The Giving Game

The husband left for Texas 10 days ago. Almost every day since then I’ve been taping envelopes to our door addressed to Atrain from Dada in Texas. Inside each envelope sits a toy or a treat and a message that says something like, “I love you and miss you, from Dada in Texas.” Recently I scored a huge bag of star wars characters from online classifieds. Atrain looks forward to the “mail man” coming every day. He even tapes the envelopes to his bedroom door for a cozy spot for each star wars character to sleep when the lights are out.

But today Atrain turned the tables on me. He took one of his dada envelopes, taped it to our door and told me that the mail man had come. “Really?” I asked. “Yep. I’m Dada in Texas and I sent you a toy from Texas.” And, sure enough, taped to the door was Darth Vader. I giggled with glee and the little husband repeated the gesture until he had given me all of his Star Wars characters. He even dipped into his cars box to find more gifts to tape to the door when his supply exhausted.

His happiness was contagious. Watching him pretend to be the husband is priceless. I’m still not sure if he has my sneaky mail-man methods figured out, or if he is just sweetly pretending about my pretending. Either way, the giving game is a good game to play. And, Atrain sure enjoys seeking Star Wars character advice via video chat from Dada at the end of the day. We can't wait to board the Millenal Falcon and fly strait to Texas.