15 years, 11 months.
Dear Jack,
By now, all of your friends and many of your classmates have discovered the fact that two dozen episodes of our original YouTube series “Jack-Man” (from when you were 4 years old!) are out there for the world to see.
This week at school, for the day all the students were allowed to dress up for Halloween, you decided to go out into the bin in our garage and pull out your old Jack-man superhero costume.
It was a hit!
Love,
Daddy
6 years old.
Dear Holly,
As your Kindergarten school year is coming to a close, there are often special themes for each day of the week now.
Your most recent favorite was Superhero Day.
Conveniently for you, your brother happened to have a stash of superhero apparel stashed away in his closet- so he gladly got you all fixed up!
You came home that day and told me, “Daddy, everyone thought I was Wonder Woman! Most people didn’t even dress up, but I did!”
I admit, I was especially proud because you chose to wear your “Daddy’s Girl” t-shirt as part of your superhero ensemble.
Love,
Daddy
2 years, 2 months.
Dear Holly,
It was a typical evening. Mommy picked you and your brother up from summer day camp. I had just driven back home from work.
As I began to help Mommy prep dinner, your brother mentioned something about taking you upstairs to see something.
Ten minutes later, I looked up to see that he had brought you back down, but decked out in his Captain America mask from his Halloween costume 3 years ago, with the accompanying shield.
You didn’t say a word, but I could tell it was important to you that I recognized that you were now Captain America.
Then during breakfast the next morning, I stepped into the kitchen to realize you were wearing the mask again; refusing to take it off while you ate breakfast.
A little bit later as Mommy was getting ready to leave for work, you added Mommy’s slippers to your superhero outfit. It somehow made sense.
This week will be remembered as the week you refused to take off your brother’s Captain America mask. And actually, your commitment to your superhero outfit actually inspired your brother:
He has been making some serious plans about making his return as an actor on YouTube again. Your brother asked me, “Hey Daddy, do you think when Holly’s a little older, we could do Jack-Man videos again?”
I instantly assured him that we could make our own superhero videos now if he wanted to.
But after he thought about it, your brother decided that instead of reprising the titular character of the 22 episode series, Jack-Man, he would like to try writing his own series.
So if this ends up really happening, I will be making the video, and he’ll be writing and starring in it. He’s also having Mommy look into buying him a lizard costume for it.
We’ll see where thing things goes. If it’s mean to be, it’ll be…
Love,
Daddy
18 weeks.
Dear Holly,
Sunday afternoon after you woke up from your nap, I sloppily picked you up in your blanket, as it flopped over on top of your head.
I could tell you were in the mood to be walked around the house; looking out windows and at wall decorations. Obviously, the most interesting thing going on in our house is typically your brother Jack.
He was busy this time making a plane out of the couch, covered with his tent as well as blankets and pillows. He explained to me that the motor is the sword he made out of blocks.
Then he looked up and saw you: “Daddy, how can she even see with that blanket over her eyes?”
I hadn’t noticed that the blanket had fallen from on top of your head into the form of a hood, leaving just enough room for you to see.
As I continued walking you around our house, I was surprised that you hadn’t made a peep; even though your diaper was wet, since you had just woken up from your nap.
But I wasn’t going to stop the show. If you were happy in your strange condition, I wouldn’t be the one to interfere.
By the time 30 minutes had passed, and you were still quiet and content under your homemade hood, I developed a likely theory:
You believed that the hood from the blanket made you invisible.
And I say this because I’ve never seen you go so long while in need of a diaper change, without making a sound. It was as if you felt if you did, it would expire your superpower of invisibility.
In the end, you went about an hour before finally choosing to expire your ability to be unseen by the rest of the world.
Love,
Daddy
5 years, 7 months.
Dear Jack,
On Saturday afternoon before your nap, you agreed to go help Mommy get rid of all the “roly poly” bugs in the garage while I was cleaning up the kitchen from lunch and while your sister Holly was asleep.
By the time I got out to the garage, I discovered you wearing swim goggles, with a broom in your hand. When you saw me, you declared, “Scrubby Man to the rescue!”
I’m still not sure whether Scrubby Man is a super hero or just someone people hire to clean their garage. You looked like and acted like a perfect mix of the two.
In case I haven’t mentioned it, you have a Mommy who is… very into cleaning. I don’t mind that at all. I think it’s a great thing.
It’s just that on my own, I wouldn’t have thought to spend 20 minutes sweeping away all the pill bugs in the garage on a Saturday afternoon. But Mommy is wired to consider things like that.
And it’s good that she is instilling those traits in you.
I seriously love your choice to wear the goggles, though. You never know when dust or roly poly bugs might get in your eyes while sweeping.
Later that afternoon while I was out running an errand for Mommy at Kirkland’s (I wish that sentence sounded manly), you and your sister kept Mommy entertained back at the house.
You put on your famous felt mustache, which made Mommy and your sister laugh.
Now that I’ve had a smart phone for about 8 months, I admit that I still despise having one. I instead wish I could have no phone at all.
But perhaps the one thing I actually appreciate about having a smart phone is the ability to use Instagram. While I own a very nice, high quality camera to take most pictures, sometimes an unplanned Instagram speaks a thousand words that a planned picture with my $600 never could.
Love,
Daddy
