The TriDad Life

Dear Beanpod,

The hours turned into days. The days turned into months. And wouldn’t you know it, just as they said, we blinked, and here we are at one year. Tomorrow, you’ll be one year old. You’ll have completed your first trip around the sun.

As your Dad, I feel so many different emotions when I look at you, when I think about you, at this, still the earliest days of your life. It’s a special time. It doesn’t last long. I can still remember watching you come out, taking you home. We have pictures and videos, we have memories in our mind, but oddly, when I think about one year ago, those moments feel so foreign. Almost feeling like I’m looking into someone else’s life, like we were different people, different beings, then.

In so many ways, I suppose that’s true. You’ve changed so much in just one year. Your body has grown, your features are coming in. You learn something new every day, and it amazes me. You make me laugh so much. And day by day, raising you is changing your Mom and me, too. So much has changed, so much has happened, since you entered the world.

Recently, just over a week ago in fact, your family did something pretty big. We moved from our home in Tuscola just a few miles west into Frankenmuth, where your Mom and Dad grew up and went to school, and where your grandparents live. Though the distance was small, it was a big change for us, something that took many months of thought, and planning, and running around. We’re going to have a great future here; it feels right, and things are coming into place for our family. But before we get too far removed from our time in Tuscola, I wanted to make sure I shared with you what that place was, what it meant to us, and why it will always be a place that will live in our hearts.

Before our home in Tuscola was “our” home, it really was just your Mom’s home (truth be told, my name never got added to the deed, so technically I have been squatting rent free for years – pretty slick eh?!). Your Mom bought it in 2019, before I was even on her radar. It’s funny to think about how recent that truly is.

Your Mom and I wouldn’t really connect until about a year after she bought the house. We crossed paths at a strange time. It was the spring of 2020, and the whole world had been turned upside down by the Covid pandemic. I had reluctantly left Detroit for what I thought would be a temporary stay with your grandma and grandpa in Frankenmuth until I figured out what was next for Suzie and me. Your Mom and I ended up getting into a conversation over Facebook, and our first meet up happened right there in the backyard of her home in Tuscola, which I found out quickly was endearingly referred to as “Tuscola Heights.” I brought Suzie, we met your Mom’s dog, Henry, and your Aunt Julia, who was living with your Mom at the time. We had a nice conversation, and I looked forward to seeing her again. I couldn’t have imagined at that moment that this place, these people, would become such central fixtures in my life.

Things moved quickly for your Mom and I from there. As a single 32 year-old man with a dog living with his parents, I was enjoying spending a lot more time with this pretty, fun, strong, young woman that honestly seemed to have it all together. Her home in Tuscola became the central point of our early days together, and eventually, I wore your Mom down and she let me move in.

I suppose you could say the rest is history. Beautiful, crazy, fun, amazing years spent in a lovely, cozy home. Sure, there were some things that we didn’t love about this “starter” home. We knew it wasn’t our forever home. But there was so much we loved. The screened-in porch was our favorite room in the house. It was a beautiful place to watch the sky gradually turn dark. So many animals came out at dusk. Cute rabbits roamed the yard. Your doggies loved to run out the back and chase them.

We had a lot of deer, too. They typically pranced into the backyard to eat from the apple tree. We loved when they greeted us in the morning. Sometimes, they sprinted back to the woods, running from something. Of course, there was that one time that one of them crashed through the front window. That’s a story for another time.

We spent so many nights at our home holding parties and entertaining friends. After coming back from Montana after successfully asking your Mom to marry me, we held a flash engagement party. It was a crazy day with crazy weather that forced us to rapidly take down the party tent and rush everyone into the house, where we turned it into a dance party. No one seemed to mind that they were crammed in; everyone had a smile on their face.

In one of the most important moments of my life, I found out that I was going to be a father in the living room. Your Mom told me to sit down before I headed off to work that morning because she had something important to tell me. Yea, that one will stick with me for a long, long time.

When I think about it, from that moment, we spent the next 9 months out there in that Tuscola home focused on preparing for your arrival. We transformed the guest bedroom into a nursery. Your uncle David painted this lovely mural with characters from Winnie the Pooh to watch over your crib. I already miss that room.

There is so much I could say about that old house. In the end, I guess I only spent 3 years living there, but it feels like it was much more than that. We really lived a lifetime in it.

As we get settled in to our new home here in Frankenmuth, I’m a little sad to know that our time at our lovely home in Tuscola will soon fade away as a distant memory. I get attached to places. But I’m grateful for those places, because they leave an indelible mark in your life, serving an important purpose at an appropriate time.

I’m proud of that old house, the house where we first took you home. It will always be the place where our family began.

Cheers to you, Tuscola Heights! We will always love you! Now it’s time for you to bless a new family.

I’m excited for what’s ahead for us here in Frankenmuth, Beanpod. The best is yet to come.

Love,

Dad