parenting

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Dear Jack: Your 1st Day of Pre-K at Rainbow Child Care Center

4 years, 9 months.

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Dear Jack,

Last week while our family was on vacation in California, your preschool Rainbow Child Care Center opened its new Pre-K classroom.

So this Tuesday was your first day of Pre-K. I put together this little 90 second video from that morning as I dropped you off.

As you can see from the video, we have a 2015 Toyota Avalon this week which I am reviewing, so I decided to include it in the video. After all, the fancy car ride there was a big part of your 1st day of Pre-K.

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I mentioned a few weeks ago that I don’t feel that you’re growing up way too fast. Instead, I feel you’re growing up at the right speed.

It makes sense it my head that you’re nearly 5 years old and are just a year away from staring Kindergarten. And I think you feel the same way. You seem proud to be big boy.

Speaking of your new Pre-K classroom, here’s the video you and I made together a few weeks about it:

When we came back from California this week and checked the mail, you had received your prize money from winning 2nd place in the Williamson County Fair Lego Competition.

Dear Jack: You Won 2nd Place in the County Lego Competition!

Mommy took you to go spend your $20 earnings. You purchased a $15 toy: the Hot Wheels Snap Rides Truck and Trailer.

It’s something you’ve been talking about for weeks. You love getting to build your own vehicles.

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This whole time I thought you would end up spending your prize money on more Legos, but it also makes sense that you’d buy cars you can build as well.

As we get settled back in from vacation this week, I’ll be working on several more videos and pictures from California.

We had a lot of fun! I can’t wait to share!

Love,

Daddy

pk3

Leave a comment Posted on new house, parenting, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: 6 Months of Living in Our New House

4 years, 8 months.

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Dear Jack,

As they say… time flies when you’re having fun.

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That must be why it definitely doesn’t feel like we’ve been living in our new house for 6 months.

A week ago made 6 months that we began moving in our stuff and began sleeping there; but it took a solid week after that before it felt like we truly living there and not simply still moving in.

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As of today, I wanted to document what our house looked like at this point in history; so I walked around room to room, taking pictures.

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One of my proudest decisions in staging our house is that we purposely don’t have a TV downstairs in the living room. It’s important to me that conversation is not stolen in our house.

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If I could come up with a theme for our house, it would be this: Quality time.

That’s so important. We have to make the most of our time together despite our busy schedules as individuals.

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As you read this years from now, I want you to hear me say this once again:

We worked very hard to get into this house.

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It required paying off all our debts (including cars and student loans), then living by an extremely strict budget (including no smart phones), in order to start saving for the down payment on our house.

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Something that was very important to Mommy and me was to make sure we raise you (as well as any future siblings) in a good school system. To do that, we had to move to the “right” county: Williamson.

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We pour our lives into you. We want the best for you. Being able to live in this house makes me feel like our family is exactly where we need to be.

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Living in this house has truly made us happy, content, and at peace. Our quality of life has never been better.

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But again, this wasn’t handed to us.

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And it’s not simply about how much money you make, as much as it is how you manage the money you do make. We worked very hard to get here… and still do.

Love,

Daddy

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1 Comment Posted on Nostalgia, parenting, Storytelling, toy reviews, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: You’re Not Growing Up Way Too Fast

4 years, 8 months.

The Reason You’re Not Growing Up Too Fast

Dear Jack,

I’ve never felt that you are growing up too quickly. I think you’re growing up at exactly the right speed.

The metronome in my head works just fine as it measures at what rate you should graduate across the sliding scale of baby to boy.

Maybe a good reason I feel this way is that I’ve written at least one blog post and/or letter to or about you since before you were born. That’s more than 5 years now!

There are now hundreds of stories and pictures of your life story that I have preserved in time. (And they all can be retrieved by clicking on the Blog Archives tab on the left side of the screen.)

So maybe I am the exception to the rule of feeling my kid is growing up too fast. I never find myself missing any younger version of you. I have warm nostalgic thoughts about those days, but I don’t miss them.

Because I so appreciate who you are now.

You’re perfect. You’re exactly everything I could possibly hope for in a son.

You are a beautiful, intelligent, and creative young boy.

It is a gift each day that I get to see who you are becoming.

