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Dear Holly: You Lost Your First Front Tooth This Week

8 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

It feels so weird to say this, but you start the 3rd grade next week. I thought we were still in the middle of summer right now, but I guess not.

You are very proud that you will begin the new school year, and your new school in a new state, with one of your front teeth missing.

Actually, I will be very surprised if you make it another week before losing your other front tooth.

It’s so wiggly right now that it is just funny that it’s still hanging in there!

Either way, you made 10 bucks this week from losing that tooth. I guess that means another 10 bucks is on the way.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Constant Access to Your Cousin Now

8 years, 2 months.

Dear Holly,

For your entire life, you were only able to see your cousin Darla once every month or two, based on us driving to Alabama from Tennessee.

Now that we have moved to Alabama and live on the same street as her, you seem to be hanging out with her every chance you get.

Not only that, the two of you talk to each other every day on an app from JusTalk. So while Mommy and I are working from home, I can hear you in your bedroom catching up with Darla each morning.

You are loving our move here!

Love,

Daddy

 

 

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Dear Jack: You Got a Perm for Your Upcoming 8th Grade School Year

13 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

Twenty-six years ago in the summer of 1998, I went to get a perm from Chalane McClung at Golden Shears; in preparation of my upcoming senior year at Fort Payne High School.

This week, you got a perm from Chalane McClung at Golden Shears; in preparation of your upcoming 8th grade year at Fort Payne Middle School.

It was all your idea. You have been refraining from getting a haircut for the past 3 months.

And now, you have confirmed it was totally worth it.

Not only do you get to be the cool new kid who transferred in from Tennessee, but you get to be the boy with the coolest hair!

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Holly: Learning Secret Family Recipes from Nonna

8 years, 1 months.

Dear Holly,

One of the reasons we moved here to Alabama was to make more memories with family, as opposed to just waiting for the holidays or the rushed weekends trips from Nashville to see them.

This week, I loved being able to observe Nonna teaching you her secret family recipes, as she taught you the way her Mexican side of the family made empanadas and the way her Italian side of the family made calzones.

You were all in! You loved being able to help Nonna help cook dinner for us.

It is moments like this that say so much about our new life here in Alabama.

Love,

Daddy

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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