parenting

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Dear Jack: You Made Yourself the Manager of the Massage Gun

13 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

With an Amazon gift card our family recently received, you convinced Mommy to spend it on a DDVWU massage gun, which is the $40 version of the $150 Theragun.

(I think your original inspiration was to use it to recover being sore from playing baseball.)

Once it arrived a few days later, you immediately unboxed it, studied the manual, and then began practicing all the settings on Mommy.

Of course, after all your hard work, you naturally needed your own massage. Like clockwork, your sister stepped in.

She was proud to try out what she learned by watching you.

I’m still surprised that it is because of you that our family now owns a massager gun.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Your Final Month of School in Tennessee

8 years.

Dear Holly,

Mommy and I recently joined you for your school’s annual fun run, which had to be moved to the gym due to it raining.

As we watched you along with your friends and your teachers, I thought to myself, “This may be the last time we are here with you at this school for an activity like this.”

Your brother was at your school from Kindergarten through 5th grade; we have spent so many years at this school. We have watched you and your brother both grow up there.

However, you continue to tell me on a daily basis: “Daddy, I can’t wait to start going to my new school in Alabama!”

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Bonding Through Baseball

13 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

You continue to take playing baseball so seriously. It is now the norm for you and I to go throw the ball for about 45 minutes each evening that you don’t already have a baseball game or a coaching lesson.

On my end, I can definitely tell that not only your skills have improved, but also your mindset.

I am watching you mature out of boyhood, in a good way.

Baseball is giving you something challenging to focus on.

The way you interact with our family now is more positive, involved, and connected.

It’s like you have an upgraded form of independent confidence now.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: We Visited Your New School

7 years, 11 months.

Dear Holly,

During your Spring Break a few weeks ago in the midst of all the renovations we were working on for our newly purchased home in Alabama, we squeezed in an afternoon to take you to go visit the school you will be transferring to for your 3rd grade year this fall.

We couldn’t help but be thoroughly impressed by not only the building itself, but also all of the teachers and students, as we were given a personal tour by the principal.

I was waiting for any moment, that everyone would break out in song, as if we were in a musical.

As we were getting a tour of the library, a little girl walked up to you and said, “I like your shoes. My name is Isabella.”

Needless to say, you can not wait to transfer to your new school in Alabama.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Our Final Daddy Daughter Dance in Tennessee

7 years, 11 months.

Dear Holly,

Last Friday night I took you to the Daddy Daughter Dance for the 3rd and final time at our church here in Tennessee.

I thought about how after we move to Alabama this summer, it is not for certain that we will have access to dances like these, where we are moving.

So I definitely cherished every minute with you at the dance.

As always, we were the first in the door, the last to leave, and the most active out there on the dance floor!

About an hour into it, you told me you needed to take a break. In the gift bags we received, we both got a Hershey’s chocolate bar.

We wolfed those down to use as fuel to keep the party going. People were depending on us out there.

And we didn’t let them down.

Love,

Daddy