Storytelling

5 Comments Posted on Nostalgia, parenting, Spirituality, Storytelling

A Dad’s Letter To His Son On His 2nd Birthday

November 16, 2012 at 12:03 am , by 

Two years!

Dear Jack,

I know you still won’t be able to read this for a couple of more years, but I wanted to write you a Happy Birthday message on your 2nd birthday anyway.

Since your Mommy and I found out we were having you, back in April 2010, I have been writing a blog entry at least once a week, and often once a day.

The rest of the world has had access to virtually every moment of your process of growing up, but the words were mainly written for the rest of the world.

However, this is just for you. I’ve never written directly to you, until now, on your 2nd birthday.

This day is especially monumental for me. It signifies you officially leaving the days of being a baby and entering the days of being a little boy.

I noticed recently you started calling me “Daddy” now, instead of “Dada.”

Right now as I look at your picture of you holding your birthday balloons and wearing your necktie, which you very willingly wore to be like me, I am so proud of you and love you so much that… it comes out in the form of sadness, somehow.

Everybody told me not to rush any stage of your life. I tried not to.

Of course, the younger you were, the more difficult being a dad was. I was so clueless, even a year ago.

I’ll never forget when you turned 15 months old. That was the first time you really asked for me. That was the first time you wouldn’t cry if Mommy left the room.

Since then, I could tell so obviously that you wanted me and that you loved me.

So while I’ll try not to rush your life along too quickly, I have to admit, I love seeing you grow up.

The older you get and the more you come to life, the stronger of a connection I feel with you. I’m pretty sure it’s a father/son thing.

I love taking way too many pictures of you. I love writing about all the funny things you do and say.

I love you, son. So much.

Though you probably never see me cry, if you could be here right now as I write this, you would see a 31-year-old man who can barely keep himself together.

It’s funny- I didn’t cry a single tear the night you were born. You were just a strange baby who couldn’t talk. My job at that point was basically just to keep you alive.

But today, I can’t hold back the tears for anything. This is the first time I’ve simply been overwhelmed by my love for you.

What most fathers seem to experience the day their son is born, I guess I’m experiencing right now. To me, this is you being born.

That’s because you and I have gotten to the point now where I can actually see my influence over you. Like with wanting to wear the necktie, you want to be like me.

Man. That humbles me and breaks me. Thank you.

Thank you for being my son. I can’t thank God enough for you.

Today you will receive gifts from Mommy and me: some metal trains and tracks to ride them on.

I know you’ll really like them. You’ll carry around your trains with you everywhere you go. But eventually, they’ll be at the bottom of some drawer.

What I will remember most about your 2nd birthday is the way I feel about you right now. And that’s why I’m writing you this letter. I want to be able to capture what I’m feeling right now. That’s what I think is the best gift I can give you today.

Maybe it’s a dad thing, or maybe it’s just me, but in the likeness of a learning curve, I’ve had a “loving curve” with you.

Two years into this, I am experiencing love for you that I have never felt for anyone in my life. So different than the way I love your Mommy.

The love I have for you is wrapped up in some unspoken bond I can’t quite express in words right now. But I promise you I will spend the rest of my life trying to.

Happy Birthday, Son. I love you with all I have.

 

Love,
Daddy

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A Nice Civilized Family Meal At The Kitchen Table… With a Toddler

November 12, 2012 at 11:35 pm , by 

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People Watching At The Neighborhood Playground

November 12, 2012 at 10:21 pm , by 

23 months.

I am a self-proclaimed “people watcher.” To be honest, I’m never not people watching.

It’s like every person is a character and every conversation is a plot line. Basically, life is a non-stop sitcom.

This afternoon while at the neighborhood playground with my son, a young playmate approached a fellow parent nearby:

“Hi, my name is [let’s just call him Michael] and I am 4 years old.”

The kid sounded like he was trying out for a Welch’s grape juice commercial in 1995.

A few minutes later, the kid introduces himself to me too. I smiled and said, “Nice to meet you.” Then I turned away to help my own son down the slide.

“Two more minutes and then we’re going home,” I heard the boy’s mother say to him.

Exactly two minutes later, she followed up on her promise: “Okay, time to go now. I told you two minutes ago.”

He pretended not to hear her, so she pretended to leave the playground without him.

And his response?

“NO! No, no, no! NO! I DO NOT like you anymore, Mommy!”

So the irony in this people watching scene was that the little boy who appeared to be a well-mannered child ended up morphing minutes later into “that kid.”

But hey, who’s not to say that my son seemed weird to other parents there at the playground?

After all, he was the kid who illegally went down the slide backwards, about 27 times in a row. (I was so proud of that little goober!)

Not to mention, what about me? I’m the dad who stands at the top of the slide to assist my son once he climbs up there, making sure he doesn’t fall off the 6 foot drop.

