Dear Eliza, 106 Months Old

Dear Eliza, 

Congratulations on starting your first business: Eliza’s Face Painting. 

We keep finding new ways for you to flex your artistic muscles. Painting has always been on the menu, and we particularly enjoy painting the flat rocks we find at Harstine Island as a family. You and Mom bought a face painting kit to try out, and you took off with excitement and painted every clean face in the household. Apologies for having to work around my beard.

After a successful round painting our faces and your friends around the neighborhood, you embarked on creating the business idea and designing flyers to post. 

I hope your business takes off as we’re at the height of summer. Mom got you a new round of supplies so you’ll be set to take on new customers. 

Congratulations about another achievement that may be more exciting to me, at least for now. You and Matteo received your Italian passports in the mail! You are a card-carrying dual citizen. I’ve written you before about the years it took to get us dual citizenship on another continent, and the passports are the big finale. For the rest of your life, you’ll be able to travel relatively freely across the globe. I hope you take advantage of it and will be curious to see what doors that may open to you academically, in your career, or lifestyle. At the very least, you can say without hesitation that you’re Italian.

Grab that painting set and put red, white and green on my cheeks. Forza Italia!

Love, Dad

Dear Matteo, 85 Months Old

“Just one more thing.”

That’s your last statement when a phone is about to be taken away after we’ve determined you’ve loaded up your Amazon wish list enough.

“I know you’re probably going to say no to this, but...”

Yet another plea to shop. 

You love to digitally window shop and it’s gotten to the point where you’re stealing a phone in open sight to shop almost as often as you proactively ask. You also pair these phrases with watching shows, another vice. 

The latest shopping fad is Legos as you’ve enjoyed the reward of building a challenging set on your own. I tried to remind you that Legos are for play and imagination, not just following a set’s instructions. You clapped back that Legos are JUST for building sets and showing them off. I replied that we should probably donate the couple boxes of extra Legos you have in your room, which of course you refused and claimed you need the extras in case you can’t find pieces for your next set. You’re not wrong. 

It’s fun to get a new Lego set every so often, but the frequent weekly asks to spend whatever money you earned picking up pinecones in the backyard (the most creative of chores) is over the top. 

I have to appreciate the Legos business model -- get a set, enjoy the satisfaction of building it, buy the next. We will need to find you a less capitalistic mindset with your Legos or a similar building project that either takes way more time or that you can enjoy rebuilding. 

Maybe this was the mindset behind the creation of the 1,000-piece puzzle. How about I get you one of those in the image of that next Lego Ninjago set on your list. 

Love,
Dad

Dear Eliza, 105 Months Old

We’re in the full swing of summer, and you just completed your first week of day camps at Miracle Ranch with Matteo. This was your first “real” camp experience, and you loved it!

You were reasonably nervous on the first day, and your Mom did her magic identifying another shy girl at the registration table named Natalie to introduce you two. You were both in the same group and became fast friends. The camp had all the classic activities including swimming (limited to just one day due to lake algae blooms, yuck), archery, horse riding, etc. This may seem small, but we were delighted when you told us after the first day of camp that you ate and liked the lunch food. You’re typically picky about food at school, so it was a nice leap for you to eat what’s put in front of you.

Mom and I attended the rodeo in the morning on the last day of camp, and you showed us a square dance to “Cotton Eye Joe” later that night. You told us that you can have one sleepover night in your age group next year and definitely want to do that. This camp experience was a big win, and we’re glad to hear you’re already excited for next year.

I never attended a traditional summer camp, but I attended a sleepover soccer camp at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island for a couple years around age 11. This may have also been the peak of my soccer career because I got the nod for “Best Offensive Player” at the end of camp. Anyway, I remember staying in a big bunkhouse with a ton of other kids, eating in large cafeterias and, of course, playing soccer. At that time “Basket Case” by Green Day and “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine were big music hits. I remember them getting played on rotation by the camp counselors and at the camp dance night where we had a most pit. (Read: A lot of kids stood around a hot gym and then harmlessly jumped around during the Green Day song.)

