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

 

 

 

 

Add a Comment

January 25, 2014 at 7:27 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack,

I love your artwork.

Just look at this magnificent piece you created recently, which you simply entitled Bones; where you were instructed to place spiral noodles where your bones are and yarn for where your hair is.

Here’s my favorite part: You recognized that there was no reason to use any yarn for hair as all your classmates did.

You understood that because I “buzz” you every month or so with a #2 guard on the clippers, you don’t have enough hair to show it in the picture you made of yourself.

Meanwhile, all your other friends in the class, who happen to have a lot more hair than you, did use the yarn;  some to excess.

I cracked up when I saw your friend Porter’s self-portrait. According to the yarn he used, he has hair down to his fingers; when really, his hair isn’t even down to his eyebrows.

And your friend, Madison, who I recently had to instruct you to stop calling an eyeball…

In her rendition of herself, she has the Pippi Longstocking thing going on.

Your recent piece of art shows me your sense of self-awareness. It took Bones to show me that you are able to recognize yourself from a 3^rd person perspective.

I like how when you see yourself in front of a mirror and I ask you that is, you always smile and curiously say, “Jack.”

It’s almost as if you see yourself from that 3^rd person perspective but are still somewhat confused in the connection of version of yourself to the 1^st person perspective.

Hey, I know the feeling.

Something I am definitely aware of is that I have trouble connecting who I think I am to who I really am. I want them to be the same, and in theory they are, but I’m never fully convinced.

“I think therefore I am” is not as easy as it sounds.

But when you involve noodles and yarn, it somehow is easier to understand.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

January 23, 2014 at 9:42 pm , by Nick Shell

January 16, 2014 at 10:13 pm , by Nick Shell