Dear Evan:

Happy Father’s Day to me! It’s my second ever. Can you believe I had to think about that? It seems like so many more. This year we’ll be visiting your Lovey and Grumpy. Last night, you and your mom gave me a vintage-looking popcorn machine. I don’t have many vices any more, but one of them is microwave popcorn. Now we can get back to the real stuff. Soon, you’ll even be able to share.

You’re in two phases right now: asking questions about everything, and the Terrible Twos. Oh, and nature movies. On that last one, you’ve come up with a clear way to determine which scenes disturb you. If an animal has sharp teeth, it’s deemed scary and worth scampering behind my legs. We have long discussions about what counts as scary, mostly in the form of you asking, “Has sharp teeth? Has normal teeth?”

For the most part, the system works, with some exceptions: Your dogs clearly have sharp teeth but are friendly. So now animals have qualifiers: something can be FWENDLY, especially if it’s a TEENY-TINY BABY.

All of which leads us to your imagination. Every day, you tell us you’re a different animal. (Yesterday you were a sea turtle.) But inevitably, you qualify it with assuring us no matter what, you’re a FWENDLY BABY sea turtle or chameleon or camel.

I can’t wait to see what you are today.

I love you,

Daddy