Another Open House this weekend… Hopefully this brings us one step closer to packing up and heading back to the Valley of the Sun. I hear it was a balmy 114 degrees out there today – just a touch warmer than the 80-something degrees we had here… nice breeze… cooled down to mid 70′s in the evening…great for keeping the windows open and letting the air flow through the house…but, what is an extra 20 or 30 degrees? It can’t be that bad right? We lived through it before. It only lasts five or six months. It is a DRY heat after all… hmmm… let me call my realtor. We may not need that Open House after all 
All this reminiscing about Phoenix is getting me to thinking about the last trip we took out here from there while trying to find a house…the flight to Kansas City was a dream… the boys (Jaden and Dillon – Logan had opted to stay in AZ) were well behaved and polite the entire time. They sat patiently in the airport, smiled and talked to people, played nicely with each other, shared things…. should have seen the set up, but I was blinded by the cuteness. They had conned me to the point that I recommended they travel without car seats and the stroller for the flight back home. It was in keeping with the “big boy” theme, I argued… they had just declared independence from their diapers and had gone full blown potty trained, they had handled themselves like little men on the way out there… it was only right that we reward them by allowing them to sit like big guys in the airplane seats… either that or I was just too lazy to deal with the car seats on the airplane again. (Have you tried doing that with two big car seats? Buckling them into those tiny airplane seats right next to each other, and then strapping the kids into them and then undoing everything and lugging those things all the way down those narrow aisles and all over the airport??) Either way, they had me where they wanted me… unarmed and trapped in a crowded airplane set to take a 3 hour flight from Kansas City to Phoenix. Read more…
The debate rages on… what will we name our fourth child? Much hinges upon the yet-to-be-identified sex of the child. Statistics, and, more powerfully, family seem to suggest we will not be getting another boy… and I am fine with that…. really… no, seriously, I am. I just want to have some input on the name and get in writing and have notorized that our daughter will under no circumstances socialize, fraternize, or otherwise consort with any members of the opposite sex not belonging to her immediate family or direct relatives thereof (in-laws, etc) for the first 25 years of her life. It will also need to be memorialized somewhere that once that initial period of protection expires, any potential suitors for the next several years will need to be screened by me, her loving and slightly protective father, and her three older much more protective brothers. These screening activities may take place at such accommodating locations as firing ranges, back alleys, or remote, isolated patches of the Sonoran Desert. After that, we can evaluate the situation and see what needs to happen next. I have shared this plan with a few fathers of daughters I know, and they think it’s brilliant! In fact, they regret not having implemented this process from the very beginning… I mistake I do not wish to duplicate. My wife, on the other had, does not embrace this philosophy or approach… strange I know.
Anyway, back to the names… I have a couple ideas for names that for some reason are not gaining popularity with the Mrs either (but strangely have been a huge success with the dads of daughters – going with DOD for short from here on in). I teed up a couple of my favorite names for the DOD focus group… WELL received. One panel member even tried to convince his youngest that she should change her name… she didn’t bite. But, that could be attributed to the fact that he has been operating outside of my “Protection Plan” described above… but again, I digress. The biggest hits in the DOD focus group have been Chastity Virginia (or Virginia Chastity, equally well received), Prudence, and Purity Faith. Why the wife opposes these names I will never understand. These are great names… solid names… they speak of character and virtue. I harbor no delusions that these names will make it through the Veto process… I have been told in no uncertain terms that our child will not bear any of those names. July 24th will hopefully reveal the sex of our child… I still have time to work some angles and reconvene the DOD panel to see what we can come up with. Beyond that, I have until December when the baby is due to try to convince her… I need to take some time and think it through… there has to be a way… HAS to. So you see… I am absolutely fine with having a girl. Looking forward to it actually… and I will be working on perfecting the Protection Plan and getting the name list together… July 24th… everyone is thinking girl… could be… OR… we could be welcoming Ethan Sawyer to the family and moving forward with business as usual with a house full of boys.
Thanks for coming along… Kiss your kids!
Father. Webster defines this as a “man who has begotten a child”. As a definition, it is simple; it is succinct; it is accurate. Yet, in its brevity it is grossly inadequate. I would like to think my role in the lives of my children extends beyond this sterile definition and the single physical act that it describes. As a father, my role (along with the roles of fathers collectively) is -or should be – to be a living example for my children. When I look into the eyes of my sons, I am humbled to realize that I have been given the opportunity to shape and mold their lives. It goes well beyond providng food, clothing, and shelter… these three boys will become men someday. Friends, husbands, fathers, leaders. I get to equip them with the tools to be successful in those roles. With one on the brink of puberty and two just entering their fourth years, the challenges and needs associated with each are quite different. I have to smile when I think of all the events over the past several years that have made up my eligibility to celebrate Father’s Day…from the Oreo Cookie Discovery; the Night Behind Bars at the hospital; the Formica Incident; and the River Ramp Rescue, to the 30,000 ft Hookshot; the Trampoline Sessions; the Tree Climbing Campout; and the ‘Jesus Likes Gum’ Declaration, it has been a wonderful ride. I hope to recount these events on this site along with accompanying thoughts and observations. I hope you enjoy reading them almost as much as I enjoyed living them.
Until next time, thanks for coming along for the ride… Kiss your kids!
