being dad

Dylan,

I love being a Dad.

Dad

silly walrus

Dylan,

I made crepes this morning, rolled them up, and sliced 'em into sections. You've been unrolling the sections and eating them "like noodles".

You just announced "I'm a silly walrus!" as you had the ends of the crepe noodle hanging out either side of your mouth, bouncing slightly as you wobbled your head.


Dad

only real

Dylan,

Every night while you sit on the toilet before your shower you ask me to read the Everyone Poops book, usually two or three times. By now you've got most of it memorized, more or less accurately, and I can just turn the pages while you "read" the book to me. You point to every page featuring the little black-haired boy and say "that's me(!) and that's me!"

Pages three and four explain that a "one hump camel makes a one hump poop" and a "two hump camel makes a two hump poop", punchlined by "Only kidding!" At first, you starting adding "Only kidding!" when you finished reading the pages before and/or after the camels. Lately, when you finish those one-off pages you look for eye contact and say "only real" with the exact same intonations.

Dad

cuts like a fork

Dylan,

Watching you use tools is great. Sitting at the dinner table using your "big boy fork" aka: "small fork" to poke roasted vegetables and to cut the carrots into bite-sized pieces is a simple joy.

Dad

"No way Jose!"

Yes, that's your new way of saying NO when you really want to make sure you're understood, or when just plain "NO!" doesn't seem to be cutting the mustard. While Dad and I want to make sure you understand raising your voice in such a manner is not acceptable behavior, it's really, really hard not to fall to the floor in a heap of laughter when it comes flying out of your mouth.

It's just downright hilarious.

There will come a day when the things that come flying out of your mouth probably won't have that same mood enhancing effect, but for now I will relish the pureness that is you.


Mom

Almost done

Before:



After:

jingle bells

Dylan,

You've been in bed about fifteen minutes now and you just started belting out "Jingle Bells".

Dad

ps: Now you've moved on to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

Before and After

Dylan,

As you know, the bathroom looks like a bathroom again. For the last number of days since the tub went in, whenever there's a worker in the bathroom laying tile or doing the plumbing, you repeat to them excitedly "you bring the new bathtub, there's a new bathtub in there!"

They usually don't get it...

home is where

Dylan,

After a lot of consideration, we're getting ready to sell your house and move.

I say "your house" because it's the only one you've ever known as your own so the word "home" has a concrete definition for you--it's not some abstraction that applies to wherever your bed might be.

I'm sure down the road this particular house will barely exist on the fringes of your memory, and that some other house(s) will have connected with you in ways that will cause it/them appear on the backside of your forehead whenever "home" is mentioned, but for now it's just this one house, one roof, one green door.

It's going to seem strange seeing everything packed up in boxes, and it's going to mess with a lot of your routines. I'll be watching to see how you handle it.


Dad

shower

Dylan,

You took a shower by yourself the other day. All I had to do was hand you a soapy washcloth and you worked carefully from your hair to the tops of your feet. Pretty impressive for a kid your age, I thought.

Dad