DAN.

Waiting for DAN.

The exact moment DAN showed up.*

I'm sure at least some of you are wondering who the mystery man in my life is since I've mentioned "Dan" here and there, but Dan is not a man.

He's not even a who.

Dan is a what that started out as a why (as in why were my boys running around yelling "DAN!" half the day). It was a mystery that took at least a week to decode, but we solved it a year and some change ago.

Dan is what you get when you say "The End!" fast enough in a barely 3-year old voice (it kind of sounds like "deh-AND!", which kind of sounds like "DAN!" if you follow).

Dan was worse than "Reetins" or a lot of other things that drove everyone up the wall. We had to cover up anything digital with tape for awhile that might spell out "END" at the end to save our sanity. Maybe that's why I've always sounded a little grumpy about Dan. Sometimes we still use tape even though there is only one source of "Dan" in our new home because Nate and Seth still like to count down until the end (or "Dan") even if the timer doesn't say "END" at the end.

For posterity, there's a video.

There's also another video from last summer and since I haven't uploaded to YouTube™ in awhile – and since it was like launching a rocket into space to get both of them up there – you get what you get ("... and you don't get upset!"). The second one is a lot of "STOP!" and "GO!" and "REST!" but there are some "foights" if you look closely – none of which can even begin to describe the actual fights they have now that they are four.

Enjoy!

- L.

*We all had a laugh that day at least.