2 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

By now I’ve learned just to always keep the camera with us in the car. Otherwise, stories like this one wouldn’t have their proper illustrations.

It’s often during that early morning drive to school that your creative juices are flowing finest, as you attempt to entertain yourself (and accidentally, me as well) in the back of my Honda Element.

This morning, right after we had just passed the fire station with its two open garage doors, you began narrating the ad lib story about the white car (that was mine when I was a kid) and the red Jeep you were playing with.

“Hey, I have to go in the garage,” said the white car, voiced by you, speaking in falsetto, as you drove him up your left shorts leg.

Immediately following, the red Jeep announced he needed to go in the other side of the garage; which, you guessed it, was the up the other leg of your shorts.

As I mentioned yesterday, “ 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.”

Therefore, before I dropped you off in your classroom this morning, you had to place your two cars in your cubby so they could be accessible the very moment you would see me again at the end of the day when I picked you up.

I should point out that the red Jeep has a driver, who we refer to “Ghost Man,” a plastic figurine you won as a prize at a Halloween festival last year.

Today when we got home, I asked you what Ghost Man did all day in your cubby.

You instantly and very sincerely responded, “He was good.”

Then I asked you what he ate for lunch. Your reply:

“Daddy, he was in the cubby all day!”

I’m not sure how you were so confident he was good all day if he wasn’t able to leave the cubby, not even to eat lunch.

But, hey, as long as you make up funny scenarios like a 2 car garage up your shorts or Ghost Man behaving well in your cubby all day, I’m going to keep asking you curious questions.

Love,

Daddy

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