STILL NO EXPERT

Dear Spike:

Bad news — you can spell "ice cream" and "candy" — and probably a bunch of other words that we spell around you when we don't want you to know what we're talking about. Effective immediately, our new "secret adult language" is Spanish. And when you catch onto that, I guess we'll move to Pig Latin. After that, I'm calling in the Navajo Code Talkers.

I can hardly keep up with all the ways in which you are learning and growing. Let's see: You've finally mastered your tricycle, you're sleeping without a diaper, you know every letter of the alphabet and words that start with each one.

I can't begin to explain how proud I am of you, but I try to let you know as often as I can. And it's my plan to make that a habit.

Two and a half years into this game, I'm still no expert in being a dad, but there's a few things that I'm relatively sure of.

One is that I've got to help you make good decisions by correcting your bad ones — as early as possible. It's no fun for me to send you to your "timeout corner" for doing things that you don't even know are wrong, but that's the way your mother and I have decided is best to help you understand that certain behaviors aren't tolerable — not even once.

Another thing I've learned is that we are your biggest, best and most influential examples. It doesn't do any good for me to tell you to stop picking your nose if I've got half a finger dug into mine. It doesn't do any good to tell you to say "please" and "thank you" if I don't do it myself. And it doesn't do any good to tell you to love your neighbor if you don't see me loving mine.

I've learned that sometimes even the best of two-year-olds still act like two-year-olds. I've learned that sometimes even parents with the best of intentions still act like parents without a clue.

But most of all, I've learned that the best thing I can say to you, when I don't have anything else to say, is "I love you," followed closely by "I'm proud of you."

I love you. And I'm proud of you.

I love you. And I'm proud of you.

I love you. And I'm proud of you.

Love,
dad