Dear Edwin,
What a difference a year makes. In the time since your second birthday, you’ve changed so much. Most notably, you talk. Non. Stop. And it’s awesome. You have preferences about what you like and about how things are done, and you aren’t afraid to show it. Some people might call you difficult; I prefer the term “strong-willed.”
Someone told me that once you have a kid, the years go by quickly, but the days last forever. They’re right. It seems like just yesterday you were the little peanut in the photo, nine weeks early and kicking off a 5-week NICU stay. Even then you were strong — after a moment of holding my own breath when you first came out quiet, you started to yell, and you got an 8 on your Apgars score. I spent a lot of hours in the NICU, watching you stats on the monitors, watching you figure out how to breathe (you had it nailed pretty much right away), how to eat, and how to be a baby.
Today, you are different. Obviously, physically, but your personality is coming out — your curiosity, your imagination, your ideas about how the world should work (and oh god do you negotiate everything), and your humor. It’s hilarious and fun and sometimes its a little difficult. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Love,
Dad
