7 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack,

Being the son of a daddy blogger/social media influencer, you’re just used to us getting free stuff. Sometimes, we sort of forget about some of the things we are sent from companies. For example, you have enjoyed recently rediscovering the Peanuts Emmy Honored Collection DVD set we got a couple of years ago.

It’s over 4 hours of Charlie Brown and all his friends. It’s something you can get away with watching upstairs in the bonus room while your sister casually plays with her toys; as she occasionally will look up and say, “Puppy?”

This past week as you were hanging out after school one day, you proclaimed to me:

“Daddy, who do you think I am out of all the characters on this show?”

“Charlie Brown, right?”

“No, look: Linus. See? He always carries around his blue blanket- and look, I’m even wearing a red shirt like him too.”

It’s true that you’ve always carried around that blue blanket. Looking back even here on my blog, I wrote about it nearly 6 years ago on April 23, 2012, in “My Son’s Linus Van Pelt Stage: Carrying Around His Blanket”.

In fact, your blue blanket serves as an subconscious symbol of contention for me. You tend to leave it in the middle of the floor, which is a feng shui issue.

So much so, that during one of Nonna’s recent visits to our home, she discreetly taught you to have your blanket put away by the time I got back home, explaining to you, “Have you noticed how your blanket serves as a trigger for your Daddy, when he sees it on the floor or the kitchen table? Make sure you get it out of his sight before he walks in the door.”

Yeah, I guess you’re right: You are Linus.

And perhaps this isn’t a stage, as I thought it was nearly 6 years ago.

Instead, this blanket is simply a part of you and ultimately; an extension of your identity. You self-identity as Linus.

Love,

Daddy