johnath in blog form
Hey B, It s back to school on Tuesday, and yesterday I shaved half your head in the backyard. You re rocking an asymmetric bob right now, the right side buzzed down to a #3 clipper fade, with rainbow titanium captive-bead earrings and a new pair of baby blue Chuck T s. You re so much cooler than I Continue reading Beatrix: Nine and a Half
You’re asleep right now. I don’t know if this will be true when you grow up, too, but as a kid you are part cat, and will regularly sleep 11-12 hours solid. How do you do that? I find it tricky to sleep in past 7:30 most days. So on a lazy Saturday morning like this, your mom and I make coffee, and read books or check up on the world, and an hour or so later you’ll meander downstairs and curl up…
Hey B, It s been rainy all day, so right now you re sitting just over there, still in your tie-dye PJs, reading. It s a dragon book. Part of a very long series of dragon books that Lily read before you and that, by the iron law of little siblings, you therefore think is the pinnacle of Continue reading Beatrix: Eight and a Half
Hi B, You re playing Animal Crossing as I write this. There s a whole world of stuff you can do in that game, and you ve sampled all of it, but for the most part you just design clothes, and complain about your mortgage. And then after a while you ll switch to minecraft, where you re working on Continue reading Beatrix: Eight
Hey kid, This letter is late. I kept thinking that a good time to write it would be after this thing or that thing was done. When there would be a little bit of space. But the end of the school year, the start of summer camps, some travel mixed in there — there kept Continue reading Beatrix: Seven and a half
Hi B, The lights keep flicking off and on in the house. I m a bit late writing you this letter because the last few weeks have been an adventure. I don t know how much of it you ll remember when you re older. I don t know if you ll remember staying at a hotel in our own city. Continue reading Beatrix: Seven
Hey B, You re sitting across from me in the living room, folded up in the pink chair, playing Animal Crossing and sniffling. Not COVID, just the kind of boring cold kids get. Or at least the kind that was boring, before all this. You ve got 4 days left of school this year. In most ways, Continue reading Beatrix: Six and a Half
Hi kiddo, You actually turned six a few weeks ago but it s taken until now for me to be able to sit down and write. Happy new year, B! It s a lazy New Year s Day Saturday morning. This morning you helped me spot a Northern Flicker, and now you re in the basement playing Just Dance. Continue reading Beatrix: Six
School wrapped for you and your sis ten days ago, and since then we've been in a block on the calendar just marked FAM TIME. Ten days of day trips, new foods, swimming, and minecraft. Whatever it took to wash off the remnants of virtual schooling, and get you into a summer mode.
This letter is a few weeks late. Your mom says that s the fate of second kids. First kids get the diligence of parents who don t know any better, and second kids get the rounded edges, hand-me-down version. As a kid who grew up eldest at one home, and youngest at the other, I am ready Continue reading Beatrix: Five