Dan The Dad (Phan)

10

"What does that say?" She asked me.

"Fatality." I answered "looks like you beat me again.

"What are you doing?" A voice came from behind us as we sat in front of the tv on the floor holding controllers. I turned around to to see Phil looking at me astonished and horrified.

"Playing Mortal Kombat." I answered.

"With a four year old little girl?!" He asked.

"She's almost five and she likes it, she picked it out." I said.

"That game is rated teenager, Dan!" He said appalled.

"I really thought you were doing well for a while there." He sighed "Your cupcakes were going to burn but I took the liberty of getting them out of the oven. I really think you should switch games, or let her play with toys or something." Phil said.

"Alright." I said in defeat realizing maybe it wasn't the best idea to be letting her play this.

"But I want to play!" She said and threw herself on the floor and started crying.

"What do I do?" I mouthed to Phil.

"You can't always let her have her way." He said. But I loved her and I liked for her to have what she wanted, but Phil was right.

"Would you like to help me ice the cupcakes? We still have to make the pink frosting." I told her and she stopped crying but flipped over on her belly onto the floor.

"Yeah." She answered sadly, I thought it was quite cute.

"Uh oh, little Dan is having an existential crisis." Phil joked making me smile.

"I am not!" She yelled at him making him laugh because we both knew she didn't know what that meant.

"Hey, we don't talk to people like that." I reprimanded her.

"Sorry." She said guiltfuly with a sniffle. "What does that mean?" She now sat up and asked Phil.

"Uhhhh it's kind of hard to explain." Phil said. How exactly does one explain existentialism to a four year old?

"Let's just go ice the cupcakes." I said.

"I have to go to the bathroom." She stated. We went to the bathroom and I helped her with the zip on her pants and placed her on the toilet.

"I'll be in the kitchen" I told her and made a mental note to get her a small step for the toilet and the sink.

I started measuring ingredients out for the icing and I had gotten so into that I realized that Megan had been in the bathroom a while. I stood there quietly a moment end was relieved when I heard the toilet flush and her little feet pad into the kitchen.

"I did my snap and zip!" She said.

"Hey!" I said with a smile "nice job! You're going to be a snap and zip pro in no time!" She climbed onto the back of the chair and we added the ingredients and I let her stir it again, because that was her favorite thing about baking.

"Daaan!" I heard Phil call through the house urgently.

"You just keep stirring, I'll be right back." I told her before taking off.