life lessons

lately, whenever beth cries about something - big or small, real or not real, legit or not - hank likes to use that opportunity to teach her some of life's greatest lessons. and THE TALK always begins with, "beth, sometimes in life..." and then follows with an ever insightful principle: "...we don't get what we want. and we just have to learn to be okay with that." or "sometimes in life, we fall down. and we have to pick ourselves up and get over it and keep going." or "beth, sometimes in life, we just can't pick up babies and throw them around like dolls. we don't treat people that way." to name a few...

could she care any less about these connecting moments between father and daughter? not really. is it mostly a sarcastic response? yep.

but i happen to love it. both for the humor factor and for the fact that it's a dad teaching his girl some of the most important things one could teach her. and i happen to be married to that dad, which makes it just brilliant.

now, ask me if we always live by his very clever and sagacious (i just wanted to type that word) words of wisdom and the answer would clearly be no. but hey, at least we're attempting to teach the right things... and trust me, hank rarely misses an opportunity. and i confess that i anxiously await to hear what particular lesson will come from as a result of the alligator tears, the turned out bottom lip (she has that one down PAT), and the sobs that usually hit a 9 on the 1-10 fake scale. because the "sometimes in life" lesson is usually as serious as those cries and it makes me laugh.

not to worry... most of the time, within minutes, we are back to dancing and playing and squealing again as though both the tears and the lesson never happened.





one of these days his wisdom will sink in. i'm just sure of it.