MyThreeDaughters

Two nights ago, the first before Fontaine’s first day of second grade at a new school. I’m tucking her in. For a change, the tough redhead wants to snuggle and talk.
Are you nervous about school tomorrow?
“Yeah, a little.”
That’s O.K. I remember being nervous before the first day of school every year.
“That’s what Mommy said…You mean boys get nervous too?”
Yeah. You know what boys get nervous about? What girls think of them.
“Daddy?”
Yes.
“I read a comic book about a boy who got so nervous before school that he forgot to put on his underwear, and when he went to school his pants got caught on something and fell down and everybody saw his private parts.”
Oh my goodness!, I said.
(We don’t have any comic books in the house, I thought.)
Well, I said, there you go: If you get nervous tomorrow, just think, “Well, at least I am wearing underwear.”
She laughed and laughed.
And if you give the wrong answer tomorrow, just think, “But I have underwear on!”
She thought that was even funnier, and she went to bed telling me, “You are the craziest boy I know.”
So the next morning, the first day of school, when we arrived she didn’t want to get her picture taken. She was being the seven-year-old 14-year-old that she can be, I just said, “Hey, Fontaine, get up there by the school sign. I want to get a shot of you with your underwear on.”
I said it just to her, so as to avoid arrest.