Dear Jack,

With all the cool monster trucks and trains I’ve bought you, still you manage to entertain yourself with the most random things sometimes.

For some reason, your favorite toy of Labor Day weekend was the little ladder from your Tonka fire engine truck.

I first noticed you were carrying it around when you and Papa (my dad) got out of the car in the T.J. Maxx parking lot.

It just seemed like a little too much trouble for you to be holding it; especially in the store. But you did.

I’m just glad that none of employees in the store thought you were walking out with merchandise.

The ladder also had other uses throughout the weekend…

Like while I was bent over painting the living room wall as one of our family’s Labor Day home improvement projects, you stuck the ladder up the back of my t-shirt:

“Daddy, look… I give you a tail!”

And there was also the part where you said goodbye to Papa and Nonna for the weekend while wearing nothing but a diaper; and the ladder, which happened to be sticking out the front of your diaper.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time you’ve used a random item as your favorite toy of the day. Not even two months ago, you took a spatula to school without me really even noticing; not until the director mentioned it as we were walking in the front door.

So actually, I guess I should be expecting you to carry around weird items more regularly. It’s like you get a thrill by taking strange objects outside of our house and into the real world… as a way to qualify their true existence.

Or maybe, having a toy ladder or a spatula somehow makes you feel more connected to the big world out there. Maybe it makes you feel more awake and less in a dream world.

Maybe you’re just a curious little boy who makes me laugh on a daily basis because you do stuff I would never think to do.

Don’t be surprised if tomorrow morning as we’re leaving the house, I’m holding the remote control.

Love,

Daddy