March 24, 2014 at 7:43 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack,

I never in my life thought I’d be so happy about getting a new dishwasher.

One of the assumed roles as the modern dad and father, I have found, is that he takes care of cleaning up all the dishes.

Actually, it would be a foreign concept for me to think that I, as a modern-day American dad, could still be considered a “good husband and father” if I didn’t take care of the dishes everyday he’s…

Or at least some similiar equivalent time-consuming household chore, like laundry or cooking.

At least, that’s my version of reality. I’ve yet to speak to, or even hear of, or watch a stand-up comedian on Netflix (like Tom Papa or Don Friesen), who is a husband and father who is in a “happy household” who doesn’t do the dishes (or an equivalent chore) pretty much on a daily basis.

In all the confusion these days of what roles a modern dad is supposed to assume, “dish duty” is a given for me personally. It’s a way I know I can easily help out our family.

With that being said, our dishwasher has been broken since September.

That means for over 5 months now, I have been washing, and drying, all of our dishes by hand.

And we use a lot of dishes at our house.

Because we have a plant-based diet, Mommy uses the food processor and I often use the juicer, on top of all our normal dishes and utensils.

This is the first time since September that I will have at least 30 more minutes more of “free time” each night that I will be able to use to get more work done… because, we bought a new dishwasher! (During the cheap time of the month, of course.)

My experience as a parent equates free time with work… from other household chores to career enchancing opportunities; but if I’m lucky, catching up with friends.

So yeah, this is a big deal! We now have a working dishwasher!

This is like Christmas.

Saturday when the delivery man came to our house in his big white truck, you were eager to talk to him. Actually, you started with a song:

“I said a hip hop… and you don’t stop.”

This is because Mommy and I finally saw the hilarious Brian Williams/Lester Holt version of Rapper’s Delight:

So you were eager to teach the dishwasher installer guy your new song that you’ve been hearing your parents do all week long.

He was impressed.

You went on to tell him about, and show him, your new 1972 Rachero lowrider Hot Wheel car from Kroger. And as you can see from these pictures, you also had some questions for him as you observed from just a few feet away:

“What’s under there?”

And… “Where are you taking our old dishwasher?”

Talking to strangers isn’t always a bad thing. If I’m there with you, it’s okay.

The thing is, I’m pretty big on talking to strangers, so I’m sure you’re picking up that habit from me.

Love,

Daddy

P.S. Read the entire Talking To Strangers series:

 Part 1: The Dishwasher Man

Part 2: The Talking Dog

Part 3: The Kohl’s Incident

 

February 10, 2014 at 9:15 pm , by Nick Shell

3 months, 2 months.

Dear Jack,

Something I will take pride in is teaching you how to dress appropriately. For example, when you want to impress (or intimidate) someone, wear a necktie.

My (secret) goal is to always “outdress” every other man in the room; particularly in the office. I blame it on the Italian in me.

However, there are certain times in life where that conceptcompletely doesn’t matter at all. The most obvious exception is when you go to Walmart.

Son, you can pretty much wear whatever you want when we go there. I have found the culture there to be extremely accepting.

And that’s exactly what happened last weekend. As Mommy and I are preparing to buy a house later this year, we are prepping our current townhouse to rent. We needed to check out the selection on toilet seat covers- and on a rainy Saturday night, Walmart was the perfect place.

Oh, and of course, we let you have a 98 cent Hot Wheels car and an 88 cent container of bright blue Play-Doh.

With it being all rainy day, you had been in your PJs for most of it. So we figured, why make you change?

After all, considering there is a website called People Of Walmart, which functions as a collection of “the best of the worst dressed” who are secretly photographed by other customers, I figured no one would give you a second look if we carried you around in your doggie pajamas.

I was right. You fit right in.

No need to wear a necktie to Walmart, in other words. But even if you did, I still don’t think you’d get a second look from anyone.

Everyone is accepted just as they are at Walmart. There’s nothing pretentious about it.

Sometimes, that’s actually pretty refreshing.

 

Love, Daddy

February 9, 2014 at 12:42 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack,

Yesterday Mommy and I took you toShipwrecked, your favorite indoor playground, to hang out with your best friend Sophie on such a snowy Saturday morning.

As usual, you drove around the Lightning McQueen pedal car like a grumpy old man; cutting through the paths of other happy kids.

I stood in the middle of the place, keeping an eye on you from afar.

There you were, collecting random toy “relics” in the back of your car. (Reference to The Lego Movie we saw yesterday.)

It was hilarious to me: You didn’t speak to, or even smile at, any of the other kids as you drove through their neighborhood of the playground to pick up a few random toys… like a pink toaster.

One older girl handed you a plastic banana; which you promptly accepted as if it were simply understood as business as usual.

You even swooped by the giant dollhouse to snatch the tiny potty.

And then, you visited the costume room, to pick up your rarest find: a pink poodle costume, the one Sophie wore when you were Barney the dinosaur.

I didn’t think much of it; I just figured it was part of your collection.

So it caught me off guard when you pulled up to me, stopped the car, and started putting on the pink poodle costume backwards.

All with a stoic look on your face and speaking no words.

Naturally, I didn’t want you to feel embarassed, so I helped you put on the pink poodle costume the right way.

But then I realized you were a bit too tall for it.

So you ended up wearing it like a hoodie for about 20 seconds; before you decided to take it off and start chasing down Sophie in a vintage 1970′s car chase.

(More on that in an upcoming letter.)

So, I will close by pointing out an observation that I find… pretty interesting.

You wore a pink poodle costume while also wearing a “Dad is my hero” shirt.

I would like an explanation here.

I’m sure there’s an interesting psychological explanation in there somewhere. Hmm.

How is your relationship with your father?…

 

Love,

Daddy

 

 

 

 

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