A Letter to my Son

Dear Isaac,

I would like to apologize for your DNA.

Not that you aren't awesome. You totally are. But, well...it's because you're part of me that you get upset when you don't excel at something the first time. I will spend my whole life trying to teach you what I learned only a few years ago: that you can do anything if you work hard at it. But it won't make you feel any better when you fail, and I'm sorry for that.

It's my fault you can't sit still. I know, I know. Daddy is the most inert, quiet, non-silly man you know. But as a boy, I was exactly like you. When you get in trouble for it as much as I have, you'll learn to keep it inside too.

And it's my fault you feel everything must be in perfect order. That's why you have to put your Go Fish cards back into pairs before you can count them. That's why each piece of your orange peel must touch none of the other pieces. In the future, you will straighten stacks of cards every time you take a turn, and your friends will mock you by knocking things out of place (see #4).

It's okay. They still love you. And I'll help you fix it.

Keep in mind that for all our faults, you are still an incredibly handsome genius. Most of the credit for that goes to your mom, of course, but at least I didn't screw it up.

Though if you grow to hate your widow's peak, well, I apologize for that too.

Love you, buddy.

Dad

9 comments:

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

So cute! And I think Isaac is about the luckiest kid on the planet. :)

jjdebenedictis said...

D'aw! I can't gauge his genius quotient over the internet, but he's definitely incredibly handsome. :)

Victoria Dixon said...

This is so sweet! Way to go, awesome Dad. :D

Adam Heine said...

Well, JJ, he's not quite 5 years old, but he can read simple books and he can count to 100 (sort of...some numbers get out of order occasionally).

He'd be even better if it weren't that short attention span I cursed him with.

Matthew MacNish said...

Amen, brother.

Gwen Stewart said...

What a very sweet letter for a very sweet-sounding boy.

God bless you both!

Keriann Greaney Martin said...

Aww, this is so cute. I love "meeting" your kids. They all sound so awesome.

Deniz Bevan said...

Aww, that's a lovely letter, Adam. You guys look so much alike!

linda said...

Such a great letter! :D So sweet. Your son is adorable! It was fun seeing the photo of you as a kid, too. :)