We are having so much fun with you these warm summer months. We're spending a ton of time outside and often hang out in the back patio where there's good shade for you. We've gone for a couple long walks to the Proctor Market and on Point Defiance trails now that you're gaining some strength and less of a bobblehead.
I'm not sure if it's the weather, your age, or just your character, but you are a happy little guy. There are a couple sounds your Mom and I pair along with our own smiles that make you mirror back a big, genuine smile. You wind up for it by hunching your shoulders and circling your head around to release a big, all-gums smile. You look like a cute little turtle. We egg you on as long as we can, but you get a little bored of the reciprocal smile game after about a minute. They're the best minutes of the day.
You are eating and sleeping really well. The combination of them put you at being a heavyweight baby. I've seen twice this month other babies that are at least double your age and the same size. You don't have rolls of skin like other big babies (and as I was), you're just well rounded.
Your primary activity is tracking your Mom. You are like her secret service, always watching where she is and what she's doing. I'm sure you'd take a bullet for her. It's especially entertaining when you're being held by someone else, because you tend to give zero shits about that person if you can hear Mom's voice. You get all of your neck strength from turning about trying to see where she is. The reason you're looking at the camera in this month's letter photo is because she's behind it. When you're in her arms, as you often are, you gaze lovingly like nothing else is happening in the world. In that moment, nothing is.
In a bigger picture, there's a lot happening out there. North Korea and the U.S. are playing war games, with North Korea testing nuclear bombs and flying a missile over Japan. Houston flooded this month from Hurricane Harvey, displacing tens of thousands in America's fourth largest city. The news is always bad, but that doesn't make it anymore comforting.
We've been in a bubble of safety here in the Pacific Northwest during my lifetime, and I hope that continues for us. Despite globalization and a new generation that sees citizenship as global, governments continue to act as if country borders are (and should have) walls. Where climate change has thrown havoc at other parts of the country and world, we've been spared. All we can really complain about (and enjoy) is a warmer, drier summer. Knock on a standing tree.
Like most parents, we sometimes contemplate the kind of world we brought you into. How dangerous is it? How much can we control to keep you safe? Are we doing our part to help make it better? These questions are overwhelming and prevent some people from having children at all.
That last question is where we have our best answer: you.
With one more outstanding person put into this world, we've got a reason to be optimistic. Maybe you'll be a community leader. Maybe you'll help in a major relief effort. Maybe you'll discover an entirely different way of sustainable living. Or maybe you'll simply do your part as a global citizen to make smart, ethical decisions that add to a big change in our politics and climate. That'd be no small impact. I bet you'll be up for the challenge.
Love always, Dad