Dear Holly: You in Your Bedroom When No One Else is Around

7 years, 5 months.

Dear Holly,

Right now as I type this from the bonus room, I am catching glimpses of you and hearing your sweet voice as you are apparently babysitting your dolls in your bedroom.

Now that you are growing up and becoming much more indepenent, you seem to enjoy having time to yourself; when the rest of us all have our own projects.

You set up the tablet for the dolls to watch videos on YouTube, while you provide snacks and wardrobe changes for them.

The whole time, I hear you speaking; though I can never make out what you are telling them.

I just love this!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: You Were Quite Inspired by the Nashville Sounds Baseball Game

12 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

Mommy is the Assistant to the CEO of the start-up company she works for in Nashville.

That means one of her responsibilities is to be the event planner for them.

We never realized that last Sunday’s Nashville Sounds baseball game was going to be such a big deal to you!

You truly enjoyed sitting in the bleachers watching the game; in addition to socializing with the other kids there.

And of course, if anyone was going to catch a fly ball, it would be you!

It just so happened you were able to get the Nashville Sounds mascot, Booster the Rooster, to sign the ball you caught!

To top it off, you told Mommy and me that you are now considering trying out for the baseball team at school.

That is exciting to think about!

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: You Now Get Yourself Ready for Bed and for School on Your Own

7 years, 5 months.

Dear Holly,

For me, this week has been big in seeing your development:

Now, you are independent to the point that you completely get yourself ready for bed. You brush your teeth, you give yourself a bath, you get yourself dressed, and you even read your own bedtime stories out loud for me to hear.

Granted, I’m happy to read you a story myself- but it seems you are eager to test out your own reading skills more than you want me to read to you.

You also now completely get yourself ready for school every morning.

This is such a big deal to me. I am so proud of you!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: And Now You are into Flying Drones!

12 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

For Memorial Day weekend, we spent the time in Alabama. Uncle Al and Aunt Sharon gave you some money, which you promptly used to purchase a drone you had been researching online.

Your immediate self-assigned mission was to see if you could get the drone to lift a small baby doll into the air.

Mission accomplished!

Once you took off all that “baby weight” from the drone, then you really got to test out how far and how fly you could get it going in the air.

I get the feeling you are going to be investing in bigger, more expensive drones in the future; thanks to your fun with this one so far.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: I Finally Figured Out Our Family’s Enneagram Numbers

7 years, 5 months.

Dear Holly,

You remind me a few times a week how tired you are of me talking about Enneagram. I can’t really apologize, though. After all, your dad just happens to be a certified Enneagram coach who is in the process of writing a book about Enneagram.

So naturally, that topic is going to come up a lot!

It took a lot of trial and error, based on multiple books, and little thanks to online tests.

But now I couldn’t be any more confident:

I am an Enneagram 9 Wing 1: Mediator leaning towards a Perfectionist.

Mommy is an Enneagram 8 Wing: Challenger leaning towards a Mediator.

Jack is an Enneagram 5 Wing 4: Investigator leaning towards an Individualist.

You are an Enneagram 2 Wing 3: Helper leaning towards an Achiever.

 

Love,

Daddy