Promoted to Dad

As we’re sitting on the table a day before Thanksgiving, I tell my daughter that tomorrow we must all talk about everything we’re thankful for. She’s decided that twenty four hours is too long a time to wait to be thankful. Now, had I been on a family table growing up, I’d have waited to be the last. That would have given me a chance to think about my list of things I’m thankful for. Luckily she’s a much faster and better version of me! She’s decided to go first, and jump straight in. She starts with her parents. Yay! Now, I’m really thankful that she started with her parents, because you’ll soon see that this was not a very short list. She says that we’re both nice and not mean parents. I do want to record that, but then I’m trying not be mean! Next, she’s happy for the house, and the fact that we have a place to live. So far so good. She seems to be going in the order I would have gone in too. Next she’s thankful that we have food to eat and clothes to wear. Now at this point, I can...

I recently did something bad to my back. Luckily with the thanksgiving week around the corner, I decided to take the entire thanksgiving week off and recover. The doctor prescribed a painkiller, a muscle relaxant and lots of rest. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing this week. Its having the right effect, and I’m doing a lot better. I did feel guilty that all this resting is putting more pressure on my wife, but I tell myself that its better to contain the problem and now rather than make it a long term disability, making it a lot worse for the family. I was feeling bad that I was neglecting my daughter. Luckily this was one area where I was pleasantly surprised! Everyday in the evening, rather than feel bad that I’m not with her, she comes to me. She asks me about my back. She will stroke her tiny hands on my head to make me feel better. For those five minutes, she’s the adult and I’m the child. Thanks honey, this time has meant the world to me.

We get a lot of homework! Five minutes of math, twenty minutes of reading and another homework sheet that could be any subject. Finally, there’s a ‘journal’. One sentence everyday about anything that interested or excited her. The sentence per day, has been a good insight for me. It forces her to choose the most interesting thing that day. I’ve noticed sometimes she cheats and writes the second most interesting thing, since she’s already written the most interesting thing once before. For example, “We went out for dinner”. If she can’t think of the second most interesting thing, then she may get a little more descriptive, in order to be less repetitive. For example, “We had burritos for dinner”. For me, the most interesting is when she decides to write something which tells me a bit more about her. She mentioned her friend’s absence from school once. She’s social, and this reaffirmed that importance that people have for her. She mentioned learning about syllables once. Again, she’s fo...