Father's Day 2010

Wow! Did I have an awesome father's day! My wife and children are the best. They started with making me a very lovingly-prepared and delicious breakfast of pancakes, sausage, strawberries, yogurt, orange juice and tropical fruit smoothie. They sang a primary father's day song as they brought the food to me. They were so cute. Our six-year-old felt bad that she didn't have anything made at school to give me like her older siblings. So my wife let her give me a game that she had bought for me. But she did give me a cute coloring page that she worked on in church later. (See the accompanying picture.) Her siblings gave me a cute craft made of woven construction paper and a "pocket" stuffed with a paper ruler, pen, and pencil with nice sayings written on them. My wife had another "bigger" present in mind for me. But it was still being shipped. So she felt bad enough to give me a cute little pretend iTunes gift card instead. Well, I thought she was quite a bit more generous in the amount of the gift card than I really deserved!

At church, all of the primary children sang two songs for the fathers in the ward during sacrament meeting. The first was "Fathers" and the second was the same song my family sang to me in the morning. It was very cute. Although, our son did disappear for a while during the second song. We discovered that he was busy removing his socks for some reason. But don't worry, at least he brought back one of them when they were done. Thanks, Sister Atkinson, for finding the other one for us!

At priesthood meeting, we were given some yummy cookies to munch on during our meeting. I chose a chocolate cookie with frosting. Thanks, Sister Howell and the Relief Society! They were great! Our priesthood lesson on the Atonement ended a bit early. So we even had enough time to fold and put away all of the chairs before primary was finished.

After church, we took the kids to my wife's parent's home. My brother-in-law (yes, the same infamous tooth-fairy's assistant, although not to be outdone by other, more ambitious tooth pullers) had cooked up some delicious barbecue.

I am so grateful to be a father! I feel so loved and am so happy to have such a significant purpose in this life. I have four wonderful children, who are such a joy to have in my life. And my gorgeous wife is the perfect companion to work beside in raising these little angels. She is so loving and patient with all of us. I couldn't make it without her deep wisdom and phenomenal organizational skills.

I am also grateful to my own father for all that he has done for me. He is an awesome example and has always been a wise teacher and mentor for me. I feel privileged to have been sent to him and my dear mother to be brought up in this world. Of course there are very many on this world that don't have such ideal family circumstances. Still, I know that our Father in Heaven really loves his children on earth and works for our happiness, even if we don't always recognize it. Ultimately, He is the Father to whom we can all pay homage on this very special occasion of Father's Day.

To all you fathers and those of you who have a father: Happy Father's Day!

Uncle Tooth Fairy

Our 6-year-old daughter had a tooth that was very loose. She asked me multiple times over the few previous days to try to pull it out for her. I'm quite squeamish with such things. So my attempts were not very effective. I tried to tug it out, but when it didn't come out with just a little force, I gave up and told her we'd have to wait a little longer for it to loosen some more.

Well, her uncle wasn't quite so patient with the tooth. I had left her at his home while I helped my parents move some furniture in their house. My brother-in-law had an innovative way to get the loose tooth out. Clearly from the video, my daughter was in no way harmed or in danger. But the extreme nature of this extrication method still shocked me a bit. Anyway, her uncle was at least good for the dollar he promised his niece. And she was clearly happy for not only the dollar from her uncle, but for the anticipated earnings to come in from the other Tooth Fairy.

Enjoy the video, if you dare...

You Tube Link.

Without Bounds: Atlantis

The inspiration for the name of my blog came from our two oldest children. Our 10-year-old daughter and our 8-year-old son have both been diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. While Autism may be a convenient label to affiliate with them to help describe some of their behaviors, it is still really too narrow of a box to capture who these two precious souls are. It may be that Autism isn't really the most accurate label at all to apply to them.

While sometimes it's comforting to have that somewhat "solid" explanation to hold on to, I'm inclined to allow my view of them to be more open and flexible. Raising them has presented enormous challenges to my wife and me. But it has fascinated me to observe and ponder on the unique nature of our children. The title "Without Bounds" captures so much more about our children than any clinical diagnosis from a psychologist ever could. It describes the way they impulsively act out any and all desires they have at any given moment. Their disregard of conventions, traditions, culture, and rules is often a source of frustration for us at home. But that also gives me a glimmer of hope for them. I anticipate that their "thinking outside of the box" and living "without bounds" in general can allow them to reach beyond what others may initially view as the limits of their potential.

Example: Atlantis

An example of the limitless possibilities came up recently. Like most boys his age, our son often becomes obsessed with certain themes and brands as marketed by various enterprises that generate products targetting young children. Lately he has become very interested in Lego toys and some of the themed incarnations of those toys. One of those themes is Atlantis. He has been asking a lot of questions about Atlantis. At one point he asked my wife to read to him about Atlantis. We happen to have a book presenting the vision of Atlantis from the point of view of a somewhat recent Disney animated movie. He promptly declined, tersely declaring "that isn't the real Atlantis."

Then, one night he asked me, "Dad, is Atlantis real." I recommended that he explore that question by going to the original source. I said that he should read about it in Plato's Republic. He took to that idea enthusiastically. I had an old copy of the book given to me by a friend in college. Our son and I had an exhilirating run throughout our house, searching from bookcase to bookcase for the book. We finally found it on a shelf in the family room downstairs. He happily clutched the precious book in his hands as we climbed the stairs up to his bedroom, at one point declaring that he was going to become a diver when he was older. His excitement was thrilling for me to see. He had in mind an exciting journey of discovery and adventure. Of course I recognize this was induced by the very Disney movie he had earlier rejected, as well as the depictions of Atlantis shown by the Lego toys. But it overjoyed me to see him aggressively pursuing his ambitions to the extent that he could as a young boy. And now here he was, with the secrets to Atlantis to be found buried within the words of Plato himself. Later that night I found him with the book in bed, scanning through the book searching for clues about Atlantis. He soon tired and fell asleep.

Of course I'm not so deluded to really believe that my boy is just going to start plowing through Plato's Republic. This is the same boy that sometimes can't even get through his comic books on his own unless Dad is there to help him read. In fact, as I peeked at the place he had marked with a scrap paper, I discovered that he had actually made it as far as page 'x' of the introduction. The introduction start on page 'viii.' :) It truly would be neat to see him explore the ideas of mathematics and philosophy presented by Plato. But I'm pretty sure he will quickly tire of the plan and give up. Nevertheless, I was so impressed by his willingness to branch out just a hair. I feel like one day just such a whim will truly captivate him or his sister and lead him or her through fantastic growth and learning. I can't wait to see that, because I really love seeing the sparkle in the eyes of my son and daughter as they reach for their dreams, reaching well byond the bounds that most of us seem to stay behind.