I recently realized that of all people, I didn’t own an official holiday sweater. Seriously, I’m the epitome of dads who should own one!
A few days ago at work, my friend Sam walked in wearing a holiday sweater featuring two reindeer facing each other, with a giant snowflake in between them.
That’s the moment I became aware of my sweaterless condition.
Conveniently, the same day I received a gift card for Target. I was there for probably 30 minutes, not really impressed by any of their holiday sweaters; either too expensive or just not enough character. But right as I officially gave up, I saw it…
A Captain America sweater! Seriously, how awesome is that?!
It couldn’t be more perfect.
Turns out, today at your school, KinderCare, it was “holiday sweater day.” So you got to wear your grumbly monster sweater, while I wore my new one as well.
So now you and I are both set when it comes to owning that special token holiday sweater. Both of ours are funny, masculine, and awesome… to represent us, right?
I feel that little stories like these really help represent my pride as your dad. I love it that you enjoy making goofy selfies with me.
It’s so much fun to celebrate in stuff like this together with you. I keep reminding you that a year from now, the first of the new Star Wars movies will be in theatres and we’ll get to see it together. What a perfect time to be a little boy!
You’ve already expressed interest in Yoda.
And I think daily about how next summer, we get to camp out in the backyard of a new house, that we are scheduled to close on January 29th.
It was important to Mommy and I that we had your 4th birthday party (nearly a month ago now) at a unique place. Having it in Bricks 4 Kidz(a Lego play center) was definitely the right decision for us!
Mommy stayed home and took care of some things back home, as you and I had a “dadventure” to his party.
You were able to take advantage of the DVD player on the Lexus RX 450h. Coincidently, you happened to be watching a birthday episode of the Berenstain Bears.
I am confident to say that it was one of the most unique birthday parties we’ve ever been to. Right when you came in the door, you got a Nerf dart gun as a party favor.
That’s right. Everyone who attended got their own dart gun, along with safety goggles. How cool!
The tractor store was set up as a shooting range for you and your friends.
However, your favorite part of Jacob’s party was the balloon room. Yes, just a small room full of 150 balloons.
You had a ball… literally!
Actually, you were the first one in the balloon room, but it didn’t take long before Jacob came in and joined the organized chaos, along with several other friends.
Even your teacher Ms. Michelle was there!
Towards the end of the party, Jacob’s daddy pulled up in a bulldozer and dropped off some snow for you and your friends to play in. Seriously, how awesome is that?
I loved watch you and all your friends run to the snow!
And nearby, there was also a tractor that showered bubbles into the air for you to pop.
You and I had a great time together on our dadventure. I can’t wait to test out that dart gun with you in our new house!
Love,
Daddy
Catch up on the entire series of the Lexus RX 450h Weekend. A lot of exiciting things happened!
Yesterday when I walked in your classroom at KinderCare to pick you up, I noticed that a couple of your friends were helping you build the largest Lego project I’ve ever seen you do.
You showed me how the huge hospital only had one chair for the patients to sit on. I saw a Lego man leaned back; while a line of a dozen or so homemade Lego men (4 small blocks in a T-shape to represent a person) waited in line for the chair.
Another actual Lego man was hanging from the roof, though I’m not sure why.
It appeared as if you were the foreman of the construction project, as your friends Xavier, Jacob, and Joshua assisted you.
Turns out, that was the case.
When I dropped you off this morning, your school director Mrs. Tonya explained there was a slight disruption right before we walked in.
Apparently, one of your friends who was not part of your construction project tried to take a Lego piece off of it:
“No! That’s Jack’s! You can’t touch it! He’s still working on it!” your friend Joshua explained to other student; as Mrs. Tonya explained it to me.
It’s pretty cool to see you in this role of project manager among your friends. From what I’ve seen when I pick you up each day, you’re never the kid who is highly vocal; leading others in that way.
Instead, what I am seeing is you leading your friends through ideas and activities. I like that.
Anytime you receive a new Lego set, we build it together; only for you to take it apart a few hours later, using its unique parts to combine with other unique parts of other sets.
You love the wrecking ball you received with one of your birthday gifts from last months.
The way I feel, all these countless hours playing Legos at home are yielding the results in your play time at school.
I will gladly take pride in seeing you as a creative innovator.
Last year you expressed zero interest in seeing Santa again, so we let you off the hook.
But this year, your best friend Sophie just happened to be visiting Nashville again since she moved nearly a year ago, in February.
As expected, you brought your illuminating sword we had bought you the night before at Marvel Universe Live. Just as appropriate on her end, Sophie brought her Anna doll.
I enjoyed watching the two you play together in front of the fish tank with your gender-specific toys.
