Dear Luciana,

You like to have tea parties in my shower.

Not the bathtub. Not your room. Not any of the places in this house actually designed for a three year old and her stuff. My shower.

The ritual is always the same. You haul in every stuffed animal you own and arrange them on the shower floor. Then you sticker the walls. Every wall. As high as you can reach.

And I let you. Because I’m not an asshole, and even if I was, you would wear me down anyway.

Last night was a tea party night.

This morning I forgot.

I shuffled in half asleep, on autopilot, and turned on the water. I gave it a minute, because the water heater probably needs fixing. This is where Daddy gets a slap on the wrist for being lazy. Then I looked down.

Your entire guest list was staring up at me mid downpour.

Soaked. The whole gang. Now they’re all drying out.

The one sticker who had the most trouble in the shower was Ariel. The bottom half fell off. That’s the half that can swim.

“I don’t think your stuffies are supposed to have a shower.”

“No Daddy, if I have to take a bath so do my guests.”

I can’t be a hypocrite.

The stickers survived… not really. But survived long enough to make it to shower two. I was going to leave them up.

I would promise your guests it will never happen again. But we both know Daddy on autopilot is just weather. Usually cloudy. Occasionally a thunderstorm. Maybe we should buy stickers with umbrellas and stuffed animals with raincoats.

Tea is served at your own risk.

Besitos,
Daddy