You and I have a special “father and daughter” bond. It’s undeniable.
By nature, I am not a needy person. I don’t “need” people to “like” me to feel good about myself. Otherwise I would be like Michael Scott or Andy Bernard on The Office.
I can accept that the world doesn’t revolve around me.
But I will admit- you have an effortless way of making me feel wanted and needed.
It’s in subtle ways, like when you come home from school everyday, you immediately run to my “office” at the kitchen table and yell “Daddy!” before engaging in a monologue about whatever accidentally hilarious story you have to tell me about school that day.
The “Post COVID Summer”- I guess? Now that we’re half way through June, it feels like the general reaction is that people are caring less about the pandemic; based on the news channels changing their focus on the next topic they want us to freak out about…
We’ve already traveled as a family to Florida this summer, and you get to go again next week with Nonna and Papa; so you are definitely having a vacation of a summer.
But at the same time, we just learned that as of today, your week of summer camp just got cancelled due to the owner of the camp getting COVID.
So yeah, it’s a weird summer. I don’t know what to believe.
But ultimately, I’m doing my best to help you have a good time and feel like a pre-4th grader! After all, you’re already spending much of your summer locked up in our house, as Mommy works from home upstairs, while I occupy the downstairs working from the kitchen table.
Now that you’re 9 and a half, it’s an age where I am doing my best to be mindful of sorting out the balance between what’s too “babyish” for you, versus what is inappropriate because it’s too heavy on the PG-13 side of things.
You surprised me recently with your actions, not your words. You taught me that you are still at a crucial age when you want to hold my hand, as a symbol of feeling close to me during father-and-son activities.
A couple of weeks ago when our family was at the beach, you and I had a daily routine of wading out into the crashes waves. You reached out for my hand the moment we took the first step into the water- every time.
But that makes sense. Those were pretty rough waves.
However, this past weekend I insisted on taking a walk at a nearby trail; just you and me.
The moment we stepped out of the Jeep, simply stepping off the asphalt of the parking lot onto the grass, well before the trail even began, you insisted:
“Here… Daddy.”
You reached out your hand to me and didn’t let go during that whole hour-long, very sweaty, hike.
Growing up, I would see in movies, TV shows, and commercials where the young girl character just loved having tea parties. I always thought, “That’s not really how little girls act. They don’t really like to pretend to have tea…”
But now that you’re here, I have learned it’s not just some random cliche.
It’s real.
Here’s proof from our recent family vacation to Florida.
Pretty much all of your play time when we were in our condo was devoted to you carefully and meticulously arranging all the coffee pods on a plate, then serving them to us.
This past weekend, while we went out for time at Cracker Barrel, you saw a $4 set of miniature tea cups and dishes.
Mommy and I couldn’t say no.
Then back at the house as soon as you got home, you spent a solid 30 minutes pretending to pour tea in the tiny cups. I sneaked up and pretending to quickly gulp one down.
I loved the look on your face, as I could easily read exactly what was going through your head:
“Okay, so that is good that Daddy drank the tea and liked it, but now I do need to make some more so there is enough to refill that cup…”
That is what it’s like to be a 4 year-old little girl.
Over six months ago now, back on November 16th, 2019, my son turned 9 years old. To my own surprise (still to this day), I agreed to let him get a male Syrian hamster as a pet.
Obviously, that meant that on November 16th, 2019, my son didn’t become the proud new owner of a pet hamster. Instead, I became the extremely reluctant new owner of a pet hamster.
After the first couple of weeks, during the initial 30 days period where the pet store would allow us to get a full refund, my son officially decided he wanted to take his birthday present. My son wasn’t attached and he didn’t want the responsibility.
But I just couldn’t do that to the little guy… I am referring to the hamster, here.
So I did some research on YouTube and learned what I needed to know to be a good hamster dad.
I bought a 20 gallon aquarium, instead of the stupid plastic toy one we originally bought. I taught myself how to hand-tame the hamster. I learned the importance of helping the hamster live in a feng shui environment; regularly placing new cardboard boxes in the his tank, and hiding food throughout his home.
And of course, I take him out every evening when when he wakes up, to play with him. (Syrian hamsters are nocturnal.)
To me, it’s undeniable I have become the best hamster dad in the state of Tennessee.
So it only made sense that I should use some of my “birthday budget” (my wife and I are faithful Dave Ramsey followers) to buy a t-shirt to express how proud I am to be a hamster dad.
On Amazon, I found this really cool one that has a man and a hamster fist bumping, with the caption reading, Best Friends for Life.
There’s a built-in joke in there: Syrian hamsters typically only live to be 2 or 3 years old.
So my goal is to celebrate these next couple of years and give this hamster the best life a hamster can have!
If you want to buy a hamster t-shirt like mine, just click here to find the best deal on Amazon, like I did.
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