Speaking of books, if you live in or near Chicago, please consider yourself invited to a live reading (and cartoon showing, of course) this Sunday at iBAM! That stands for Irish Books, Art and Music.
It is at the utterly fabulous Irish-American Heritage Center (pub on premises!) near Montrose and the Kennedy Expressway. I will be there signing books and talking with real live adults (yay for me!) from noon until around six, except when I give my presentation in the Library from 2:30 till 3:30.
Laughs, Guinness, red-heads galore! This event is a gem. See you Sunday.
Captain Dad at iBAM!
Sunday, October14, 2:30 PM (but stuff’s going on there all day)
Irish American Heritage Center
4626 N. Knox
Chicago, IL
Wish we could join you! Sounds like a great event!
I thought you might enjoy the following musings of my son who is a “Stay-at-Home-Dad” of five year old and three year old girls.
“Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people. They are born with a little bit of angel shine upon them and even though sometime it wears a bit thin, there is always enough left to come through and capture your heart. Even when she is playing in the water and sitting in the mud or crying temperamental tears, a little girl can be sweeter and naughtier than anyone else in the world. She can run around, stomp and make funny noises that frazzle your nerves and when you open your mouth to scold – she stands there with that demur look in her eyes.
A little girl is innocence when making a mess and not cleaning up; beauty, standing on her head; and motherhood, dragging a doll by it’s foot. There are millions of little girls but they are all unique and each one is as precious as diamonds. God borrowed from many strange creatures to create a little girl. He took the song of a bird, the squeal of a pig, the stubbornness of a mule, the antics of a monkey, the spryness of a grasshopper, the curiosity of a cat, the slyness of a fox and the softness of a kitten. And then he added the mysterious mind of a woman.
Little girls like new shoes, party dresses, to be called Princess, ice cream at Friendly’s and the Ow-Wow-Cow, coloring books, dancing lessons and Mats, the seashore, making cookies, birthdays and Christmas, the merry-go-round, painting her toenails and her cousins. She dislikes loud noises, having her hair brushed, being told what to wear, stink bugs, going into time out, and taking naps. She is the noisiest when you are on the phone, the prettiest when she has provoked you and the quietest when you want to show her off. She is the busiest at bed time and the most flirtatious when she has annoyed you.
Who else could cause you more grief, joy, irritation, satisfaction, embarrassment and genuine delight than this combination of her Mother, Grandmothers and Aunts? She can mess up the house, your work, and your dignity; spend your time, your money and your temper and just when your patience is ready to crack, her sunshine peeps through and you have lost again. She is a nerve wracking nuisance, just a noisy bundle of mischief but when your dreams come tumbling down and the world is a mess and you seem pretty much of a fool; she can make you a king when she climbs in your lap, puts her arms around your neck and whispers: “Daddy, I love you best of all!””
Thank you for that. And it is so true on all counts. It sounds like he has girls an awful lot like mine. For better and for worse.