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Dear Jack: I Can Walk You to School Now That I’m a Stay-at-Home Dad Who Works from Home

7 years, 1 months.

Dear Jack,

We can literally see your school from our back yard, that’s our close we are to it. Granted, we live inside of a neighborhood, which is inside another neighborhood, which is inside a neighborhood. Therefore, it actually takes longer to drive you to school than it does to walk you there.

So when weather permits, and on the days you don’t have a particular Pokemon card trade set up with a friend on the bus, I have been walking you to school.

It’s just about a 5 minute walk, as we don’t necessarily have to walk along roads or sidewalks to get there.

I enjoy walking you to school. Not only it is a fun way to spend some time together in a new way, but it also forces us both to get some fresh air and exercise in the cold winter months.

Getting to walk you to school was never an option for me before I started working from home. But now, as your sister is at her school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, that gives us two times each week we are able to walk to your school.

While I definitely wouldn’t have chosen for my entire branch at work to be shut down two months ago, therefore forcing me to rely on our family saving money on daycare for you and your sister full-time, I can’t deny that there are many little advantages of not driving 45 minutes to an office every morning.

You and I get more quality time together now. I never thought I’d be able to walk my son to school. I just always assumed as a dad, that would never be one of my roles.

But fortunately, I was wrong about that. I am very grateful that I could be wrong.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: You are My 2nd Cousin’s Doppelganger (The Shell Gene)

1 year, 8 months.

Dear Holly,

I am a person who is amazed by genetics. This is obvious by the fact I have a 2nd YouTube channel dedicated exclusively to this topic.

Therefore, I couldn’t help but notice a while back, that you happen to look a whole lot like my 2nd cousin, Miranda, who was born in December 1990.

She also was born with the last name, Shell; which is fading out in our family tree. Other than your brother, and other than Miranda’s brother, there are no other Shell boys to potentially carry on the family name.

That is, unless Mommy and I have another child and it’s a boy, but we have no plans of that at this time.

So while it has always seemed unlikely that Mommy and I would have 2 children with blonde hair and blue eyes, based on our own darker features, I can begin to understand the true Shell gene has revealed itself in you, and it has my 2nd cousin.

It just so happens that over Christmas, I did a video revealing Papa’s DNA test results from 23andMe, and we learned he is 99% Northwest European.

Though he shows about 25% German, which explains our last name, the rest of his DNA is British.

I think it is remarkable to notice the similarity, when comparing pictures of you and Miranda at similar ages.

We’ll see if over time you keep the Shell look. After all, I have seen how your brother’s hair and skin tone has become darker over the features; though his eyes have remained blue the entire time.

You are proof of the lighter featured genes in our family tree. Even though you’ll eventually get married and change your last name from Shell, you will apparently keep and pass on the otherwise somewhat hidden Shell features.

Love,

Daddy

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I Used Rosemary Essential Oil for Hair Loss for 12 Months and This is What Happened…

I am a YouTuber who accidentally stumbled into the underground world of men’s hair loss. I realized it was a niche for me and ran with it.

By listening to my subscribers, I learned there was a demand for a normal guy like me to publicly experiment with rosemary oil, in an attempt to see if it would slow down, stop, or even reverse my hair loss.

My level of hair loss is fairly minimal. I am considered on the Norwood scale as a Norwood 2.5 Vertex, meaning I’m between Adam Levine and Heath Ledger, with some minor thinning.

I was the perfect candidate to test out the rosemary oil on my public forum. I wanted my subscribers to see the progress, if any, happen in real time over the course of a year. So that’s exactly what I did.

Here’s me on Christmas Day, 2016:

And now here’s me exactly one year later, on Christmas Day 2017:

I wasn’t interested in making the judgement call myself. I left it up to my nearly 2700 subscribers to determine whether the rosemary oil had any kind of effect on my hair.

