Little Blue Boy

To my son Tommy,

Little boy blue come blow your horn. The sheep are in the meadow, the cows are in the corn.

One of the great things about cleaning up the basement is finding my old treasures. Here you are trying to call to the cows using my old bugle. A quick lesson in embouchure and you were blowing away.  Think you even got two different notes out. Not too shabby.

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo

Anniversary Number Seven

To my son Tommy,

Today is your mommy and my anniversary! You know what grandiose plans we have? Let me list them out so you have ideas of how to spend a joyous anniversary.

• Get the chairs to the dining room table up to the Marriottsville house.
• Sand two wall areas and finish painting them.
• Organize the back basement.
• Screw on all the wall plates for the electric box.
• Make a scenic view for your new room.
• Mopping yet again to get the dust and grout off the floor.

What? Doesn't sound like a way to celebrate an anniversary? Listen, marriage is work. Marriage is hard work. And an anniversary celebrates this hard work, today with more hard work. Sure we will try to steal away some time for ourselves, but in the same sense the time we spend working together is time for ourselves. Among the typical work filled day for us, if you throw in a few times saying "Happy Anniversary" and a couple extra times saying "I love you" and maybe a "Holy crap we made it seven years" you have our anniversary. And that is okay for us.

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo

Glasses

To my son Tommy,

If anything could be considered inevitable, you needing glasses some day tops that list. Your mother needs glasses; your father needs glasses; your grandparents need glasses; you come from a long line of glasses wearers. Barring any super scientific gene correction ocular therapy procedure, you are going to be sporting the spectacles, more likely sooner than later. In fact, you put on my glasses today and then said you could read the letters on the television better. I know they say you should never wear another persons prescription glasses in fear of damage to your eyesight, but they also say if you make faces you might get your face stuck like that. They lie to you. Anyways, last year the eye doctor said you could hold off on glasses. We have another annual appointment coming soon. When we took the picture of you, you laughed and said you looked funny and different. You might have your own pair of glasses sooner than you think.

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo

Bright Idea

To my son Tommy,

Mommy and I had this bright idea to let you pick your own color of paint for your own room. Perhaps that was too bright of an idea. You picked what you described as Oriole Orange, what Valspar describes as Island Orange, and what we describe as Construction Safety Orange. Well it is never too early for you to learn that you may have to live with the consequences of your choices!

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo