You will occasionally hear from new parents about how impressed they are with their own children. Every new thing is treated as a scientific achievement, and parents wonder aloud if their children are advanced for their age, or they hope so. Grandparents entertain it. Aunts and uncles tolerate it. The rest of the world finds it a breed of annoying.
I call this phenomenon "baby goggles."
When you're drinking in your 20s (and not earlier) you will occasionally get "beer goggles" that blur the world and people into something more attractive than they are in a sober state. In your 30s (and maybe earlier), if you have children, you'll find that beer goggles become baby goggles, making you see everything your baby does as extraordinary. Ideally, there's no direct correlation between beer goggles and an outcome that results in baby goggles.
Well, we have the baby goggles on right now because we are so impressed by how friggin' smart you are.
This is the point where grandmothers keep reading, Aunt Nina gets distracted with her own kid, and all of my friends bounce to see what else is in their news feeds.
Out of nowhere you are connecting possessive phrases and correlating people and places and objects. It's crazy. Some of your new favorite phrases include: "Daddy work" (when I'm teaching upstairs or actually at work), "Daddy home" (when I get home from work, or phrased as a question), Greta home (when we're away), "Mommy [eye] glasses," "water please," and "Hold you Mommy" (when you want to be held). So cute.
You've also become obsessed with warm milk, aka lattes. Just tonight you connected "latte please hot." That was a little out of order, but better than I order a coffee at Starbucks. It was news to me that you're starting to order hot or iced drinks. I guess the weather is warming up so it makes sense to specify.
And you are spending plenty more time outside as the days are getting longer. It's a good thing because your Mom is getting super preggers. When you're outside, you're more independent and don't need to be held as much as you burn energy in the sun. Mom has also found super-human pregnancy strength as she's in full nesting mode getting the house ready for your brother and the yard ready for a "sprinkle" baby shower this weekend. She's spent the couple weeks running around and doing things she doesn't need to, like mowing the lawn and pressure washing the patio. I did my share of voluntary chores, staining the fence and digging up sod to reset the yard borders -- and getting a massage. My back hurt after all that work, OK?
You aren't holding up your share of responsibilities, but you are expressing more personality as you jog around the yard chasing Greta and jumping between conversations with us.
You complain when your hair isn't up and gets in your eyes. You brush it aside ineffectively as it feathers back in your face. You have a preference in your clothing and like to wear hats and sunglasses. The style looks a little like you're dodging paparazzi in LA, but it works. You do you.
You love reading a version of "Hush Little Baby," which you call "Hush." Sometimes you let us read and sing it to you, but a lot of the time you ask to be left alone and flip through the pages.
You take time mastering small challenges. Tonight you spent all dinner trying to drink sparking water out of a regular plastic cup. You did well and hardly spilled by the end of it -- and had a very wet diaper. When you come across a new stair height or gap in sidewalk around the neighborhood, you'll walk up and down it until you feel you've got the hang of it. Only then you will move on.
I'll be curious to see where that dedication to mastery takes you in life. It may be the baby goggles talking, but I bet really far.
Love, Dad