I opened the door and struggled through with my bags. The girls were sitting across the room in a large chair with a computer on their laps. “Daddy!” they yelled and threw the computer aside to run and greet me. Each chose a leg. “Hey guys.” I patted them on the back. “Hey…Oof.” I fumbled with my bag and shoes and tried to get out of the entry way. “So, what were you guys doing?” I asked, trying to detach them from my legs. Clara stood back and grinned. Her eyes darted back and forth, “Actually, it’s funny you ask. Because we were doing…” she leaned towards me dramatically, “…engineering!” My eyes widened. “Oh wow. Engineering. That’s what I was just doing too!” I…
A father's struggle to capture his children's brief moment of youth in words and pictures
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My little human time capsules are coming along quite nicely.
We were at the hardware store this afternoon when my race car shopping cart full of singing children rolled up to a fake kitchen. “Oh cool!” Clara jumped out of the cart Dukes of Hazard style and quickly danced around the counter. “Hey Dad,” she announced. “It’s like I’m on a cooking show!” Gideon and I shared a look and smiled. “Yes Clara. Just like a cooking show.” She bowed dramatically. “Okay. What would you like me to make for you today?” She slowly waved her hands around at the sparkling appliances and perfectly arranged cabinetry. “We have everything here. Just name it.” “Oh.” I thought for a second. “I guess… Could you make me a grilled cheese sandwich, please?” She tapped her finger…
The other day I took my kids on an adventure into the wilderness. I feel like it is important to expose them to the wonderful beauty and history in this great state, and I have felt inadequate as an Alaskan father that so much of their young life has been spent sitting under blankets in the family room watching cartoons and tearing paper. The only time they ever experience the beauty of the world it is when I shake them awake in the back seat of the car so they can look at a moose as it runs away into the woods. “Neat,” they say with a yawn, and then go back to sleep. So, I wanted to give them something more. A few…
“Hey, have you guys ever had these before?” I held up a pack of Hostess Sno-balls. The little girls blinked at me. “They’re Sno-balls!” I smiled. “I thought it would be fun to get some for desert to go with our picnic. Don’t you think it would be fun to eat Sno-balls to celebrate the end of winter?” They blinked some more in astonishment. They were suddenly catatonic with joy. Amazing treats sometimes do that, so I smiled wide like a superhero and tossed the marshmallow puff balls into the cart and began to walk away. There was a sudden commotion behind me. Clara was chasing after me, “wait wait wait Dad! Something is wrong with Lydia!” I turned around. Lydia was disintegrating in…
I was looking at old pictures on the computer with Clara this morning when we came across a particularly cute picture of Lydia from when she was a baby. “Aww, Lydia was a pretty little baby girl,” I said. Clara turned to look at me and squinted thoughtfully. “We still have her, right? I mean, she’s upstairs with Mom?” “Yes,” I scratched the top of my head. “Yes, we still have Lydia.” “Oh,” she said, and nodded. “Good.” She waited patiently for me to continue with the pictures. I opened my mouth to ask how she could possibly even think that we had maybe gotten rid of Lydia sometime last night while they were sleeping, but I couldn’t come up with the right words.
I love watching my children apply their education in everyday life. For instance Clara is very excited about math. And just today I overheard her as she was arguing with her little sister about who should help me with something I was working on. “No, Lydia,” she said. “I should be the one to help Daddy, because I am faster than you. See, I could finish a ten mile long marathon and you would still be finishing just a half mile long marathon.” I nodded at the strange logic, and then listened as they continued their argument until well after the task they were going to help me with had been completed. The truth is the lady that runs half a mile and the…
Last night the smoke cleared briefly on the battlefield that is our typical dinner time. As the carnage parted in front of me I suddenly became aware of a figure in the distance. Far across the table, over the broken bodies of half eaten chicken thighs, through the valley of mixed vegetables, I saw the youngest of my female warriors rise up and stand precariously in her chair. She triumphantly threw back her head and smiled wildly, grease and sauce smeared across her face in savage patterns. She held aloft a weapon, a sword was clasped tightly in her hand. She grinned and twirling it in circles like a tipsy samurai. We made eye contact and she leaned toward me, teetering on the edge of…
I was standing at the bathroom sink getting ready for work when small foot steps tumbled up in the hallway outside. Gideon had hunted me down and was now patting gently on the door to get my attention. “Just a second little guy!” I called through the door. “I’m almost done.” He whimpered a few times while he continued his pitiful assault with the pads of his hands. “It’s okay, Gideon,” I called again, rushing through the final stages of combing my hair. But before I could get to the door he was suddenly joined by a set of stomping feet coming down the stairs and a horrific agonizing wail. His sister Lydia was coming and it sounded as if she were fleeing from…
“This is too spicy.” Clara pushed her plate a few inches away in disgust. “It’s not spicy at all. There is nothing spicy here,” I told her. She scrunched up her nose and panted. “Well it feels like my mouth is on fire.” “Okay. Do you think it’s maybe the spinach that is making you hyperventilate like a dying fish right now, or is it maybe these mushrooms?” “No,” she gasped. “I think there is garlic on this.” I frowned. Of course there was garlic on it. Harmless specks of garlic were hidden under the cheese, and it was turning my apparently vampire daughter into a writhing gelatinous blob on the floor. “Okay okay. Get up. There’s garlic on it,” I said. “Just give…
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