Daddy's Clouds

From out of nowhere, Cal is fascinated with clouds.  Fascinated and knowledgeable.  He learned about Stratus, Cirrus and Cumulus clouds at school; and he learned about Cumulonimbus clouds by simply watching the movie, “Up” a couple of times.   And just this past Sunday, a Nimbostratus (or something like that) type of cloud was added to the mix after he and Dan did a little research into clouds and lightning and thunder.

Cal knows enough about clouds that he can tell you, with a relatively high degree of accuracy, the type(s) of clouds in the sky on any given day.  While I can reason myself to a conclusion that the fluffy clouds are Cumulus and the featherlike clouds are Cirrus (I mean, that just sounds right), Cal knows this.  He can also tell you, based on the clouds, if it’s going to rain.

“It’s going to rain today, Mommy,” he told me as he navigated his way down our stairs one morning recently.

“Oh, yeah?  What makes you think that?” I started to probe.

He smirked and thought for a moment before responding.  “I looked up in the sky from the window in my room and I said, ‘Cal, what type of clouds are those?’ And I then said, ‘those are Cumulonimbus clouds, so it’s going to rain,’” he responded, pensive and looking up to the ceiling as he said this for dramatic effect.

What a hoot this kid is!  I don’t recall if it actually did rain that day.  I’m sure it did.  The point is, Cal likes clouds.

Dan went on a business trip last week.  He travelled by airplane and, mid-flight, found himself looking out the window at the clouds below.  Now it was the start of his trip, so there really hadn’t been much time at all to really start missing his kids.  Honestly, he should have been enjoying the silence and anticipating the adult time he had ahead of him, keeping his head free of the sounds of our incessantly loud and oftentimes whiny kids, sounds that we hear even when we’re not around them and don’t always realize we’re hearing when we are.

Instead he thought of Cal and thought that Cal might want to see what clouds look like from a different angle, from above.  It would be another bit of information for Cal to retain, that there’s a cloud-free sky above the clouds.  So he emailed me these pictures along with this message: “Cal, this is what the top of a cloud looks like.  I love you, Mommy, and Ella!”

It was a simple gesture and one that perhaps only I would think was incredibly thoughtful and notable, one that was added to the collection of random moments that collectively make Dan a really good Daddy.

I later showed the pictures to Cal and let him read the message that came with it.  He may never remember that specific moment; but he knows that his Daddy is interested in his stories, his days and his questions because his Daddy regularly does little things like send him real cloud pictures snapped from inside a flying airplane.