Letters to Joseph-November Part One

Dear Joseph:

November 6

November is upon us already. I know everyone keeps telling me that I should savor your babyhood because it goes by so fast…I can’t believe how true that is. Next month, if not before, you’ll be grasping toys!

It’s a rainy rainy week and you have a runny nose, so we’re hibernating a little. We just walked under the skylights in our bedroom and you looked and looked at them and listened to the rain falling on them. You also gaze at the hanging paper sun lantern that I thought I might try to use as a focal point during your birth. Sometimes you like to be all bundled up and bounced near the black and white photographs of your Dad’s side of the family. You stare at them like you know them. This makes your Dad very happy.

Last week we went to Grandpa Steve’s house on his day to take care of Cousin Henry. It’s so beautiful in his studio since it’s so high up above Ravenna Boulevard which is lined with Horse Chestnut trees. The bay of windows in the front of the studio look right into those trees which are all yellow and orange right now. Your Grandma Joyce and I brought you up there to visit and there was such a warm glow about the whole event. Your Grandpa sat you and Henry on his lap while he rocked you in your Great Great Grandfather Hot’s old wooden rocking chair. Grandpa Steve read you boys a book about an Angus dog and a duck by Marjorie Flack. You are oh so loved.

On Saturday, I decided that I needed to have a haircut…so your Dad took you to the Antique Mall and strolled you around. He tried to give you a bottle, but we think you didn’t like it because it was too cold. We also think that this made you mad, because your poor Dad called me during the haircut sounding desperate and I could hear you crying in the background. He brought you in and I held you and you calmed right down. Sometimes I think you just need to be with me to feel content. Soon you’ll learn to let your Dad comfort you and sometime even after that, you’ll learn to make yourself content.