Caroline and Papa: Growing Up and Growing Older

I retired from the practice of law at the end of 2002 and wrote my first book, Non-Billable Hours, from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003.  It was a transitional year for me, and I knew I needed the discipline of writing every day.  After a year of personal editing, the book was finally published in June 2005.  It had been a long personal journey for me, an opportunity to reenergize the creative side of my brain and break from the rigid pattern of legal writing.  It reconnected me with the simple joys of life and fully absorbed the most personal moments of life including the unexpected announcement in January 2003 of a daughter’s first pregnancy and the birth in September of our first grandchild.

The entire exercise was wonderfully fulfilling for me, but the joy was multiplied when I saw the enjoyment my family and friends found in the personal experiences I recounted and the everyday observations I recorded.  I thought then that perhaps I should find a way to do this again.  But I wanted it to be different both in form and content.

By June 2005, our first grandchild, Caroline, was almost 2 years old.  She was cute as a button, developing her own personality and beginning to speak.  I couldn’t remember many of the details of our own daughters’ early lives and could remember even less of my own.  So I thought I would write down a few memorable words and phrases that captured her personality.  Words like yaboo (for I love you), strawbabies (for strawberries), lawn mowler, mail mail man, hip hop (for bunny), and do do (for rooster).  Phrases like, “Mommy, take phone off ear,” “Papa’s a very nice boy,” “Papa, get out of chair and play ball with Caroline,” and “Tell man to bring ice cream and put it on table.”  It wasn’t an organized effort, and I failed to record a lot of things that I enjoyed at the time.

The undertaking of another book, after spending two and a half years on the first one, must have seemed daunting to my subconscious.  And yet Caroline continued to grow up before my very own eyes and continued to impress me with her vocabulary, her observations and her ability to communicate.  I think it all came together for me in March 2006 when the Baldwins visited us for a week in Florida.  Caroline was now 2 1/2 years old and full of charm, sentiment, sensitivity, creativity, and innocence.  I recorded even more special sayings from that time: “I’m excited to go to Florida, but I’m a little sad because Daddy can’t come.”  “There are whiskers on these raspberries.”  “When you’re all done, it’s time for fun.  That’s a rhyme, Mommy.”  “Why did Daddy have to go to work today?  Didn’t he make enough money yesterday?”  And then the comment that cemented my commitment to do this book: “Papa, this (paper towel tube) is not a binocular like you said.  There is only one hole so it is a telescope.”

While I was growing up, I had always loved Art Linkletter’s TV Show “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”  At first, I thought I would simply collect these special comments that I would hear from Caroline.  But I soon realized that without an organized effort and the full cooperation of her parents who would be with her when she made many of these comments, I would have no chance of collecting enough to warrant a book.  And then I thought of the successful format of Non-Billable Hours, a daily recording of something interesting that happened that day.  Rather than the poetic form that I had used in that book, I would instead use the simple narrative form, but I would try to use the discipline of a daily recording to capture as many of Caroline’s special moments as possible.  It would be a snapshot of her life at this stage.  Something she could look back on in future years and realize how much fun she had had as a little girl.

As those thoughts were gelling into the fall of 2006, Caroline was continuing to surprise and impress me with her comments and observations: “Roofs are good for people.  They keep them dry.”  “Horses eat hay, cows eat grass, farmers eat lunch.”  “You can’t see your reflection because the clouds are covering the sun; you can’t see the grass because the snow is covering it.” “Daddy, I miss you when you go to work.”  “TA-DA” (a sign of pride and satisfaction in her achievement).

These were just too special not to record forever.  I decided I needed a target, a formal starting point and again drawing on the format of Non-Billable Hours, decided that I would use the calendar year as the framework for these memories.  I would start on January 1, 2007.  Alison and Tim were supportive and agreed to make notes of the special moments and share them regularly with me to supplement my own personal observations.

There was just one more detail to be decided.  As I was thinking about the focus of the book and how I could make it special, a funny thing happened: I turned 65 years old in September 2007.  That gave me the inspiration for the final piece of the book’s format.  While Caroline would be growing up during 2007, moving from a little more than 3 years old in January to a little more than 4 years old in December, I would be growing older during that same time period.  Why not compare and contrast our own lives?  What she is saying and doing compared to and contrasted with what I am doing and remembering.  The book could show how our lives are inextricably linked, and our memori