Order and Art

Dear Jack,

I admit that I did not read to you nearly as much in your first year as I did your sister. We were just on the go too often and didn't have the same evening quiet time. You were read to some and there were books aplenty for you to play with, but sitting and reading book after book after book never happened.

It's been interesting, therefore, to see your interest in books (pronounced with a firm "buh" when you want to be read to) growing in the past few weeks.

I will go and sit down on your bed to watch you play in the evenings and you will announce "buh" and go into your closet to get a book for us to share.

Your favorite right now is The Louvre Up Close. It's a collection of reproductions of famous works of art currently housed at the Louvre. I think you like it because you really don't like to be read to and prefer to sit and examine pictures over and over and over again. You point to things in the pictures and like for me to tell you what they are. You grunt and talk in your private Jack language a lot, so I know you have things to say about the pictures. Mostly, I feel like you are reading to me.

One of my favorite parts, though, is after we're done reading. Without any prompting, you take the book...

walk to your closet...

and put it back on the shelf where you found it.

Just like that.

Your personality is developing so much right now. Seeing your sharp little eye find so much detail in a painting. Listening to your little voice telling me what the story is about. Watching your little arms struggling to hold that big book because you are determined to have everything in your room just so.

I love you more today than I did yesterday and I didn't know it was possible.

Love,
Mom