6 years, 10 months.

Dear Holly,

I was so surprised to look back this week and realize:

Somehow, I’ve never mentioned that your entire life, there has been a very special book we have always had a special bond reading together.

It is the reason that every night after I put you to bed, I always walk backwards out of your room, and put my finger over my lips… and then you do it back to me.

That’s because we are imitating the gorilla in the book Good Night, Gorilla.

Only recently did I actually realize how few words the book actually contains. Yet still, we have both always been captivated by the progression of the story, based mainly on just the pictures.

Over the years, we have noticed little Easter Eggs; like how multiple people start showing up in the windows of the neighbors’ houses, how the mouse carries the banana with him throughout the story, and how the balloon is in nearly every page, even if you can barely see it as a speck in the sky.

Good Night, Gorilla was written in 1994; so I was 13 when it came out. In other words, I didn’t grow up with it as a kids’ book.

But I am happy that you and I can share it together!

Love,

Daddy