For Maia on Father's Day, 2008

Lately you've been thinking about humor.



There's a thing that you do that always makes me laugh. You frame your face with your hands, palms forward and fingers splayed, and then you show this over-the-top burlesqued look of surprise on your face and tilt to your right, as though you're just about to fall over. You will do this over and over again, and I will laugh every time. You've got such timing. You're so good at physical humor.



"Why do you laugh when I do that?" you asked me.

"I don't know," I said. "It just makes me laugh."

"I think you have a different brain," you said. "You have a laughing brain."



I think you make me laugh, Sweetness. Thank you for making me laugh.

ps Of the picture: I asked you, "What's that?", and you said, "A happy monster."

John, Father's Day, Sunday, June 15, 2008

Maia talks to me about work

"Are you thinking about work?"

We were lying in her bed. She likes me to lie next to her at night when she goes to sleep.



Last night, I was a little late, and intercepted her at the door to her bedroom, in the dark. "I'm afraid of the dark, Daddy," she had said.



"Yes, Maia, I was thinking about work. I shouldn't do that, should I?" I said.

"No, Daddy because I like to play with you. All the time. I took out the legos because I thought you wanted to play and have fun."



"I'm sorry, Sweetie. I will try not to do that."

"Okay, Daddy," she said.



Relative authority in our relationship has been a little ambiguous lately. In the car on the way to the beach, today, she announced to Kristina that, "You're the boss of me, and I'm the boss of Daddy." This was apropos of her having to listen to Popo--Kristina's mother. She has a hard time with that.



She takes her new role as my boss seriously. Last night, she yelled down to me to turn off the television because it was after 6:30pm, and, "You're not supposed to watch TV after 6:30." But then she had asked Kristina if I could watch TV, and Kristina had told her I could. "I better tell him," Kristina said she had said. And so she had yelled down again to me, "You can watch TV, Daddy. Mommy said."



I took these photos today at the beach--Queen's Surf. We had gone down there for snokling to try to repeat the Big Island experience. But we didn't snorkle. Nothing repeats with Maia.



These next photos are of drawings that she made a few days ago of me, herself and Kristina.







I love these drawings. As she made mine, she kept looking up at me to make sure she was getting the picture right.

This last one, she did today. It's a story about going to Chinatown. She wrote the whole thing herself, except that she asked me how to spell, "restaurant." I helped her through it, and she got it all, except for the "au" part.



She is good for us in more ways than I can say. I hope we are as good for her.

John, Sunday, June 8, 2008