In Honor of Daddy's Birthday

Today is the day that Daddy catches up with Mommy and turns 38. We are both getting perilously close to 40. Lately, on a lot of the "mommy blogs" and on Facebook people have posted their kids' answers to a set of interview questions about their mothers. In honor of today being Cort's birthday, I turned it around, and last night I had Charlie and Joseph, both age 5, answer these questions about their dad.

1. What is something your dad always says to you?


C: "Nice things."
J: "That's hard. Can I give you a hug?"


2. What makes your dad happy?


C: "When we be good."
J: "No whining!"


3. What makes your dad sad?


C: "When we be bad."
J: "Whining!"


4. How does your dad make you laugh?


C: "Probably everything."
J: "Silly things."


5. What was your dad like as a child?


C: "Mmmm, I can't know that. Mom, do you know?"
J: "I don't know."


6. How old is your dad?


C: "38. He's gonna be 38."
J: "38."


7. How tall is your dad?

C: Holds one hand up as far as he can reach and one hand down as low as he can reach. "I think he's taller than that but I can't really put my hands that high. This is just how high I can do it, but he's taller."

J: "That's hard. Something inches."


8. What is his favorite thing to do?


C: "Play with us."
J: "Play with us."


9. What does your dad do when you're not around?


C: "Ooooh. I don't know."
J: "Look for us."


10. If your dad becomes famous, what will it be for?


C: "That's kind of hard."

J: "Ohhh, famous for what?" Then ensued a long conversation where I tried to explain the definition of famous to him -- essentially that a person is famous when everyone knows him. So then he answered, "Because everyone knows him."

11. What is your dad really good at?


C: "Slam dunking the basketball." (Here I must note that our basketball goal is usually set at 6 feet high.)
J: "Doing trash and recycling."


12. What is your dad not very good at?


C: "Probably nothing."
J: "Whining."


13. What does your dad do for his job?


C: "Help clean up with whoever's turn it is to be a kitchen cleanup helper."
J: "Trash and recycling."


(I think by "jobs," they are fixated on their chores, as both of these things are on the chore list.)


14. What is your dad's favorite food?


C: "Soup probably."
J: "Pizza!"


15. What makes you proud of your dad?


C: "Me proud of Daddy? So I make Daddy proud?" Here I explain that it's the other way around. "That he helps me."
J: Joseph didn't understand this one at all. I tried to explain for awhile, and then tried to give him some examples. So he answered: "Things that you said."


16. If your dad were a cartoon character, who would he be?


C: "I don't know, probably Daddy."
J: "What's a cartoon character?"


17. What do you and your dad do together?


C: "Play together."
J: "Play."


18. How are you and your dad the same?


C: "Probably like when we smile the same."
J: "We like doing the same things."


19. How are you and your dad different?


C: "When we don't smile alike."
J: "Because we're not the same years old."


20. How do you know your dad loves you?


C: "Probably everything. Everything."
J: "Because he hugs and kisses me."


21. Where is your dad's favorite place to go?


C: "Probably everywhere. Except places we don't go to."
J: "That's hard. I can't think. I'm thinking. Double Dave's Pizza - the one close to Daddy's office."