The slight majority of my viewers determined the rosemary oil was indeed effective in at least preventing further hair loss:

turtleslayer turtleman 2 days ago
I definitely think your hair is thicker!
Hardy Jean 2 days ago
Your hair’s looking thicker than before sir… Looking great 👌
Andrew Kelly 1 day ago (edited)
I so believe it is aiding you in maintaining your hairline, in conjunction with your diet.
Robert 1 day ago
The most interesting twist here is that you’ll continue using the rosemary, given your “baldness advocating,” skepticism of hair loss treatments, not wanting to be a “slave” to any product, often-expressed desire to go bald, etc. It’s helped you retain the hair you have and slowed down the balding process, imo. How long will it remain effective? Only time will tell.

The irony of this experiment, as pointed out in the comment above, is that one of the main themes of my channel is that I constantly remind my viewers that my hair does not define my identity or my confidence level. So if indeed the rosemary oil experiment was successful, it serves as a bit of a paradox for a guy who ultimately doesn’t care if he goes bald.

Hey, I’m 36. I’m amazed I still even have hair. I always assumed I’d be bald by 35.

So after 12 months of applying rosemary oil, was it effective? You be the judge.

And in case you’re interested in trying out some shampoo that contains some of the oils I use everyday, here’s a link to Amazon.

Christmas 2016

Christmas 2017

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Stay-at-Home Dad 101: Christmas is Over, Yet I’m Still Home with the Kids

In a normal version of reality, I would be back in my office today. My wife and I would be paying for our kids to be in day care all day, or we would have left our kids at my parents’ house all week while the daycare was closed.

But now, there’s no need. Because… Daddy’s home!

Not only do my kids get to just hang out here in the aftermath of their Christmas gifts as my wife returned to work today, but I myself don’t have to return to an office and force a smile while I have to answer everyone’s annoying questions about how my Christmas was.

I am also grateful that I didn’t have to negotiate with co-workers, leading up to Christmas, which of us would have to work certain days. Where I worked, it was normal that at least one person from each department would have to consider working certain days either on or immediately following holidays.

Now that I am completely removed from that setting, none of it matters anymore. My schedule is now exclusively based around the two young children; one of whom can pretty much take care of himself.

I am still soaking it all in; to experience the days in between the Christmas holidays and the days before day cares open back, with my kids.

It’s funny because when I first adopted my new role as stay-at-home dad, I don’t suppose I really considered that I would be completely replacing child day care during the holidays as well during the summer. Somehow, that part caught me by surprise a little.

But it’s no big deal. I can take care of my own kids all day long. All week long. All summer long.

It’s easier to take care of two kids than it is to take care of adults, actually.

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Dear Jack: You Were Completely Fascinated by Visiting Santa

7 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack,

I must say that after celebrating 7 Christmases with you, this has so far been the most exciting for me to see you anticipate. Yes, that’s right… I get excited to so you so excited!

The best way I could word it, is that this year, you took your visit with Santa so seriously, that you nearly treated it as a business transaction.

You knew you must depend on him seeing your wish list and that your presentation may have an affect you actually getting what you asked for. On your list, you specifically wrote on your paper:

Hatchimal

Halo sets

Pokemon

You were truly on your best behavior. I’d even go as far as to say you were the most polite, well-behaved child in that room.

And as your sister became frightened by Santa, as she doesn’t understand who he is, the way you do, you were there to help calm her down.

However, I’m sure Santa must have been a little confused as to how he’s supposed to bring you more Pokemon cards, when you already seem to have them all! Oh well, we will just have to let him sort that one out.

As we were leaving, I discreetly asked you, “Jack, was that the real Santa?”

You immediately replied, “Yes. You could tell because his beard was attached to his face and he had long hair.”

To you, there was no question about it. Not only was that the real Santa, but you definitely believe in him. Similarly, you still have just as much imagination and faith to hope that Pokemon characters are real, too.

So I know this is going to be one of your favorite Christmases. It’s so much fun when you have so much to believe in… and so many Pokemon cards to expect underneath the tree!

Love,

Daddy