Wonderland (Annabel's 6th Birthday Letter)

Hi there 😄 

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You'll get a monthly email, plus when I publish a new post. Each issue, we cover one topic on my mind and recommendations I send to friends and family.

Annabel turns six on September 17th. I write and publish birthday letters for the kids. Here are Oliver's, at five and at six, and Theodore's, and Madeline's.

"If you could write anything in the garden, what would you write, Annabel?" Amy asked.

You didn't hesitate.

"Why?"

"Because whenever we go to the playground, you check to see if my friends want to come, because you know I like playing with them. And whenever I come home, Daddy makes me yogurt and granola for me, because he knows I like it."

Some days it's easy to forget you're only six. That you already understand love is what you do, not what you say.

Two years ago, in your fourth birthday letter, I wrote: "We don't have that thing yet, AB, you and I. I think we'll find it, though."

I think we're getting closer. We're so alike, you and I. We both like our silences and our space away from people. We're both little black sheep, still figuring out where we belong. Or maybe that's just me projecting. I do that.

Either way, it can be hard. I think this year it was.

For as long as I can remember, you and Oliver were a pair. There was a whole era where you two were inseparable, as we moved across the world and then meandered our way back. That's slowly ending, and now we're figuring out what's next.

You've already had your moments of brilliance. Your first day of kindergarten, for one.

Your mom stayed up the night before making you a banner and setting your teddy bears out on the kitchen table to greet you in the morning. You came down smiling ear to ear, bob cut, book bag strapped across your chest like this was the thing you'd been waiting on your whole life. We stood in a schoolyard, a stream of navy blue and khaki, kids fighting and playing all around us. You headed for the door already chatting with a friend. You waved goodbye. You disappeared without a glance back.

A few days before that, I took you and Theodore to the Please Touch Museum.

You took him under your wing. You walked him through the grocery store and made sure he could pick things out and buy them himself. You brought him into the Alice in Wonderland maze and told him you would keep him safe and show him all the shortcuts.

Six is two steps forward and one step back, my love. It can feel like a maze of its own while you figure out where you fit.

Here's the one thing you'll never have to wonder about. You are loved. You've got your whole family with you, ready to show you the way whenever you need it.

Happy 6th birthday, my love.

⭐ Recommendations:

📺 Watching

🎬 Carolina Caroline. Went in expecting one movie and got a much better one. A Letterboxd review said it best:

🍜 The new Anthony Bourdain movie, Tony. Saw it with my cousins Brian and Brandon; we'll watch anything Bourdain. I've started to re-read Kitchen Confidential. My favorite Bourdain quote, on writing for television:

🧗 Fall, and then the behind-the-scenes on how they shot it. Just a fun watch; my feet were sweating as I watched it. To work through the direction, they built a tiny scale model of the platform in a backyard first and blocked the entire movie on it, working out how the characters would sit, stand and sleep.

📖 Reading

📕 Sons of Ares, the Red Rising graphic novel, prequel to the series. Great to read it and have visuals of this world.

Ending Note

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