Back to the Future

Hey Archer,

You may or not have been awake when I kissed your forehead and whispered that I loved you this morning. It's back to the future today as I begin traveling again. And even though it won't be heavy travel until the new year it's still the first week that I'm going to have to leave you for what, in the future, could be days at a time. I figured it may be helpful to give you some tips now that you're the man of the house until I get back.

1) Your mom loves to snuggle. Normally I provide a good portion of these. Snuggle liberally in my absence.

2) Kaya likes to pretend you didn't feed her. She will sit down quietly in front of her bowl twenty minutes after eating and give you her saddest "I sure could use a meal" face. Don't be fooled, it's a trick.

3) Your mom loads the dishwasher all sorts of wrong. Thing is, she believes she's the dish loading master. Don't fight her on it, she'll just get mad. Flip them around when she isn't looking and run it.

4) You're going to have to shoulder the Mellow Yellow load while I'm gone. It's one tall boy a day and you should leave the empty in new and exciting places each day. Mom looks like she's angry about it but deep down she knows this is our thing.

5) Let me know if she brings any guys over that aren't Uncle Rattlesnake or Uncle Emu (code names) and tells you they're an uncle or cousin. Excluding Papa Petey and Pop Pop feel free to pummel the privates of any male that comes over while I'm away.

6) Be patient, calming, and a voice of reason whenever possible.

7) Lock doors and turn off lights. Mom forgets sometimes and she's got a lot of mommying to focus on right now.

That's all I can think of right now and my plane is about to take off. I'll see you soon. I love you very much.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Some advice:

Never cry. Or rather, go ahead and cry but blame it on a rogue dust storm and nobody will be the wiser. Works every time.

~ Your Dad