I’m not sure Miracle Ranch played the hits or soccer, but I know the camp had some light Christian undertones in its song choices and some select Bible verses in camp materials. After camp, you asked more about reading the Bible, so Mom got you an edition for young girls to help you navigate the stories. You’ve had your nose in that Bible every since, and those 1,000+ pages are meant to last a lifetime, so don’t rush yourself. We pray before dinner but otherwise our church attendance is light (because the mountains are close to heaven on Sundays), and we don’t push religion much on you at all. I’ll be interested to see how this progresses as we socialize with friends and in communities like this that are faith-based. I personally like that you’re starting to learn about Christianity because it helps you realize you’re in a bigger world with a big history. We’ll help you navigate this realm of faith more as you take interest.

Or maybe you’ll peak on this topic early like my offensive skills at soccer summer camp. We’ll see.

Love,
Dad

Dear Matteo, 84 Months Old

Happy birthday, Matteo! You’re finally 7!

I swear you were 6-year-old for about 3 years. I’m not complaining that time moved so slow. It’s just that you seemed a lot older than 6 most of the past year. It must be that big, strong personality of yours shining through.

We threw you a backyard birthday party and had a good turn out. The group played soccer for most of the time. So far as gifts, right now you’re into Legos and Ninjago, so you got those kinds of presents. You can now build most Lego sets without my help and you’re fast at them. By the way, you like to tell us the rank order of you’re favorite things. You say, “Dad, right now I’m into Legos and I’m not into Pokemon as much, but I still like them.” Although you’re not into robotics (yet), your Mom and I got you a robot to build (read: I’m struggling to build it with your audience) and a couple of books: a kids cookbook and a craft project book. We know you love to cook and make crafts like Eliza.

As for your “real” birthday, we’ve been out here at the island enjoying some hot weather. We’ve bounced around the pool and beaches. We took the boat to Fudge Point where we saw at least a dozen starfish at low tide. We got back into Harry Potter movies under the guise that “The Goblet of Fire” is only appropriate for kids over the age of 7. Seeing Voldemort was still a little too creepy for you, so after the movie you complained thinking about Harry Potter (but not specifically Voldemort).

On the lighter side, you told us about a new game called “Guess My Farts” where you ask us the question, we make a fart sound and then you let one go to see if the sounds match. It’s totally inappropriate and laugh-until-your-stomach-hurts funny. This is life with you at age 7, and it’s so great.

Love,
Dad

Dear Eliza, 104 Months Old

Thanks for inviting me to Career Day at school!

I spent the morning combining three of my most important jobs: being your Dad, supporting Mom (who may have nudged me), and working at REI to support our family and people wanting to get outside.

To prepare for Career Day, I took time thinking about how I’d explain what I do as a marketer to kids your age. Marketing doesn’t crest with youthful career aspirations like becoming an astronaut or video game designer. If you look at my work calendar, my job is basically meeting and managing people. The more fun and important stuff is the outcomes of those meetings and working with those people: advertisements, videos, podcasts, parties and events, etc., for REI. So I focused on that.

Aunt Nina joked that we need a family presentation night where we all take turns presenting what we actually do for work. That’s not a bad idea.

Overall, I’d say things went well. I asked students about their favorite outdoor activities and where they like to do them. I showed them some videos we’ve made at REI, and we listened to a spooky Camp Monsters podcast together. I was intrigued to see the students’ imaginations spin when they listened to the podcast compared to when they watched videos. There’s something about audio stories, like reading, that gets the mind going differently.

Of course, the highlight was presenting to YOUR class — despite that session having the most technical difficulties with my computer crashing. Sorry about that. You gave me a big hug when you saw me and told a lot of kids, “That’s my Dad!” That was worth the whole morning.

Students also dressed up for a Career Day, and I saw a big range across professional athletes to doctors, lawyers and many students imitating their parents’ careers (more doctors and lawyers than professional athletes). Of course, you did not dress up as a marketer. You dressed up as a “designer,” a fashion designer, to be specific. I love how you are so set on your artistic direction. You rocked the look with the beret, too.

Don’t jump too fast into a career. It can end up being a lot of meetings. Maybe yours will be about presenting your sketches and designs for the new season. We’ll see.

Love,
Dad