FaceTime, Papa, and Pookie

My Dad upgraded me to a IPhone 4 after I became his employment counselor this fall. Before anyone starts up with "What a nice Dad" comments, I am sure he felt bad for constantly calling to fix every minor detail of his resume or to help him navigate an online job application, or UI benefits no matter what else I had going on with my life or what time of night it was. If he could hear the kids in the background he would make me hand over the phone and "entertain" them while I worked on his stuff. Better yet, he would call my sister in law who was in the next room and tell her to come get the kids, I was busy helping ensure our family had a future in America, because if he didn't have a job, our "family" was in jeopardy. I'm not even joking or exaggerating, he really said that.

What I did not expect from the kind and generous present was that he would have me on a digital leash. He calls me on his break from his new job. Sometimes to discuss lottery numbers other times to ask what the kids had for breakfast but mostly, it is so he can have Max and Lucas screaming Hello into the phone. And when he gets home he will like clockwork, FaceTime us. If we don't answer he will call Jeff. Just to make sure Jeff can check up  on us and knows that we are not available. Some people call it stalking, my father calls it checking in with his family from far away.

I think I would try to have better boundaries with my Dad if I didn't know just how much his grand kids mean to him. He is the kind of man who had kids so he could have grand kids. And even though he doesn't like talking about the month where he was scared and anxious about his future, he will convey every chance he gets that his grand kids were the only joy and his reason for hope during those days spent at home not knowing what was ahead or in store for him.

My parents through some odd events and road closures had to come during Christmas to pick up their car they left at our house over Thanksgiving. Being Borsit's, if we did not get all the kids packed in the car and pick them up from the airport we would have got a tongue lashing. Jeff and I did not quite grasp the whole "get out of your car and be waiting inside the building" thing until we landed in Thailand where 1/2 of my extended family I had never met welcomed us at the airport. We will never use the just call me when you land and are at curbside line with my side of the family.

As we were driving to the airport Lucas who is not my silly or lighthearted child by any definition started to sing out loud "I'm going to see my Papa" or "I love my Papa, going to pick up Papa". We have never referred to my Dad as such. In fact, Steve and my Dad have always been Grandpa. Sometimes, they will use the Thai word for Grandpa but it is hard on the tongue so it was a surprise. We have no idea how he came up with it. But it has stuck. So little Pookie goes around talking about his "Papa" and insists on kissing him on my new phone. Maybe it's the wild head of hair and gruff, yet endearing personalities they share that make them so agreeable to one another. Whatever it is, they both have my huge pieces of my heart.

Papa and Pookie circa 2008