monsters

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Dear Jack: To Hide Away From The World

4 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack: To Hide Away From The World

Dear Jack,

I saw it coming; that once we had finally settled into our new house, that the rest of the world would seem to begin to fade away. Or maybe instead, that the I would feel myself unplugging from the rest of the world- which I am, at least compared to recent years in the world of social media.

And I don’t see that as a bad thing.

That’s exactly where I feel I’m at right now; in that place. Gone are the days when I was required to share my soul 6 times a week during those 3 years I was writing for Parents.com; where I would I felt that pressure to check my Facebook home page throughout the day.

After all, I haven’t checked my Facebook page even once since we moved in this house nearly 3 months ago. I assume I must be out of the loop with what’s going on in the world.

But I’m fine. I’m happy. I appreciate our life as a family like it is right now.

The result from me sort of laying low is that I have more time to spend and just hang out, without as many distractions, with you and Mommy.

Life is supposed to be this simple. Well, actually it’s supposed to be much more simple than this, I believe.

I would love to be able to just work from home and live a slower paced life. I’m working on making that happen; as this week I’ve invested a portion of my birthday money into teaching myself to edit videos for my YouTube channel.

It just seems there’s this cliche that you watch your kids grow up way too fast; then you regret that you were too busy worrying about temporary things in the process.

I don’t want to feel that way in 10 or 20 years.

This is me taking time to truly appreciate you drawing funny pictures of monsters that look like snowmen. And letting you squeeze glue into cups of water, just to see what will happen.

These are the quiet and grateful days in the lives of our family; just appreciating what we have.

At least until our upcoming road trip to Pensacola when we go digging for dinosaur bones and treasure chests in the sand.

Let’s just say I’ve got something up my sleeve to make that happen…

Love,

Daddy

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The Funny Things You Fear As A Kid

August 22, 2013 at 9:56 pm , by 

2 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

Mommy got you a really cool nightlight today. It’s your first one, actually.

Ah yes, the time has finally come when we can’t simply lay you down for the night, in the pitch black darkness of your room, without thoughts of monsters under your bed or in your closet.

Actually, it’s not really that classic fear of monsters that sets you back. I’m sort of convinced you like monsters and that the thought of them being scary has never crossed your mind.

Instead, the prompt to get you a nightlight was based more on the fact you recently have been convinced there is “blackbird” in your room.

It almost sounds like a scene from a PG-13 rated horror movie.

In other words, it’s creepier for Mommy and me that it probably is for you to think about a blackbird in your room.

So we figured a Volkswagen Bug night light would be a good way to help dissolve those thoughts of yours.

It’s completely normal, as a kid, to fear things in your bedroom that aren’t really there; especially when it’s dark.

For me, it was aliens. In hindsight, though, I’ve yet to actually be confronted by an alien in real life- though I still think M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.

And of course, I can also definitely relate to the Internet meme that is starting to circulate on Facebook about quicksand. Seriously, I feel like quicksand was the plot device of so many TV shows and movies I saw as a kid!

It’s true: I’ve yet to experience quicksand.

As for you, I often wonder if during my roughhousing with you, as I pretend to be assorted rabid jungle animals, like tigers and snakes, if you’ll fear those things will show up in your room.

Nope.

Pretty much just that creepy blackbird for you.

Forget about me checking under your bed for monsters. Instead, I may end up having to check your window sill for a blackbird.

That’s if your Volkswagen nightlight doesn’t scare it off first.

 

Love,

Daddy