Daddy Shirts

There are moments in the life of every parent that we wish we could capture and relive over and over again; moments when our kids do something unforgettably cute or amaze us with their simple perspective on life. These moments come more often than we realize, but we still crave more of them. In the same way children crave rituals. We all want more of a good thing. It is when we blend our craving for unforgettable moments with our child’s craving for ritual that we get priceless memories.

My four-year-old daughter provides me with memories on a daily basis. She is one of those kids who has a zeal for life that inspires. She thrives on attention, yet loves to play alone with her ponies. Her quiet voice often echoes in song as we drive down the road and her toys are never at a loss for words.

A few summers ago while on a family camping trip, necessity forced us into a situation that has evolved into a tradition which bonds us together time and time again. That year the evenings were particularly hot and my girls were having trouble sleeping. I tucked them into their beds and propped open the trailer window. The fan above the bed was running, but air conditioning was not an option as we had no power.

“Daddy, I’m hot,” I heard my oldest daughter moan. Not wanting my precious girls to suffer, I thought through my options. The coldest place in the trailer was the freezer. Anything from there would melt and either get ruined or make a mess. But the refrigerator was fair game.

“I’ve got something that will help,” I told the girls as I presented each of them with their own can of ice cold Diet Coke. “Snuggle up with this,” I said. With the cold can pressed against their cheeks, the girls quickly faded off to sleep. Needless to say, the ritual was repeated again the next night and the next. As a matter of fact it continued throughout the rest of that summer.

When fall rolled around, though, things changed. Temperatures dropped and the need for the Diet Coke was gone. Without that reminder of Daddy, my youngest daughter had a new enemy attacking her each night: lions.

“Daddy, the lions are going to get me again tonight,” she would say. Thinking fast, I told her that lions never attack daddies because they don’t like their smell.

“If I give you a big hug and make you smell like me, the lions will stay away,” I told her. Never being one to shy away from one-on-one attention, she snuggled into my embrace, a contended grin telling me that she would sleep just fine. The next night, she reminded me again of the lions and what I needed to do, only now there was a need for a kiss component. Seven kisses to be exact. Cheek, cheek, nose, arm, arm, leg, leg. That was the only way to make sure the lions would stay away.

After a few weeks of this, I had to schedule a late night at work and knew that I wouldn’t be able to tuck her into bed the next night. “Remember what keeps the lions away?” I asked before bedtime.

“They don’t like Daddy smells.”

“Right, so tonight I want you to sleep with one of Daddy’s shirts. That way the lions will smell my shirt and stay away.” I then handed her my old In-N-Out Burger t-shirt. She snuggled up with it, that same contented grin on her face and drifted off to sleep.

Last night at bed time, the shirt was still in the dirty clothes where Mommy had put it earlier in the day. “Come here,” I said to my daughter, my hand extended out to hers. Together we walked down the hall to Daddy’s closet. “Pick a new one,” I said.

Her face lit up as she carefully studied her options. “I want this one,” she said a minute later.

“You want Daddy’s flag shirt?” I asked.

“Oooh, no. That’s the American one.” Her fingers continued working their way across the red section and past the blues. Finally she got to the black section and seemed to stop. “I want this one,” she announced.

“That one is from Daddy’s work. Do you want to sleep with that one?”

“Yes!” The grin returned. Together we walked back down the hall to her room, hand in hand. She crawled into her pink sheets and snuggled up with her black Daddy shirt. I gave her seven kisses, turned off the light and let her drift off to sleep.

What began as a necessity on a hot night has turned into a tradition. A moment turned into a memory. Over and over again.