Having still an hour to go before your appointment with Santa, we decided to hang out at the Lexus RX 450h that our family was reviewing this week.
With Sophie’s 4th birthday on December 21st, we decided to give her both her birthday and Christmas gifts there in the back of the Lexus; which sort of transformed into a stage, as we parents watched the endearing entertainment.
Your birthday gift to Sophie was very special; a penguin from Whole Foods- the exact same one as you have, who you named Pingy.
We still had a solid 30 minutes or so after, so we headed back into Bass Pro Shop to check out the activities for kids; like coloring funny pictures, racing cars, engineering trains, and “hunting.”
When it came time to go see Santa, we learned that Sophie is troubled by gloves; she just doesn’t like them.
So I explained to Santa and he agreed to remove them for the picture, which he gladly agreed to as he did his best to hide the confused look in his eyes and as I tried not to laugh. Notice the picture below of him removing them…
As you can see from the picture at the very top, Santa was wearing no gloves for the picture of you and Sophie on his lap.
And of all random things, the one and only thing you asked Santa for was… a pinball machine.
Yes, a pinball machine. Granted, our new house is going to have more space than our town house that we’ve been living in all these years, but still, I don’t think you’re exactly sure of what a pinball machine really is.
Turns out, I learned that last week your teacher Ms. Michelle created a pinball machine concept for your class to play with. So that’s where you got the idea. Now to figure out how I’m going to arrange that with Santa. Time for me to start Googling “small pinball machines”…
Fun and unforgettable memories were made, that’s for sure. And if it all works out, we’ll be visiting Sophie again the day after Christmas, while reviewing another Lexus.
Love,
Daddy
Catch up on the entire series of the Lexus RX 450h Weekend. A lot of exiciting things happened!
Well, this weekend you were quite excited when Mommy and I learned that Abbi’s birthday actually had a costume theme.
While I tried to convince you just to wear your Ninja Turtle hoodie and be Donatello, you insisted on wearing your costume from Madison.
The logistical problem with that is that we had already boxed it up in our storage unit, as our new house should be ready by the end of next month.
Mommy was up for the challenge so we loaded up in the 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe we have been driving this week, as we await the news of whether or not my own car will be totaled thanks the albino deer that hit me on the way home the night before Thanksgiving.
Something really cool about every Hyundai I have reviewed is that basically the entire ceiling is a moon roof. You love that! You love being able to see so much of what’s going on.
Mommy’s favorite feature of the Santa Fe is the heated seats, especially this time of year.
My favorite thing about it is the size. Now more than ever, I like a good strong SUV that help protect me in the event I get hit by another albino deer. Hyundais are just nice vehicles anyway, as I’ve been quick to mention in my other reviews of them.
Speaking of safety, I also really appreciate the Blind Spot Detection System, which alerts me anytime another vehicle or object is getting dangerously close to me. (After having recently been hit by a deer, this is something I’m quite sensitive to this days!)
And not to mention, the back-up camera saves me a lot of worries too. (See below the relevant song that happened to come up on XM radio this week while we were driving the Santa Fe.)
Well, thanks to Mommy’s supreme packing skills, she was able to pull up the door of our storage unit, then immediately open up the box with your super hero costume! You then curiously asked about your monster trucks- she found that box too.
Before Abbi’s birthday party, we decided we should stop by our new house which is still under construction and see the latest updates.
Afterwards, as part of our tradition, we stopped by the model home so you could say hi to the in-house real estate agent. You had hidden a piece of foam (which you refer to as your “pizza parlor”) in the bushes and decided to crawl under the Christmas tree as a gift… because that’s normal for 4 year-old boys, I assume. (See top picture, again.)
When we arrived to Abbi’s party, we were greeted by hens, which we fed some dried worms to.
Once we walked inside the house, I was glad we had found your costume beforehand, because I realized your Ninja Turtle hoodie wasn’t quite enough for this costume-themed party.
You kept your eye mask on the entire drive and at least the first 30 minutes of the party.
And of course, your friend Madison (who gave you the costume) was so happy to see you wearing it. (Pictured below.)
You were lucky: you basically got to have an all-you-can-eat sweets buffet while we were there.
So we decided having dinner at Whole Foods would be a good way to offset that, but first we stopped to see some Christmas lights along the way.
Needless to say, we had a really fun week in the Santa Fe. And you especially had fun, being a super hero the whole time!
Love,
Daddy
2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Standard Features:
5 year/60,000 mile New Vehicle Warranty
10 year/100,000 mile Powertrain Warranty
7 year/Unlimited mile and Perforation Warranty
5 year/Unlimited mile Roadside Assistance
Advanced Safety Technology:
Vehicle Stability Management (VSM) with Traction Control
ABS with Electronic Brake Force Distribution & Brake Assist
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