Letters

You have been much more of a challenge in my life than I like to admit.  I've previously kept this blog limited to letters to my kids.  But after yesterday you qualify as a kid, if 'kid' can be defined as someone I do absolutely gross and almost unbearable things for, because of your helplessness, and because I care.  That last point about caring has been the one in serious debate over the first year of your life.  But your bull-headed Daddy is finally coming around to realizing how much you're devoted to him, and how well-behaved you really are.

I came down the stairs yesterday to feed you and let you out for the day, and was met with a lovely stench.  You've had some dehydration issues the past couple days (bad Daddy, not realizing you didn't have enough water) and had thrown up at least once.  So I wondered if you had thrown up again.  But other times you have eaten what you've thrown up, so this time was puzzling.  When I opened the door to your little under-the-stairs crate space, there you were, sitting in the middle of a ring of mucky poop piles, anxious to get out of that room.  And I don't blame you!  Whew!  Poor puppy, your intestinal issues made you as selective as you could be with your deposits that took up more real estate than you would like.  Where were you going to sleep without flopping down in gunk?  And in the hours of procrastination before I cleaned it all up, why didn't I think to bring a camera downstairs?

I spent all day Friday and Saturday working in the yard, and you were more than thrilled to wander over and plop down right where I was shoveling, or right where I wanted to pound a rock with the sledgehammer.  Yes, I know you're there.  You don't really need to emphasize it like that.  But the part that took the cake was when you wandered over, not really like you were trying to bring me something, but you had something in your mouth.  You dropped it, and it took off running across the patio and scurried under our A/C unit.  You had caught a mouse.  A mouse!  I thought that was for cats!  As I stood watching the A/C, waiting to see the mouse come out, it must have come out the opposite side and ran under the lawn mower on the patio, because you bolted over there and started circling the mower and sniffing at it.  I shook the mower some, but nothing happened so I gave it up.  Maybe you would find it again and kill it.  Later in the day, you nonchalantly wandered over with a tail hanging out of your mouth, and dropped a dead, mauled mouse at my feet.  I have no way of knowing if it was the same one, but all the same, I'm glad it was dead. I took a picture with my Palm camera.  Not too hot, but you get the point.

The part that bothered me is that you couldn't seem to leave it alone.  You did leave it and walk away after a while, but did you come back to it later?  Did you eat that mouse?  And whether or not you ate it, was that the cause of your loose bowels during the night?  We'll probably never know.  But you didn't have similar issues this morning, thankfully.

Puppy, you have grown on me, although our relationship still has some room to improve.  Part of the problem is that we're so tied up in remodeling, fixing up the yard, keeping up with life, etc., that I can't spend the time with you that you really need.  I still have my eye on you as probably my best option for a running/exercise partner.  That will benefit us both.  And it will certainly help when we have a yard with grass in it.  We'll be much more inclined to come outside and play with you. 

You're a good dog.  And as frustrating as you are to me at times, you are teaching me life lessons that I will be better for learning.  Thanks for putting up with me.

Love,

Your Daddy

I'm always amazed you're so attached to your Daddy.  For that matter, I'm amazed anyone in this family is so attached to me.  The dog loves me, you love me, Sophie loves me, and your Mama REALLY loves me.  I say 'really' because she's the only one in that sequence that should know better, but still puts up with me.  But all of you still think I'm a good Daddy, so I can't be too bad, I guess.  Mama asks you who you want to tuck you in bed at night, and you always say, "Daddy!"  When I drive home and you're standing in the window, you always light up like crazy when you see me.  When I'm out in the yard working, you always want to put your shoes on and your jacket and come out and play in the yard with me. 

And you don't just play in the yard.  You're watching what I'm doing.  Just the other day you wanted to come out, and bring our rubber hammer with you.  You actually put up a fit when I tried to get you to leave the hammer in the house.  So, I finally gave in, and as soon as you got outside you ran straight to the biggest boulder in the yard and started banging on it with your hammer.  You'd seen me and your Grandpa breaking big rocks with the sledgehammer and wanted to do what we were doing. 

I've been carrying around several cute quotes you've said, and this is a good place to put them. 

When you would fall down and hurt yourself enough to cry, we'd ask, "Are you OK?"  Pretty soon you'd fall down, and start crying and yelling, "I'm OK!!  I'm OK!!"  Or when someone else was crying (mostly Sophie) it was, "Sophie OK!!!  Sophie OK!!" in a very distressed tone.

You once got a bad enough cold we needed to get out the humidifier.  That was one or two days after you'd taken a tour of the local fire station, and saw a bunch of fire fighters.  So it was the humidifier-fighter for several days.

