Hi, welcome to story time.
My name is Laurenne Sala, and I am here today to read you my book,
You Made Me A Dad.
This is written by me and illustrated beautifully by Mike Malbrough.
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I loved you before I saw you.
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When you were just a heartbeat, then a picture, then a teeny, tiny kick.
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I brought rocky road ice cream for mommy and fuzzy blankets.
I rubbed her feet.
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I picked up all the things she couldn't see when her belly got too big.
I told her not to worry.
And then I told her not to worry again.
I said different names out loud a million times.
I wondered if your eyes would look like mine, and whose nose you would get.
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But before I'd finished imagining who you'd be,
you were here, and you were perfect.
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I realized right away that I had a new job.
I would teach you to be kind, to listen to good music,
to be yourself, to make you giggle a lot.
How lucky am I?
I get to be your peek-a-boo partner, your horse,
your tickle monster, your pillow, your hero, and you are mine.
You teach me how to draw rainbows, and dinosaurs, and build big forts, and
hide in the sneakiest spots.
Because of you, I know what monsters sound like, and how to dance silly, and
that my heart is bigger than anything on earth and in outer space, too.
I promise to always be lovey and laughey with you.
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To teach you big words, even if you can't pronounce them.
To throw you up high in the air, but never ever drop you.
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To take time to listen to your dreams and your stories.
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And to answer all your questions, even the silliest ones.
Sometimes I'll make mistakes.
I might lose your socks or forget the instructions.
But we'll giggle about it and make it fun.
You always make life more fun.
One day, I will put your little feet on top of my gigantic feet and
we will walk around the whole world together.
And somewhere in the middle, I will tell you a story.
You will fall asleep, and I will carry you the rest of the way.
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When you were born, you gave me my best job yet.
You made me a dad.
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It's so true.
As parents, finally when we become parents,
we realize that it is the best job in the world.
Being your parent is so fun, and so beautiful, and thank you for coming into
our lives and making us realize how great it is and how fun it is to be a parent.
Now, I'm gonna give you little writing exercises.
So this book is sort of like an ode, which is a poem that just gets really
specific about all the things we love about something.
So this is like the relationship between dad and kiddo.
I just thought of all the specific, beautiful things and wrote them down and
made a list.
And that's what I want you to do about your dad.
So to give you an example, if I were to write an ode about ice cream, I would,
instead of just saying it's a ball of ice cream on a cone,
I would try to think of the very specific things I love about it.
Like the way the drips cover my fingers as I'm holding the cone.
Or the very last bite, the little triangle part of the cone.
So I would get really specific about all those beautiful things I love about
ice cream.
And that's what I want you to do about your dad.
So just try to think of all the cool things you love about him.
The way he puts a smile on pancakes when he serves them to you on Sunday mornings.
Or the way he cracks his knuckles, or whatever it is,
the fun things that you love about him.
I want you to make a list, doesn't have to rhyme or anything, just a big
list of things you love about your dad, and give that to him for Father's Day.
I bet you that that will be the best present he could ever get.
Thanks so much for joining me for story time.
I'm Laurenne Sala, and I'll see you next time.
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