Maybe I’m being too pragmatic here, but if I really wanted to relive the “baby days”, I should focus getting you a brother or sister…

That seems like the best way to relive that time period, but at the same time be able to appreciate the nearly 5 year-old boy you are.

But no, you’re not growing up too quickly for me.

You’re my genius son who just entered his Lego creations into the upcoming county fair. But you’re also down-to-Earth enough that you fully appreciated the “pooping moose” key chain I brought back from Grand Rapids this week as a souvenir.

Love,

Daddy

j1

2 Comments Posted on parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

This is Not a Facebook Pregnancy Announcement, Just a Social Commentary about Them…

This is Not a Facebook Pregnancy Announcement, Just a Social Commentary about Them...

I want to be extremely clear. I am definitely, absolutely not (!) hinting at all that we are having another baby.

Just to be clear, there is not another baby on the way. I promise.

At least not one that I am aware of…

But I do admit, that having been in our new house for 6 months (as of next week) and having been debt-free for over 2 years now (other than our mortgage), life in the new house has created an environment in which having another baby can now be… considered.

It’s now a conversation that takes place. There’s now logic behind the reasoning, in my mind.

It wasn’t a conversation before. It wasn’t practical, then. But now that our son is nearly 5 years-old, the thought of expanding our family, in a 4 bedroom house as compared to our 2 bedroom townhouse, sounds less intimidating. At this point, unless we had twins, we wouldn’t have 2 babies or 2 really young children at the same time.

Instead, we would have a Kindergartner and a newborn.

That thought doesn’t terrify me.

I’m sure I could expand more on the why, but for now, I simply want to usher in the subject by acknowledging the culture behind announcing a pregnancy over Facebook.

These days, even if you’re just simply a casual Facebook user, there is still a social expectation that you’re supposed to do some kind of clever “Facebook pregnancy announcement” for everyone.

I created the meme above to demonstrate what I mean.

So now that that sort of thing is the norm, I feel like it’s part of the process of considering having another child.

You have to decide the boy and the girl name.

You have to decide how you want to prepare the baby’s room.

And you have to decide how to make a Facebook announcement, which is sure to get at least 75% of your Facebook friends to “like”.

This is Not a Facebook Pregnancy Announcement, Just a Social Commentary about Them...

I should close by once again making it clear I have no official announcement to make here.

The future holds possibilities because of where we are at in life now; whereas before, we weren’t ready.

If there is any kind of announcement at all, that would be it.

Well, actually, publicly realizing I am open to having another child is a pretty big deal- to me, at least.

Leave a comment Posted on Jack-Man, parenting

Dear Jack: You, As Green Meanie, Jr.

4 years, 8 months.

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Dear Jack,

This week on our YouTube channel we launched an official new program, The Green Meanie Show.

We will be resuming Jack-Man next weekend with a new webisode, #18, since your preschool has asked me to film another episode there. I don’t mind at all, since our last Jack-Man filmed there was the most popular one we’ve ever done; not to mention, the fast-growing one we’ve done, if that makes sense.

In other words, it hit 100 views in less than 24 hours.

But in the meantime, I’m creating some quicker content with my new spin-off; featuring Green Meanie as the host, with you playing his son, Green Meanie, Jr.

The Green Meanie Show contains its own original theme song and opening montage. Here are the lyrics:

“He is green, he is mean, he is Green Meanie the villain

He makes money from anyone and everyone who drinks his soda

But you should know that he tells his secrets

On The Green Meanie Show”

So far, we’ve done a Lego unboxing video together…

And I made a brief, educational video where Green Meanie explains the 3 “right ways” to eat a banana:

  1. Eat it brown (it contains more nutrients as it begins to ferment).
  2. Open it from the bottom, which helps prevent smashing it.
  3. Mix it smoothies and oatmeal to prevent “banana boredom.”

Then last night, after we made our 2nd Lego unboxing video (which I haven’t published yet), I let the camera roll as you declared a “pants party”.

You had a lot of fun!

I’ve got a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan coming up soon. Scion (a division of Toyota) is sending me (or is it Green Meanie?) there to preview their newest car models.

Also, next week makes 6 months since we’ve lived in our new house. I guess I better put together something for that, featuring pictures of our house now that we’re definitely completely settled in.

Love,

Daddy