Page 41 of Daddy's Little Dreamer

I was one lucky boy.

When I was done playing cars, I cleaned them up and grabbed my coloring books and pencils and turned on cartoons.

“Here Bumble and Humble,” I sat them on the couch next to each other. “You can watch from here.”

With everyone situated, I got to work making a new picture for Daddy’s fridge. I was never bored at Daddy’s. My mind was always occupied here. I had toys and crafts, and a really cool fidget spinner and popper thingies. Now I had my backyard jungle gym to run and play in. Daddy really did think of everything.

“Okay, Little Bee. Time to go outside.”

“Here, Daddy.”

“To Daddy with all my love, your Little Bee.” He read what I wrote on it. “You did so well coloring in the farmer’s scare crow. Thank you, I love it.” He tacked it up with magnets.

“There’s no more space, Daddy.” That made me sad. I loved making pictures for Daddy.

“We’ll just rotate them. New on top of old. How’s that sound? Then we can just flip the pages and see the surprises beneath them.”

“I like that. You’re so smart, Daddy.”

When I stepped outside it was like I was in a whole new world.

“Whoa, Daddy. When did you do all this?” There were fairy lights strung across poles outlining the giant sandbox and along the porch and planting area.

“While you played. They’re solar so they’re charging now but should be on tonight.”

I sighed. “I won’t be here tonight.”

“You’ll see them next week and tonight when we facetime I’ll come outside so you can see them.”

“Thank you, Daddy. I love them. You got a little diggy-dig-dig set and a bucket for me.” I ran over to the sandbox and started digging away.

“If you fill the bucket with water and use the plastic castle pieces, you can build stuff with sand.”

“I love that.” I ran over to the hose and filled up the bucket and started building. Daddy walked around, taking pictures of everything while I got to work.

“This is gonna look so amazing all lit up at night.”

“Yes and now next weekend you’ll be able to play out here after the sun goes down.”

“Can we have dinner outside too?”

“Of course we can. Speaking of food, let me get our lunch going.”

By the time Daddy came back and laid out our picnic blankie, I’d made four different sized castles. “Look, Daddy.”

“I am, those are wonderful. Such a good boy for your Daddy. You played while I did grown-up stuff. I bet you’re hungry. You’ve been hard at it all morning.”

“Yes, my tummy is grumbly.”

“Well then, let’s fill it up.”

Daddy made these cute little sandwiches he called finger sammies. One had ham and cheese, another was cucumber. “Sneaky Daddy, slipping in veggies.”

“Just give it a bite, Little Bee, you may enjoy it.”

For Daddy, I guessed I’d try…

“Little Bee, you only got the tip of the corner of bread in that bite.”

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