I had set my Palm timer for some cooking once, and put my palm back in my holster and was playing with you when it went off.  You promptly said, "Daddy beep in the pants." 

Or the other day when I was leaned over you, strapping you into your carseat.  You looked up at me with those innocent little child eyes and reached out to touch my nose.  "Daddy nose.......Daddy have eyebrows in the nose."  I'm still laughing at that one.

We've watched a lot of Signing Times with you, and you've actually learned all your alphabet signs.  For a while you wanted us to sing the ABC song from the DVD for your nighttime song.  Between verses there's this rhythm that I sing to you as, "boom boom, ch, ch, boom, boom, ch, ch."  You think it's really funny, and now you've taken to singing it yourself, except it comes out as, "bumba bunch, bumba bunch!"

You've also taken to complimenting yourself.  When you're eating your cereal, or doing some other by-yourself task, you'll say, "I doing really good!"

One of the funnier comments came when Mama was faking shock at something and said, "Oh my!"  (Think, "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!")  As soon as she said that, there was this little voice floating across the room that said, "Heck!  Oh my heck!"

"You need to finish your beans, Jonah."  "No!  I'll have only one or two."  This from a two-year-old that thinks "two" means "more than one".

Before bed one night, when you requested a drink, we went down the hall and there was my water bottle sitting on the counter, which you like to call, "Daddy water."  I got a cup out of the cupboard, and before I registered what you were saying, I had turned on the tap and started filling it up with water.  So you're comment went, (pointing at the water bottle) "Daddy water!", and then in an utterly dejected tone of voice, "...or just Jonah water...."  which I guess was what you were calling tap water.  Sorry for disappointing you.

You have a moon night light in your room, which you often request to be turned on at night while you go to sleep.  One night you said, "Turn the moon off!  So my can be warm!"  We have no idea where that came from.

My latest favorite, I'm sitting on the toilet and you come in the bathroom and say, "Oh, I thought you were in your room, now i thought you were in the potty."  Except "thought" comes out as "fought", which just makes it so much more cute.

You are an incredibly smart kid.  When you couldn't even talk, we could ask you where things were, and you would go find them.  And you weren't LOOKING for them, you remembered where they were.  When we couldn't find your sippy cup, we'd ask you where it was, and you'd get this thoughtful look on your face and then wander straight to it, hidden behind some large toy or something.  Now, you pick up words and phrases like crazy, and YOU KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN.  I'm blown away.  And just the fact that you get a concept like, "I thought you were in your room" is astounding. 

I still love to watch you play with Sophie.  She follows you like a hawk as you run around the room.  She loves to watch what you're doing, and she grins at you a lot.  I'm glad you two get along so well.  You're so good to her too.  You're very kind and gentle. 

I love you, Kiddo.  I'm very proud of my son.

Love,

Daddy

When I look into your smiling, deep blue eyes, it's hard to believe you've gone from sweet little angel to shrieking hellion and back again since I wrote you last, and STILL no teeth!  It's been a rough month for you, and we really don't know why.  It's imaginably hard for us to watch you cry, and not know why, or what we should do about it.  Your mom and I kept telling each other it was teeth.  There was really no other explanation for it.  But you never popped any teeth out.  You did stop eating solid foods for a while.  We thought that might be because you didn't want a hard spoon jarring sore gums.

The other possibility was intestinal issues.  We went on vacation to St. George and you had some serious corrosive poop.  And you'd keep on pooping even after we had opened up your diaper to change you.  When Desitin failed to keep up with you, we discovered the merits of Bag Balm.  Amazing stuff.  You've pooped like that once more since then, but it didn't last very long, and since we'd been through it before, we could handle it better, and your poor bum didn't have to take such a beating. 

You are growing so fast!  You have the most beautiful hair a 7-month-old could ever have.  And you are so aware of things.  When you're in your car seat and I lean over to unlatch you, you know what's going on and start to lean forward and wiggle your arms like you want out.  You know people's faces now, and voices too.  When you hear your Mama talking you either grin like crazy or start your anticipation whimper, depending on your hunger level.  You've learned that your Daddy likes to pick you up and play games with you. 

One difference between you and Jonah is that you like to have your neck rubbed, where Jonah is super ticklish.  When you're screaming for whatever reason, I can start rubbing your neck and you'll freeze, bend your head back, and just soak it in.  Or when you're in your saucer and I rub the back of your neck, you'll sort of melt forwards, until your head is resting on something, and then you'll just blink slowly, in total relaxation.

I love you, sweetie, more than this pitiful English language can express.  You are a miracle, just like your brother Jonah.  Our lives are brighter, sweeter, and more meaningful with you in our home.

Love,

Daddy