Shavin' With Daddy

I remember when I was about 5 years old seeing my dad shave for the first time. I thought it was so cool. He let me play with the shaving cream and dabbed some on my nose. I can still remember how light and fluffy that stuff felt and I was amazed. I would also soon learn that it doesn't taste nearly as good as it smells. I remember sitting on the toilet watching him as he told me how careful you had to be and that you should always shave "with the grain" or it will hurt. He also said to always use a sharp razor. I also remember the rust ring the can left on the sink and wondered how that could happen since the sink wasn't metal.

Jump forward about 32 years. We have all been sick for about 2 weeks and it appears that Lydia and I are the last ones to get the flu. I have been feeling icky all weekend long and last night I spiked a 105 degree fever. Lydia has about a 102 fever. I thank God that everyone else seems to be getting better.

So since I have been feeling under the weather I really just wanted to sit around the house and take it easy. Perhaps I took it to the extreme because the last shower I took was Friday morning before work. I figured it was about time to clean up so after dinner I went into the bathroom to shave before taking a shower. As I reached under the sink to get the shaving cream, I heard little feet scurrying across the tile floor.

"Hi Daddy - what are you doing?" Emma asked.

"I'm getting ready to shave, baby." I replied.

"Oh. Ok. What's that stuff?" she asked pointing to the can of shaving cream.

"That is shaving cream." I said as i squirted some out and lathered up my face.

"You look funny - like Santa" she said as I now had a white beard of shaving cream.

"I guess I do." I said.

"What's that?" she asked as she pointed to my razor.

"That's Daddy's razor. I use this to shave off my whiskers. Now you don't touch this thing. It is really sharp and could cut you." I gently instructed.

As I began to shave, Emma asked "Daddy why are you cutting off your wixers?"

"Well if they get too long they start to itch." I replied.

"What is that black stuff in the water?" Emma asked as she pointed to my whiskers.

"That's Daddy's whiskers I shaved off." I replied.

"Ooooooooooh. Will your wixers grow back, daddy?" She asked.

"They sure will. I Shave them off about every other day." I said.

"Oh - I see." Emma said.

I smiled at her in the mirror and when I turned my head I guess she saw the other side of my head. As most men, I was in a hurry to shave and evidently had shaving cream in my ear.


"OH MY GOD DADDY - IT'S IN YOUR EAR!!!" Emma shouted.

I'm not one to really take the Lord's name in vain but I'm sure the angels couldn't help but giggle over that one.

I love you Emma.

25 in the morning!

Usually, the girls are up before I am. Perhaps they have superhuman hearing and can hear the daylight breaking on the other side of the horizon. It's quite amazing. Put them to be at 7pm, they're up at 545am. Put them to bed at 9pm, they are up at 545am. Anyway this morning I was able to get a little sweet revenge. I woke up early and got ready for work this morning and the girls had not yet stirred from their slumber. I rubbed their backs to gently wake them up and then turned the light on.

"Daddy I love you this much all by myself!" said Chloe with outstretched arms.

"Good morning baby... Are you ready to go to school?" I asked.

"UH HUH!" she said excitedly.

I turned to Emma and saw her smiling behind her red hair which was hanging like a shaggy coat over her eyes.

"Come on Emma let's get dressed." I said.

She arched her back and looked up at the Cinderella alarm clock perched on her dresser.

As she flopped back down on her pillows she mumbled "Awwwwwwwwwww Dad - it's 25 in the morning..."

I love the cute way you are starting to tell us what time it is.

It's not easy being green!

Last night I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner per the usual nightly routine and the Mrs. and I started talking about conserving energy and buying organic stuff. Now we're not paranoid or conservative nut jobs by any measure. However, with three little girls looking up at us, we just feel that it is important to do our part to pass on a cleaner and better off world to them. So we agreed that we're going to replace our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones, start to recycle, and if things work out financially - going off the power grid and using solar energy. I've actually been researching that and we can generate more than enough free energy to power our house from day to day, save some in reserves, and get a reverse power meter to actually sell excess energy to the electric company. How cool is that? It's expensive to do so I'll have to figure it out but it could be a huge selling point on our house if we sell in the next X years.

"I really want to go green!" the Mrs. said enthusiastically.

"Noooooooooooooooo mommy!" replied Emma. "I want you to stay the color you are. I don't want you to be green."

Emma you are precious. We love you very much.