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Dear Jack: The Card Trading Convention with Uncle Andrew

12 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack,

As Uncle Andrew has been looking into trading some of his old sports cards, he thought of you when he decided to go to the card trading convention last weekend.

You proudly brought your old Pokemon cards in a huge binder, to use as potential trading currency.

Mommy and I also gave you a 20 dollar bill, to make things a little more fun.

You ended up selling two of your Pokemon cards to some randown grown man, for $35.

Therefore, you were able to buy several other cards and cars that you saw there, without even needing the $20 we gave you.

Which, speaking of… I’m not sure you got that 20 dollar bill back from you!

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: You Wrote Your First Book This Month, Just Like Me!

6 years, 11 months.

Dear Holly,

This month has been a big one. After you watched me work so hard over the past four months, I have now officially written my first book.

Of course, now we need to wait on the editing and publishing process.

Knowing how much you love drawing, coloring, and making artistic crafts, I suggested you write your own book.

I simply suggested the title to you: Bouncing Babies Jumping over the Rainbow.

You took care of the rest: the entire story as well as the illustrations.

I was so proud of you, as you read your story to me.

A few days later, you came home from school with a paper declaring, “My family is worth more than gold because they say that my drawings are very very good.”

I’ve already given you your next idea for a book: Bouncing Babies Meet the Ewoks.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Experimental Slime Surgery

12 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack,

On Sunday afternoons, I have learned to keep the camera ready, as I never know what kind of wacky way you might find to entertain yourself and your sister.

You decided to compile all the slime, ever, on our kitchen table; and then, using scissors, you performed surgery on the thing.

Some of the slime was bought in a store. Some was home-made, based on kits you received as gifts. Some slime had little bumpy morsels in it.

When combined, it became a magical and disgusting blob.

A great time was had by all!

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: You Apparently Now Have the Official Junior High Haircut…

12 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack,

This Saturday, we are going to do something we haven’t done since your sister was nearly a baby: We are going to get family photos made, by someone other than me, my tripod, and the self-timer on my camera.

Therefore, to prepare, I took you to Great Clips to get a fresh haircut, which you desperately needed. This time around, you mentioned to the lady cutting your hair that you wanted it a bit different compared to normal.

I didn’t follow what you were describing… something about a “flip”.

Another dad who was waiting for his son’s haircut happened to overhear the conversation and chimed in: “Just go to any junior high school around here. You’ll see it. I call it ‘the flippy-do’…”

You were very pleased with the results. Over the past week, I have silently observed how Mommy has been teaching you to use a curling iron, so that your bangs flip up the right way.

I think your new hairstyle only confirms the fact that you look like the boy version of the Chelsea doll.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Our Favorite Book to Read Together Has Always Been…

6 years, 10 months.

Dear Holly,

I was so surprised to look back this week and realize:

Somehow, I’ve never mentioned that your entire life, there has been a very special book we have always had a special bond reading together.

It is the reason that every night after I put you to bed, I always walk backwards out of your room, and put my finger over my lips… and then you do it back to me.

That’s because we are imitating the gorilla in the book Good Night, Gorilla.

Only recently did I actually realize how few words the book actually contains. Yet still, we have both always been captivated by the progression of the story, based mainly on just the pictures.

Over the years, we have noticed little Easter Eggs; like how multiple people start showing up in the windows of the neighbors’ houses, how the mouse carries the banana with him throughout the story, and how the balloon is in nearly every page, even if you can barely see it as a speck in the sky.

Good Night, Gorilla was written in 1994; so I was 13 when it came out. In other words, I didn’t grow up with it as a kids’ book.

But I am happy that you and I can share it together!

 

Love,

Daddy