#160 III

Today is my daughter Lanie's third birthday. So in honor of Lanie of turning 3, here's Lanie's last year in three pictures:

Lanie loves to read. We've also spent a lot of time this past year talking about her becoming a big sister. Here she's practicing reading to her doll. Watch out, baby sister: Lanie's ready for you.

This summer Lanie got to be a flower girl in Aunt Molly and Uncle Drew's wedding. As much as Lanie likes people, a pretty full sanctuary was overwhelming, so she ended up running down the aisle. She did manage to drop a few petals along the way.

Lanie has become much more imaginative over the past year. One day this winter she decided she wanted to go to the beach. Here she's sunbathing on her towel.

Happy birthday, Lanie! Your daddy loves you!

Grace and peace,
BMH

#159 Read with Me

When I was a kid, my dad read to me. We read day in and day out. I remember being four or five years old, and my dad reading all seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia to me, one chapter a day. (I'm pretty sure my mom also read to me, but reading was more often a Dad thing.) So when I became a dad, I was super excited to read to my daughter, Lanie. Beyond my fond memories of reading with my dad, I've also heard many times how good it is to read with children. Lanie and I read a bedtime story every night. When Tess or I put Lanie down for her nap, we read a book with her then, too. Sometimes when I'm feeling a little too tired to keep up with Lanie I try to talk her into reading instead of bouncing off the walls. (It even works sometimes!)

On my own I read a pretty good number of Superman comics. (What can I say? I like books with pictures.) They normally aren't targeted almost exclusively at kids like they were a couple generations ago, but kid-friendly comics do still get published. A few years back through a library app I stumbled upon a great but short-lived series called Superman Family Adventures. I read it, enjoyed it, collected it, and enjoyed it all over again. Last year, the guys behind Superman Family Adventures returned with a new book about Clark Kent's early adventures as Superman: Superman of Smallville. I thought it was great, too, so when I received some Christmas money, I decided to buy a copy. I don't know if I'll have a child interested in comics, but if I do, I figured Superman of Smallville would be a great first one for her or him to read.

Last week Superman of Smallville showed up at the Hofman house.

When Lanie saw it, she was immediately interested. I don't know if it was the bright colors or the simple art style, but she was drawn to the book like a pin to a magnet. So later that day she brought me the book and asked me to read it to her. Suddenly my reading with Lanie and my own reading came together. We read the first chapter. Later on she grabbed me again and had me read the other three chapters to her. The next day we read the whole thing again. The day after that we read the first volume of Superman Family Adventures. As you'd expect, I've been beyond thrilled to read this with her, and I mean, come on. Look at this sample page:

What's not to love? Lanie doesn't have to like Superman or even comics in general. But if she wants to read and reread Superman of Smallville, I can't imagine I'll tell her no.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#158 Trash Talk

Tess and I bought Candy Land for Lanie this Christmas. She really likes the game, and she doesn't need a whole lot of help from us. We have a lot of fun together. There's only one downfall: Lanie has learned how to trash talk. As soon as we get the game out she starts giving me a hard time: "I go to ice cream [the special ice cream cone space is pretty close to the goal]. Daddy cry, cry."

So a couple things: First, for some reason Lanie thinks that losing to her in Candy Land is absolutely devastating for me. I've never cried, but she's sure I'm hurting, and she really feels the need to rub it in. Second, her trash talk is pretty justified: she wins pretty much every time we play. It's incredible. She really doesn't draw fantastic cards. She's not pulling the ice cream cone card early in the game every time. But I can't seem to beat her. For whatever reason, whenever I get within about twenty spaces of the end, I inevitably pull the peanut card and end up way back, only about one-third of the way to the end. So I'm stuck listening to Lanie's trash talk. She's savage. We may be playing Candy Land, but my daughter isn't all sweet.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#157 New Year, Big Whoop

Full transparency: New Year's is probably my least favorite holiday. Some people live for New Year's celebrations. It would be hard for me to care less. Part of my trouble with New Year's is that it comes so close to Christmas, which I care way more about. I'm still in the middle of celebrating Christmas when we reach December 31 and January 1. I don't want to switch over to something else.

Also, New Year's comes at a weird time during our seasons, at least here in the northern U.S. Nothing really seems to change when the year does. Schools are halfway through their year at best. Winter still has a looooong way to go most years. Most of the major U.S. sports I follow are still going on: pro and college football are just wrapping up; basketball (both pro and college) and hockey feel like they're only just settling into their regular seasons. In my job as a pastor, thinking of the year starting around the beginning of December with Advent (the first season on the church calendar), makes a lot more sense: then the cycle of holidays and celebrations truly starts over.

Finally, I'm an introverted morning person. New Year's is not my cup of tea. Staying up until midnight is not out of the question for me; I do it on a semi-regular basis. However, after 9:00 pm or so I'm definitely not at my peak. Plus, I've been at a fair number of New Year's celebrations that are big gatherings with a bunch of people I don't really know. Meeting new people and being around a lot of people can be challenging enough for me. Doing that decently late at night is brutal. I may only be 28, but I feel too old for New Year's shenanigans. So when 2021 comes around, I'll probably be in bed, dreaming of more enjoyable (for me at least) holidays.

Grace and peace,

BMH