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Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

27 weeks.

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

Dear Holly,

As I mentioned last week, you received a Graco RoomFor2 stroller, from Mommy’s registry at Target. Well, we unboxed it this weekend and your brother Jack already started putting it to use.

Not the actual stroller, but its unattached wheels.

He immediately began using them as cannons for Pandy to shoot across the living. Soon after, his panda bear collected an army of other stuffed animals to help shoot the artillery.

From there, Jack insisted a make a video of him racing his cars, so I did. As you can see in the video, by this point it was Ellie the Elephant who was using the stroller tires as markers for the race track.

https://familyfriendlydaddyblog.com/2016/01/21/dear-holly-your-brother-jack-is-playing-with-your-toys-already/

That night, Jack went ahead and also broke out your new bath toys, which are a gift from some friends we met for lunch on Sunday.

So I’m thinking this is going to be a reoccurring thing. In the upcoming 3 months before you are born, Jack will inspect and test out any of your new toys or gadgets that could possibility provide entertainment and engagement for him.

I suppose it won’t hurt anything. After all, it’s not like your’re going to be aware of whether or not your new belongings were “lightly used” beforehand.

And I think it’s good for your brother Jack because he gets to be more involved with your arrival.

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

He can truly feel a part of what’s going on. It’s important to me he doesn’t feel left out or overshadowed once you get here.

I want to proactively do my best to give you both equal, yet separate and unique, attention and quality time.

Because of the 5 and a half year difference between the two of you, I think it will be fairly easy.

I won’t be catering to 2 babies, but instead, one baby and one boy. Those are two different worlds, as far as I’m concerned.

However, it has become apparent that despite your age difference, you’ll both be sharing your toys.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: Your Brother Jack is Playing with Your Toys, Already

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Kids’ Show: Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest- Webisodes 12 & 13: Beanie the Bat and Petey the Possum

Kids’ Show: Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest- Webisodes 12 & 13: Beanie the Bat and Petey the Possum

As part of my plan to quickly build the library of my newest web series, Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Kingdom, I am now shooting new webisodes during my lunch breaks at work.

One of my coworkers just happens to be one of my most faithful watchers, so I didn’t really have to twist his arm in order to convince him to be my camera man/assistant director on these “during our lunch break at work” video shoots.

Last Thursday, we shot two new webisodes; during one 60 minute period.

First is “Webisode 12: Beanie the Bat”, where Uncle Nick serves as a real estate agent to a bat who likes to live in trees; with a sort of “House Hunters: Animal Edition” style of plot line.

During the shoot, I sliced my hand on the tree I was climbing. I just wrote it into the script.

The other webisode we filmed is “Webisode 13: Petey the Possum.” There is no doubt this is one of the most stand-out webisodes of Uncle Nick.

Very close to where I work, there is a drain tunnel the same height as me. I decided it would make the perfect setting. I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Not only do I feel the plot line is captivating, but the tunnel itself is intriguing because it’s a rare event to get a tour down into something so mysterious.

I’ll say this; I wouldn’t be willing to walk in there alone.

So now I can make videos throughout the week, instead of having to just wait for the weekend.

I feel my Uncle Nick series has so much potential and that kids would really like it if they watched it. But for now, it remains undiscovered in the corner of YouTube.

But that doesn’t stop me from continuing to grow my collection.

Uncle Nick has plenty more up his sleeve!

Here’s an overview of what some previous webisodes are about:

Webisode 7: Paulie the Puppy– When Uncle Nick decides to hike a new trail, it leads him to an empty old building and a mysterious barking sound.

Webisode 8: Pokey the Pot-Bellied Pig– Uncle Nick must figure out a way to cross the river to save the little pot-bellied pig who is stuck on the other side.

Webisode 9: Ralph the Red Panda– While hiking later in the evening, Uncle Nick discovers a rare animal as it begins getting dark outside.

Webisode 10: Slither the Snake– Freddie the Fox gets trapped by a hungry snake at the top of a large rock. It’s Uncle Nick to the rescue!

Webisode 11: Barry the Bear– When a scary-looking bear is soon in the Enchanted Forest, Uncle Nick decides to investigate; leading to a lesson about not judging a bear by his cover.

Barry the Bear was first introduced 4 months ago in my other series, Jack-Man:

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Dear Jack: You were Legitimately Worried People Would Think I’m Superman

5 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack: You were Legitimately Worried People Would Think I’m Superman

Dear Jack,

Last Saturday, as I was paying for parking so we could attend the Nashville Boat & Sportshow, as well as Monster Jam 2016, you and Mommy stayed in the car.

(Fortunately, we lucked out, and only had to pay $13 to park. In downtown Nashville, that’s a good deal.)

I was wearing my new Superman baseball cap that you and Mommy got me for Christmas. As I was outside in the parking lot finalizing our parking space, you asked Mommy, “What if people think Daddy is Superman because he’s wearing that? What if they start crowding around him?”

