Good bye Florida

I've told a joke to David so many times that he finally started to catch on and the punch line became a power struggle as to who could say it first.

"Hey Dave, guess what?"
"What?"
"That's what!"

I know, it's sophomoric.  It's dumb. It's terrible.  But if you tell the exact same joke in the hundreds of thousands of times over the course of several years then what you develop is special.  At first he tried to figure the joke out, because let's be honest--it's not that funny.  Gradually he became elated when I'd catch him un-awares and he'd respond "What?" only to find out there was no gold at the end of the rainbow. Then he became tired of the prank.  Then he became angry every time I'd try to catch him in it.

The angry part is where I had to rein it back in.  I told him one time that he couldn't respond to "Guess what?" with "I hate you."  Instead, we had to say, "Guess what?" "What?" "I love you, that's what."

This kind of ran it's course a year or so ago and I figured that it was over with.  But several times this week I tried the old go-to and he immediately responded with, "I love you, that's what."  It's as sweet to my ears as anything I've ever heard.  I caught myself throwing out the lead-in line a couple of times today, just because I like hearing him say it to me.

I love you too, Dave.

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Brigham is a big stinky boy.  Like seriously, I have had to that he excuse himself and go to the bathroom to wash his feet almost every day I've seen him for the last few weeks.  It's rancid.  I once had to do it over the phone.  

He has this plush blanket that Grandma Susie gave him.  He sleeps with it every night.  I went to tuck him in tonight and accidentally put it near my face.  Holy moly, it was worse than my high school gym locker.  It was awful.  I'm washing it tomorrow for Michelle's sake, and because that has to be killing brain cells if you sleep under it all night.

He's a big kid.  His mother wore his men's medium jacket out on a date with me the other night.  And it fit her rather well.  He's almost already out of it.

The hand-foot-and-mouth disease he contracted a couple of months ago is finally catching up to him. He has several fingernails that are falling off.  But they are only falling off because a new one is growing in their place underneath.  It looks rather painful if you ask me but he seems to be doing well with it.

He is a handful.  He has his oppositional defiant issues we have always dealt with but now you tie that together with being a teenager and man, we're confused and sideways.  Sometimes Michelle and I have to grab him and just love him really hard, like physically really hard.  So that we don't grab him and hurt him really hard, like physically really hard.  But dang what amazing potential and amazing success he is already.

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Last Thursday I finished flying and had just enough time to run to OKC and jump on a direct flight to Ft Walton Beach.  I surprised Michelle and the boys in order to try and help wrap things up on the move.  The packers had already come, the movers had carried everything away and we were there with an empty house and lots of great memories.  We stayed in a little off-season condo on Navarre beach and cleaned that house way more than it needed to be for staging purposes.  It looks great, if not empty.  I had to fly back for my next flight in the KC-135 and Michelle loaded kids up in the car and drove out the next day.  So now they are here in Oklahoma with me for a bit.

Tomorrow they will get on the road again and I'll meet up with them when I can.

Today we went to the gym, ran some errands, washed the dog, did Christmas shopping, I had a debrief and then we went to the base to play miniature golf as the sun went down in the most amazing display of vivid colors you could imagine.  It was really cool.  Then we went to the base library and the boys played Star Wars Battle Front on the Xbox.

While at the gym I spent some time working with each child on exercises that were more games than anything else.  Michelle taught Mackay a basic post move in basketball and I worked with him on passing.  He's becoming a big kid and though pretty lumbering, I saw some significant potential from both of my older sons for athletic ability.  I think I need to work more with them to bring that out.  I was surprised by CMB's interest in basketball.  I think he could really enjoy getting better at the game.  Kind of in the same way that I did so many years ago, I suppose.  He is a loving boy but he seems to be moving past that baby phase and more interested in competing.

I guess if you've read this far, you are rather interested.  I think if I were to summarize all of this I'd just say that I love every bit of every one of my boys (and my beautiful wife).  All is well. We're moving.  And the Blondies kick ass.