Dear Gus & Magnus,
Ms. Nancy got her MFA in painting/art at the University of Arkansas in 1970. When she graduated, she had a show and sold a lot of her work. She recently got a call from an estate sale company because someone noticed some art with her name on it. Turns out it was a piece from that grad school show, a piece she had not seen in 53 years. She asked me to help her get it to her house, so we all went today. We were glad to be a part of that story. I wish I had taken a picture of her with the painting.
You two loved being able to see the inside of her house. And seeing what our house looks like from inside her house. We have such great neighbors.
During naptime, Gus lost his second tooth and he was excited to show it to me when Magnus and I came downstairs. He put the tooth in his tooth fairy pillow (that used to be Mom's). When Mom went to get it after he went to bed, she discovered that he'd written the tooth fairy a note that said, "im gus im 6 im so GooD that mi tooht fel awlt." He also folded up one of his Pokemon cards and put it with his tooth for the tooth fairy to have. It was the sweetest note, and it left Mom and me with watery eyes. We agreed we've both been hard on him lately and that's probably why he wrote the thing about being good. He's reassuring himself. It broke our hearts to think he might be questioning whether he is "good." I vowed to myself to find a new level of patience with him moving forward, and I think Mom probably did too. This is just such a hard time -- at six and two years old -- but I hope you know we love you both so much. Even though this is a hard time, after you have both gone to bed, Mom and I often spend our only real alone time together talking about how cute you both are, and how much you both make us laugh. We say things like, "It almost makes you want to go wake them up, doesn't it?"
I wish I was younger and had more energy to keep up with you both. But also, I'm glad you have a mature father who has had time to learn from his mistakes. I do wish I had more patience, though. I wish I had less responsibilities at work so I could focus more on you. But, of course, if I had less responsibilities, I wouldn't be able to provide the life we have. A life I love. I hope you love it too.
Dad.
Little Rock, Arkansas. 8.6.2023 - 12.05pm.