Dear Alex —
Welcome to (most of) your first Fogust!

Oh, this face. This FACE! You are so expressive, little one. Your smile lights up your eyes, and when you’re mad, your whole body is mad. You have a new cry, which I refer to as “strangled dragonlet.”

It’s terrible. It sounds like you’re being murdered, even though you’re just protesting a fresh diaper or the extreme indignity of being put into your carseat.

You are the rollingest baby who ever tried to get out of tummy time. I thought your brother was an active baby; you are determined to show him up there. Your favorite place to roll and stretch and try to grab ANYTHING ANYTHING ANYTHING is the changing table, naturally, and you are so tall and we are so awful that we try really hard not to laugh when you bonk your head on the closet behind the table because you’ve run out of room to scoot. (We’re reusing the changing table we had for Grayson, but I’m already wondering when you’ll just be too long for it.

You’re getting better at sitting up but it’s not your favorite thing. Your favorite thing is still Being Held By Mama.

This month included your first major road trip! Daddy and I packed everyone up for a long weekend in Boise, ID, to see the total solar eclipse in totality, and it was really, really cool.

I mean, not that you cared.

You actually asked to nurse right before it hit totality, which I thought was rude, but you were really just bored; once I set you in the grass, you were fine.

<— This is your space onesie, which you wore on the off-chance you ran into Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Solar eclipses are rare enough that this was worth the trip, but we also got really, really lucky. Most of the people from our area decided to go toward Seattle and most of the interested folks in Utah and Nevada went east for viewing. We knew we needed to drive and, if possible, stay in a place that allowed the dog. For a little while, I wasn’t sure we were going at all — most rentals made good use of the special occasion and jacked up their rates.

But somehow we found a place with two bedrooms, a fenced yard, and easy access to everything because Boise is pretty small and quiet for a city. The drive was long and we got in late, but you and your brother were champs, all things considered. We stumbled onto the little town of Weiser, where they were having an Eclipse Festival, and we saw and felt over two minutes of this totally amazing, totally natural phenomenon. I didn’t think it was that huge a deal when we planned it out — we wanted to go while Daddy is still able to see enough to appreciate it. But after?

Well. We’ll be heading to New England and Montreal in 2024 for the next one.

We’re going to try to do more trips like this, buddy. Daddy and I talk a lot about how best to spend our time off; Mommy’s family didn’t really do vacations, but Daddy remembers going to a dinosaur dig and seeing Mt. St. Helens not long after it blew, among other things.

These are the kinds of trips we want to do with you and Gray (although, for us, it means Airbnb rather than a camper on a truck). We want you to see the capitol and the world’s largest ball of twine. We’ve never been big Disney fans; we’ll go if it becomes important to either of you kids, but for the most part, I think we’d rather just explore.

And next time, you’re unlikely to pop three out of your four front teeth all at once.

It’s getting a lot harder to keep you in the carrier, not because you fuss, but because your legs are getting so long they bump my knees when I walk up stairs. For framily hikes, we’ve started using the Kelty.

You’ve managed some “MAMAMAMAMA” sounds and rapidly branched out into other consonants. You definitely know some words — when I say it’s time to go get our Grayson, you bounce and laugh and are ready to go. You love playing with the dog, feeding yourself with your hands or a spoon, and trying to walk.

You are a joy and a wonder, kid.

Love,
Mama