Dear Jack: You’ve Decided to Play Football

13 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

Within the first couple of days of 8th grade at your new school in Alabama, you were approached by some of your new friends, as well as the coach, to play on the football team.

You instantly decided that is what you are going to do.

So I took you to Hibbett Sports to let you pick out some cleats and a solid mouth guard.

Naturally, for the mouth guard, you chose one that is sour watermelon Warheads flavored.

(Because that is a thing that actually exists.)

I did my best to turn you into a guitar-playing songwriter like me.

It just didn’t stick.

Sure, play football instead.

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: Your Interest in Performing Music

8 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

Despite me giving your brother a standing offer to teach him how to play guitar, met by him continually choosing other hobbies instead, you will apparently be my child who actually shares an interest in performing music.

It appears that you and your cousin Darla have now formed a pop duo. (An official name has yet to be determined.)

She plays the ukulele while you take care of lead vocals. You both share the responsibility of songwriting.

I am so proud, and relieved, to know that at least one of my children will carry on the music legacy in our family.

Love,

Daddy

On My Wife’s 43rd Birthday, Looking Back on When We Were in Our 20s

As we still continue to “pare down” our belongings from the move to Alabama, I came across a stack of the customized calendars I would make for my wife and I each month to keep at our desks at work, back during the first decade of the 2000’s.

It’s funny to think that there were a couple of years before we were married, before I started blogging, running my YouTube channel, and regularly writing new songs, that I would instead use my creativity to craft monthly calendars featuring pictures of what we had done together the month before.

Today my wife joins me in turning 43 years old. (I’m 113 days older than her.)

It has been interesting to look back through these now “old” photos of us when we were in our 20s! I was 27 and she was about to turn 27 when we got married in 2008.

These calendars stopped before we ever reached our 30s; in the 2010s. Two reasons: One is because we became parents at age 29. The other is that I began focusing on my role as Parents magazine’s daddy blogger.

So much has happened in our lives since I stopped making these calendars. We lived through our entire 30s- and as of today, we are a third of our way through our 40s.

Through all the stress that came with putting our Tennessee home on the market this year, finding a new home in Alabama, and making the move across state lines, it’s really rewarding to be able to stop for a minute and look through these old pictures of us.

It’s like I’m able to see our lives together from a 3rd party’s perspective looking in:

“Wow, we’ve shared an amazing life together so far. This is really nice. We both made a really good choice when we chose each other back in 2007.”

Happy Birthday Jill!

 

Dear Holly: Your Brother Now Tolerates Your Affection?

8 years, 2 months.

Dear Holly,

I took nearly 500 pictures of our family on vacation this past week in Oregon.

Surprisingly, in one of them, I was able to capture a glimpse of your brother tolerating your affection, in the form of you hanging onto his arm.

Though his body language appeared somewhat detached, the fact that he allowed you to cling onto him was basically the equivalent of him actually saying out loud:

“I love you, too.”

I have watched for the past few years how you have officially longed for his approval.

Looks like you’re getting there.

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Dogs Always Find Their Way to You

13 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

One of our first stops on our family vacation trip to Oregon this summer was when we checked out Thor’s Well in Yachats.

As I stood back and took pictures of you exploring the area, I thought to myself, “What? Where did that dog come from?”

But then I reminded myself: Dogs instinctively see you as one of their own kind.

Later on in the week while visiting the town of Florence, our family took a walk out to the coast after dinner one night. As we reached closer to the water, a dog jumped in to fetch a big stick his owner had just thrown in.

The dog looked up at his owner, but then he saw you. He made the executive decision to run up to you to give you the stick to throw in the water.

I would be amazed, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Your spirit animal is clearly a Labrador Retriever.

Love,

Daddy