Dear Eliza, 89 Months Old

Last night we went to Bella Bella beach to catch the sunset. These winter days are getting a little warmer and a little longer, so we put on our puffies to head to the beach after dinner at your Mom’s suggestion. As you know we’re locked in by trees at our house(s), so horizons take effort.

Automatically, you grabbed your circa-2013 Sony Cybershot camera, checked the batteries, and stashed it in your pocket.

We are a lot alike and nothing proves that to me more than your art and taking up phorography with gusto. You have asked for your own camera since you could talk. We got you a "little kid" camera at first, but it wasn't great. What it did in durability didn’t make up for the lack of pixels. You asked for a Polaroid camera but that paper is expensive, so I graduated you to the Sony, which was a handheld marvel in its day. Now it's worth about $30 on eBay.

You've since been running around with camera and taking selfies with you friends. For events like our sunset beach walk, you pay attention to the details and capture them: a dog’s footprints, a stranded starfish, a stork that you chase for several minutes at a time. You run over and playback the pictures with a big grin as we look at the imperfectly perfect short series.

I uploaded the first batch of your images from these past months to our Google Photos account so we can always and easily access them. It’s fun seeing our world from your point-of-view, and I trust I’ll get to see more and more of that. Just keep shooting.

Love, Dad

Dear Matteo, 68 Months Old

Our vacation schedule is heavily influenced by the school calendar these days. We spent our mid-winter break in Palm Springs visiting Gigi, who has been slowed by some heart valve issues in recent weeks. Thankfully, she returned to playing tennis while we were there.

I’m glad we made the usual visit, but it was a lot colder than we expected. Sure, we had the desirable 75-and-sunny weather, but we also had some days in the days in the 60s and a high winds day. That all made for a couple fewer pool days than we expected and a little more time at The Living Desert Zoo, where we once again have an annual pass. It is nice to walk the zoo and not have to hunt for shade. We also had more comfortable late morning hikes up to the cross. The weather was so bonkers that we drove through snow on the way from Palm Desert to Ontario airport.

That flight home, by the way, was an absolute haul. We got to the airport just fine but our incoming plane was struck by lightning, so our flight was delayed and eventually cancelled, or so we thought. Lightning strikes are common, as I learned from some quick online research. Most commercial planes are struck by lightning once or twice per year! You and I spent the delay time at the airport throwing a soft football. The gate area gave us a solid 50-feet to throw back and forth and you have an arm now to cover that length with accuracy.

We rescheduled to fly out the next morning and took our free hotel stay and food vouchers. By the time we got to the hotel and walked across the parking lot to a Denny’s knock-off, we checked the flight schedules and learned our flight was never actually cancelled. At that same time, I saw open seats on a flight later that night, so we checked out of the hotel and headed back to the airport. We made the flight.

Door to door, it was a 14-hour travel day. You and Eliza were champs. Good news: that’s about as long as we’ll take to get to Europe in the spring. In that light, this was just good practice.

Love, Dad

Dear Eliza, 88 Months Old

Last time I wrote you, we were hoping to get those loose front teeth moving out. So far, one down one to go. You got the first tooth out while watching a movie and gripping it with some toilet paper. For some odd reason you decided to finish the job inside a nearby cardboard box for some privacy. After a few short minutes, we heard a squeal and you emerged like a butterfly out of a coccoon. But instead of new wings, you had a new hole in your mouth.

The remaining tooth isn’t moving out so much as moving up. The new tooth is pushing your old tooth forward and nearly horizontal now. I’ve given it a couple good tugs, but we’re not near the finish line. I hope it happens soon for the sake of removing that small dagger of a tooth pointing out.

This week, we are back in one of your favorite places in the world: Palm Desert. We’re spending mid-winter break with Grams here. So far it’s been cool, not quite 70 degrees, but that didn’t stop you and Matteo from a first 4-hour pool day. The temps will get into the 70s starting today, and that will get me and your Mom in the pool, too. We’re used to warmer temps because we usually come down here on the shoulder seasons late March or October. We were supposed to be here in October but yours truly caught COVID, so this is our reschedule. We’re also not used to the Deep Canyon community being so busy. The seniors here are rarely in the pool but are always in the hot tubs.

