Clara walked up this evening while I was playing a game. She arrived right at the moment when the character in the game was having to fighting off an army of giant spiders. “Oh, Clara, maybe you shouldn’t watch this right now. I don’t want you to get scared and have nightmares or something.” I paused the game. “Dad,” she said. “Spiders aren’t scary. I only have nightmares when Lydia sleeps in my bed and won’t stop talking about rainbows.” I turned the game off and turned to face the little girl. “Okay, I give up. Why would rainbows give you nightmares?” She looked at the wall and sighed deeply. “Because rainbows reminds me of the rainbow popsicles you gave us that one time,…
A father's struggle to capture his children's brief moment of youth in words and pictures
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I walked into the room to find Clara and Lydia sitting in the middle of the floor huddled around something with their backs to me. The two of them were involved in some sort of quiet disagreement. As I entered, Clara turned and said, “Oh good. Daddy, Can you eat rabbits?” I hesitated for a moment, surprised by the question. “What do you mean?” I mean, “Is it possible to eat a rabbit?” I sat down in a chair across from them and leaned forward. “Oh, then yeah. You can eat rabbits.” “I knew it!” She said triumphantly. Then she lifted a book above her head and showed me the page they were looking at. “Then why is HE-” She pointed to the picture…
Clara and Lydia are very excited about their uncles’ Lord of the Rings themed birthday party this evening. The youngest of them came twirling up to me last night to tell me about their costumes. “We are going to be Sugar Plum Fairies!” Lydia stammered excitedly up at me, her blue eyes wide with joy. “Oh, Sugar Plum Fairies, huh? At a Lord of the Rings party? That sounds non canon. Have you been talking to Peter Jackson again?” “Yep.” She nodded, completely ignoring my joke, as usual. “We even have butterfly wings!” “Oh wow.” “Yeah.” She continued, “I love Sugar Plum Fairies!” And then she stared into nothingness as if recalling a memory and quietly added, “I ate one before and it was…
I was given an early Christmas present the other day. But to explain the magic of it all I will have to take you back nearly two years to an icy January in the town of Big Lake Alaska. I was standing in a strange man’s driveway walking slow circles around a Ford Focus I was interested in buying off of Craigslist. The owner was sheepishly explaining to me why I couldn’t take the car for a test drive. “You see.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “It’s on summer tires that have been worn completely bald.” I bent down to examine one of them and struggled to locate the tread. “I’m afraid you wouldn’t make it out of the driveway with…
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