Perhaps to other people watchers, being my son’s personal stunt coach seems odd in what is considered normal and appropriate for parents at the playground.

That’s why it’s fun to people watch. You get to see a lot of interesting people do a lot of curious things. Likewise, you get to entertain others who think you are an interesting person doing curious things.

On second thought, maybe that’s not a good thing.

 

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New Parenting Studies Show Toddlers Like Cake and Candy

November 10, 2012 at 2:53 pm , by 

23 months.

Call it a trend. Call it a common trait of the children of Generation Y. Call it what you like:

Studies are consistently showing that when given the chance to eat cake or candy over vegetables, toddlers are choosing the sweets every time.

Nick Shell, a father of a 23-month-old son, expands on the phenomenon:

“With my son Jack’s 2nd birthday coming up next week, we received a large padded envelope from my sister-in-law in Pennsylvania. My son was so excited to open the package after hearing my wife and me tell him it was for his birthday,” Shell explains.

“It’s not that he was disappointed with his new outfit or his die cast metal Thomas the Train toy, but for about ten minutes after opening the package, he continued looking around the room for the cake he assumed came with the package too.”

Raising his son in a lifestyle of strict vegetarianism and avoidance of processed foods, even juice, the toddler boy had never really eaten candy up until last week at Halloween.

“We were so proud of Jack for eating his green beans after dinner last night that we rewarded him with some leftover Halloween M&M’s. After the first few, he kept resonding, ‘I try? I try again.’

Shell goes on to tell that after his son saw a package box of cake mix in the car ride home from the grocery store, his son Jack insisted of holding the box tightly to his chest.

Jack soon began crying when he opened the box to find there was not actually prepared cake inside, but instead only the cake mix.

Little Jack Shell is only one of many toddlers out there who has a slight obsession with sugary foods.

So the next time you hear of a toddler throwing a tantrum because they can’t have a Snickers bar at the grocery store check-out, don’t be surprised.

This sort of thing is happening a lot these days. It’s official:

Toddlers have a sweet tooth.

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Reading Conflicting Religious Post-Election Facebook Comments!

November 7, 2012 at 11:42 pm , by 

23 months.

Yes, I actually voted. Because we all know Tennessee is a major swing state and my one single vote made the defining difference.

The truth is, the main reason I voted is actually because I would have a low self-esteem for the rest of my life if I knew I let an election go by and I didn’t go through the slightly annoying trouble of going out and voting.

It may sound a bit strange that the major motivating force behind me voting was to establish a consistent record for my son to see as he eventually gets old enough to understand the voting process.

But that’s exactly what happened on Election Day.

I want to be able to tell my son that my political beliefs are so strong that I have actually voted in every election since I was 18. So far, so good.

In the quick years it will take him to eventually upgrade from his Thomas the Train trike to his first real car, I will be setting a major example for him everyday along the way.

Basically, I want to brainwash, I mean, teach him the principles of why I support the political stance that I do. And I want to back it up with my actions.

It’s a pet peeve of mine to hear people complain that “they took prayer out of schools” when it’s our jobs as parents to teach our children to pray, in our homes.

Similarly, I get annoyed when people make a big deal about The Ten Commandments not being in courthouses when interestingly, those same people usually can’t even name all ten anyway. Again, if the Ten Commandments were so important to us, we would already memorize and apply them to our lives, teaching them to our children as well.

We wouldn’t need the government’s help in making our faith a powerful thing. Because our faith would be strong enough from the inside to radically change the outside.

I love reading religious post-election Facebook comments. They make me literally LOL, and that’s not a phrase I use lightly.

It’s like half of the post-election Facebook comments say something like, “Thank God! Hallelujah! Obama has been re-elected. Now the women, minorities, gays, and poor will continue to be cared for!”

The other half seems to read something like this: “Start praying for America! Obama being re-elected has officially begun fast-forwarding our nation into the Rapture!”

Here’s the funny and obvious thing I have to point out:

About half of the voters on my news feed who identify as Christians and who post on Facebook about it seem to be Democrats. The other half seems to be Republican.

Our nation will always be about 50% liberal leaning, 50% conservative leaning. Every couple of election terms, the undecided voters and swing states decide to switch back the other way for everyone else.

If suddenly 80% of the population converted to being Democrats, then by default the Democratic party would split into a more conservative and a more liberal sect. Same thing if Republicans became the majority. They’d still split.

Naturally, we find a way to make it to where we have a choice; where we find a side of the fence to relate. There is no easy middle, in order for our political system to work the way it has for so long. We evidently do better with checks and balances.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans are evil or stupid, even as some Facebook comments seem to relay.

I just know I can’t live the rest of my life thinking that half of the population is always wrong. Otherwise, my son would also begin to think that about the American population too.

To think that would simply be wrong; not to mention evil and stupid.