The agenda here will be our usual jam: zoo trips, pool days, tennis (more like open batting cages at this age), and hiking up to the cross. I was ready for a family vacation again. It came at the cost of missing pajama day at school and we’ll have to agree to disagree that it was worth the trade off.

Love, Dad

Dear Matteo, 67 Months Old

In your most frustrated moments you like to say, “I have the worst ideas!” and “My ideas are always so bad.”

We all self-pout and doubt, and I’ll tell you here like I tell you in-person: you have a lot of great ideas, and it’s all about when and how you make them happen.

For example, suggesting that it’s time for dessert is a great idea, just not before dinnertime. Asking to build Legos or make a smoothie an hour past your bedtime are also poorly-timed, good ideas. Putting your fingers forcefully inside Luna’s mouth is never a good idea and that’s why you have bite marks. Sometime you have to take more than a hint.

Now let’s talk about some great ideas you’ve had lately.

You decided to play basketball and are a top player on the court at all times. Your Mom’s Hoosier vibes come out and she loves it. I have accepted that the basketball Saturday games conflict with ski season, or I keep telling myself that.

You decided to stop playing baseball despite your awesome eye-hand coordination and monster throwing arm, but I appreciate the early-in-life prioritization.

You want to ski higher and explore more of the mountain on our ski days. I love this! This past weekend, you and your sister skied more runs off the gondola than any other lift at Crystal Mountain, which means you can ski most of the resort now with regularly scheduled hot chocolate and food breaks.

I’ll help you continue to place your good ideas at the right place and time. In turn, I hope that you start to consider some of my ideas as good, too. That starts with going to bed on time. That’s always the best idea.

Love, Dad

Dear Eliza, 87 Months Old

Well, we had another incredible Christmas season. Your Mom and I are always a bit nervous about the presents, making sure the experienxe is fair as you're both atune to counting gifts like an accountant during tax season. There's so much anticipation for the big day, and as you and Matteo are fully competent at calendaring, you have a precise understanding of how soon Christmas will come. You two slept in on Christmas morning, leaving Mom and I surprised to have a quiet hour and coffee before the gift storm.

It's hard to describe how fun it is for us to watch the whole Christmas ordeal unwrap. It's arguably better than being on the receiving end as a kid. You come downstairs and see the tree and presents, mouth dropped and in shock despite the expectation. You got one of the bigger items this year, a make-up vanity for your room, which held the Santa presents: a Harry Potter snowy owl and a witch's cauldron. Matteo got a telescope from Santa, which is pretty awesome, but we also have a lot of trees around our house making it hard to get a good view of the sky. That will probably come in handy for longer nights this summer.

You and Matteo took your time this year, watching each other open up each present and breaking it open to play with it before you went on to the next. That pattern made for a couple hours worth of present opening time, a new record by a long shot and a trend that I hope keeps up the next few years.

In addition to your cauldron, which created a smoky, furry surprise after a multi-step spell, a big hit was a fashion design kit for dolls. Your Mom helped you with the sewing needles and material cutting to help you realize the designs in your head on doll mannequins. It's really fun to watch you in your medium. You spent hours for a couple days designing new doll dresses with layers and accessories.

Moving on from one magical event to another, you are in the driver’s seat to make the tooth fairy come anytime now. You have had two loose front teeth for several weeks and have been favoring them, biting with the side of your mouth to help those near-dead teeth hang on as long as they can by literal threads. Your Mom incentivized you with a tooth necklace so that wherever you lose your tooth, you can store it right away for safekeeping. All that's come of it so far is an empty tooth necklace.

When the time comes, you're hoping to see the tooth fairy and barter for fairy power instead of asking for money. You told us several times that you would like to specifically "get the power to fly," and "want all the very powers in the world, just not the tooth fairy ones" because, let's be honest, those aren't the most exciting.

First things first. We need to get those front teeth out. I realize that will change your look quite a bit, so I've taken a few photos recently to remember the last of your baby-teeth smile before the jack-o-lantern phase comes online. I'll miss the look, but onto the next one.

Love, Dad