This was a legitimate concern to you; that the tourists of downtown Nashville would be stopped in their tracks by the presence of the real Superman.

How would they spot me? Because of my Superman logo on my hat; as opposed to my shirt, were the Superman logo is usually displayed.

Never mind that Superman would be more like 6’4” and 220 pounds, whereas I’m 5’9” and 155 pounds.

Still, in your mind, I could pass as Superman.

If I allowed myself to, I could let that go to my head.

I also learned that same day, that you believe Batman, as well as Superman, are not simply fictional super heroes, but actually real people.

As you saw the “Batman building”, as we Nashvillians call it, you proclaimed, “Daddy, I wonder if Batman really sleeps up there on top of the Batman building?”

So in your mind, not only is Batman a real person, but he happens to live in the center of downtown Nashville.

I love the way you think. I love the thought of a version of reality in which not only legendary superheroes walk among us, but also where I, your Daddy, could possibly be mistaken for one.

But in your mind, it works. I am Superman.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Baby Moses, as Portrayed by a Sour Patch Kid, Floating on a River of Jell-O

5 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack: Baby Moses, as Portrayed by a Sour Patch Kid

Mommy and I have noticed how exceptional the children’s program is at our church, The Church at Station Hill. As part of your class curriculum each Sunday morning, you all get to walk over to the craft room after the lesson, where I am always impressed by what new craft you make.

I love it that our church has a room set aside just for kids’ crafts; most of which are edible. It’s always interesting to walk by that room and peek in to see what you’ll be making each morning as we take you to your classroom.

This past Sunday as we were walking back to the car after church ended, you showed Mommy and me the newest one.

It was baby Moses floating down the river.

What made this craft a lot of fun, especially on a Sunday morning as I was now buckling you into your car seat, was that baby Moses was actually a Sour Patch Kid, floating on a river of Blue Jell-O.

As I drove home, with you and Mommy in the back seat, I could hear you enjoying eating your Sunday School craft:

“Mmm… baby Moses tastes good, he’s crunchy!”

I’m just glad that it was Moses floating down the river in a basket, and not baby Jesus in the manger. Because that would really seem weird. It would take the concept of Holy Communion to a different level.

An edible gingerbread house is fine, as his baby Moses floating down the river, but I think an edible manger scene might be a little too crafty.

But as for baby Moses, he floated down the river of your digestive track and you were happy I was letting you get away with eating candy so early in the day.

Needless to say, you definitely now know the story of baby Moses floating down the river.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Your “Dually Relieving” Animals Artwork

5 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack: Your “Dually Relieving” Animals Artwork

Dear Jack,

Monday afternoon when I picked you up from Pre-K, you asked me to help you get all your artwork from that day out of your folder. It was quite a stack of papers; probably at least 20 different pictures you had drawn there.

Right away, I noticed a peculiar, yet subtle piece of art. You had drawn a dog standing near an anthill.

Near the anthill was a sign that read “Boo” backwards. There were ants and spiders nearby as well.

As I examined the dog carefully, I noticed that as he smiled, he was also “dually relieving” himself.

To be clear, the dog was both “going #1 and #2” at the same time.

I verified what I was seeing, and you quickly admitted what was going on in the picture.

However, you weren’t laughing about it. You kept a straight face, as if to say, “What’s funny about this? This is art. It’s nature.”

I followed up by asking if either your friends or your teacher had seen the picture. They had not.

As soon as we got home, Mommy hung your picture up on the refrigerator.

To my surprise, the next day when I picked you up, déjà vu occurred as I saw a very similar picture; this time with a cat.

Dear Jack: Your “Dually Relieving” Animals Artwork

This time you smiled: “I made this picture for Mommy!”

We are indeed very proud of your artwork, as were many people on Facebook who saw the pictures as well.

Now that I look back on it, this wasn’t the first time you drew a “dually relieving itself” animal as artwork.

The weekend before the 2015 CMA Awards, a couple of months ago, our family met our friends Mohamed and Lena at the Cool Springs Whole Foods (in Franklin, TN) for a late lunch, around 2:00 PM.

As we were sitting down at the table with our food, Mohamed showed me a picture of both Jessica Biel (Justin Timberlake’s wife) with her baby, as well as Justin Timberlake’s mother.

Then Mohamed pointed over to just a tables away, asking us to verify that the people at the table were indeed the same as the ones he had pulled up on his phone.

Turns out, he was right.

Apparently, Justin Timberlake’s wife, son, and mother were having lunch while Justin was assumedly preparing for his appearance at the CMA Awards; where he would go on to do an instantly legendary performance with Chris Stapleton.

All of that was lost on you. I looked down to see you had just finished drawing a picture of an animal dually relieving itself.

Fast forward to this week: You decided to bring back the concept.

Love,

Daddy