Awards

Kids can be the sweetest thing. Sometimes I am reminded that isn't true, but not tonight.

Waiting for me on my pillow was a pink envelope with some writing, what looked like a candy wrapped in a bright yellow wrapper, and a ribbon. The ribbon says "Awarded to Dad, for: the best dad in the world." The candy wrapper is yellow paper with little smiling lady bugs all over, carefully drawn and colored. Wrapped in the yellow paper is a worn, smooth rock for a lucky charm. The pink envelope has three screws in it with a note inside, "For working on something" and on the outside of the envelope it says, "To: Dad, from: madeline."

I think there's a couple little things that make this so tender and beautiful. First, the red ink on Madeline's hand when she came in and gave me a huge bear hug, and told me how much she loved me. There were little ink blotches on her fingers, and I could picture her coloring the little lady bugs studiously. She later told me she worked especially hard on the lady bugs. One of them almost looks like it has three dimensions.

The screws are sweet, because I've been doing some work out in the garage and she of course knew I could use them. These are just some random screws she picked up from somewhere. It couldn't have been my garage, my garage is immaculate (I do have a Ridgid 6HP, 16Gallon Shop-vac/blower). She's thinking of me when she sees something as simple as a wood screw melts my heart.

But the real tender side comes from yesterday. As a "punishment" for not listening, I had her help me in the garage sanding a few things down, and I had her use some citrus cleaner to wipe dried glue from some clamps with a wire brush. She was so mad at first, but she really worked hard. I had to go inside once and she asked when I would be back. By the end of both chores she was completely into it, and I dare say even liked it.

So a couple things are coming out of this bright spot in my evening. One, Madeline and I are going to Dunkin Donuts tomorrow morning for breakfast before school, and two, I've got to stop cursing all these "lady bug" beetles that are everywhere in the Midwest. At least in front of Madeline, I'm going to stop cursing those things. I can't stand the @!#$* beetles. I squish them every chance I get.