She told me how you âused a curse word and kept repeating itâ after repeated warnings. Of course, your classmates thought you were funny and for a moment you were the life of the party. Now that your Dad was here, no one seemed to be laughing. I wondered where you heard the word from because your mother and I donât curse at home. Well, not on a regular basis. There was the time I burned myself while frying some bacon and a couple of hot drops of grease caught me on the arm. Yeah, I uttered an expletive or two. But still, I didnât say the âBâ word.

As it turns out, there is a young lady in your class who seems to know all the bad words. She has taught them to you and your classmates as you all enjoy the playground and at times, during classroom activities. I understand the influence of your classmates just as one day, youâll understand the meaning of all the new words you have recently soaked up from them. It was with this thought bearing in my mind that took my deep breath and slowly exhaled. As we walked to the car, I decided to take a new approach in addressing your use of foul language.

For starters, I told you that you were not in trouble. Man, if I could have gotten a picture of your face when I told you that. Talk about relief! Actually, you were a bit confused. I could imagine you were thinking to yourself, âWhat? No butt whuppinâ? Whatâs wrong with Dad?â Instead of getting upset and flying off the handle I decided this was the perfect chance to let you air your dirty laundry in hopes of showing you that itâs not all that itâs cracked up to be. Once in the car and with you munching on your Doritos, I looked at you in my rear view mirror and gave you my speech:

âFrizzy, there are a lot of bad words. Even though you donât hear mom and dad use these words, we canât help that you wonât hear these words in other places from other people. Sometimes you will hear them on television, in some songs, or elsewhere. The most important thing is that you understand that these words can hurt people and arenât the best choices for little people to use. I hope that you wonât use these words again just because your classmates are using them. I want to give you a chance to say the words now and to get the urge out of your system so you wonât make the same mistake in school.â

I asked you to repeat the word you had used. You whispered it so quietly that I donât think you heard it yourself. âFrizzy, youâre not in troubleâthis is our learning time.â A bit louder now you enunciated perfectly, âbitchâ. See, I knew you knew the word. âOkay, I want you to say it loudly and get it out of your systemâ. By now you knew dad had flipped but this was a lot better than a butt whipping! âBitch, bitch, bitchâ. We talked about how such and ugly word it is and you gave me about ten reasons why we donât need to use it anymore. Then we went on to discuss the other bad words you have heard on the playground. I was a bit surprised to find out how many you knew but at least for now, you had a perfect outlet in which to understand the meaning behind them. Needless to say, you felt a lot better and have realized there is no need for you to repeat every thing you hear the other children say. We laughed about it then as we do now, that day in the car when you got to yell out all the bad words as loud as you could. We concluded with dad telling you if you ever felt the need to do that again, please let me know. I am sure we will find an ample solution for your frustration. It is better if we do it than have you in trouble at school again.

Love,

Dad

We did leave two very special creatures behind when we said adios to Florida. Our two cats, Tara and Trooper, were very special to you. It's true that you were as gentle as you could be, but even so, you often gave them utter hell. Despite all your antics towards them, they always showed you love and care. I myself and not a fan of cats. I used to have this saying about cats. It went like this: " The only good cat is a....", well, you get the idea. When you were first born Tara and Trooper would lurk around you, sniff, and observe with utmost curiosity. It's the same curiosity that almost got them killed on more than one occasion. Sometimes, Trooper would sit on you while you would nap on the couch. I now know he was being protective and loving. Thing is, he was a fat cat, Garfield like, and his weight was too much for any baby to withstand.

At five years old and an only child, you have begun to ask for a little brother or sister. Or even both! Well, I can't promise that either one will come your way any time soon. I'm still looking for a sign, like a burning bush with a voice from on high. Then I'll know without a doubt that your sibling is in the cards (smile). In three weeks, we are going to get a new cat. We have to go to Saar Louis pick it up and you will give it a name. I hope his presence will bring you much joy as you are now older and can appreciate them on another level. No pet will ever replace Tara and Trooper. We will miss them for many moons to come. But this cat will be sure to be one of your special memories years from now. I can't wait to see what name you will give him.

Love,

Dad

The Headless Power Ranger!

There is a group of super heroes called the Power Rangers that have been around for many years. I was never a fan of the Rangers, probably because by the time they came around, I was just about ready to enter college. I remember my younger brother Rossie caught the Ranger bug though. Depending on his mood, he could be any one of those guys, except for the pink one (of course).

Frizzy, you love all the Rangers! Sometimes we play and dad is always the bad guy. I'm always getting beat down, caught, man-handled, and eventually killed because you have wisely chosen a more talented and skillful Ranger. Maybe one day I'll get to win a battle and know the thrill of victory. Last week during one of your solo episodes of play, I heard a loud crash in your toy room. When I went to see what the commotion was, I found one of the rather new (and expensive) Rangers without his head attached. Of course I knew how this poor toy met his demise but I was interested in hearing your version of the story. As you told it," He fell and busted his head open". Wow Frizzy! That must have been some fall because you're only about , well, nearly four feet high yourself!!! (smile) Dad got down on bended knee and explained how we must take care of our toys and just a wee bit about how much they cost. I know you don't know the true value of money just yet. Much of that being my fault as I've made sure you have brought half of the toy store home! But we decided the next couple of trips of shopping would be minimized to what mom likes to call "window shopping".  This is a great idea and as tough as it seems for now, you are already learning the value of taking care of what you have.

I'm quite sure there are many Rangers who have lost their heads in battle, many who have fallen from "way up high" only to meet their demise! So Frizzy, let's try to take care of our Rangers and all our toys from now on.

Love,

Dad!

Love,

Dad