t getting enough protein, it would be pretty obvious.
Of course, my doctor confirms I am getting enough protein, as well as all other nutrients I need; and that I am “healthier than most 34 year-olds” he’s seen.
He even commented that he “wasn’t surprised” to learn in hindsight that I am a vegan; since I waited for him to assess my health before I broke the news about my plant-based lifestyle.
I say that not to brag, but to provide evidence that when you actually replace animal products with the proper plant sources of fat, protein, and iron, becoming a vegan is actually an intelligent and efficient option.
Plus, by being a vegan, by default, you consume less than 1% (basically 0%) of your daily allowance of cholesterol. You still consume a lot of fat, but virtually no cholesterol.
But in my experience, most people either A) don’t know this, B) don’t believe this, or C) don’t care.
Therefore, there are many people who believe in God but who are unable to bring themselves to believe that becoming a vegan is a sustainable lifestyle. They would have great difficulty in denying their belief that consuming animal products is necessary for proper nutrition.
That’s why I think it’s such a great, and difficult, question to answer.
Assuming you’re not already an atheist or agnostic, or vegetarian or vegan, which is more difficult, to become an atheist or a vegan?
I think I am the perfect person to propose this question.
That’s because I am not the stereotypical vegan. Most vegans, as this infographic below demonstrates, are liberal, non-religious females.
Meanwhile, I am a Libertarian (socially liberal, fiscally conservative), religious male.
For me personally, the answer is obviously simple: It’s easier to become a vegan, but impossible to become an atheist.
My faith is God is non-negotiable. Sure, I will go to my grave with questions I don’t understand about God, but to me, that’s what real faith is anyway.
And I’ve already been living the vegan lifestyle for nearly 4 years.
I’ve “been there, done that” when it comes to answer the vegan question.
But what do you think? What’s your answer?
Assuming you’re not already an atheist or agnostic, or vegetarian or vegan…
Which would be more difficult: To become an atheist or a vegan?
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