Jett Oliver: 4 months

Jett,

You turned four months today and, looking back over this time, you’ve definitely upgraded your firmware from 1.0 to 2.0. It’s hard to believe that just 6 weeks ago, we would hold your tiny body and selfishly think that we couldn’t imagine you being any other way, and yet, here we are. Not only have you realized physical changes, but your personality is shining through like rays of light through cloud cover in ways we only dreamed of. Your contagious smile continues to light up our lives and you’ve begun to laugh and squirm endlessly as we run the blow dryer over you after a bath. As a traveler, you will have completed four roundtrip flights by the end of 2017 and it continues to amaze me at how acclimated you are to 35,000 feet; this early exposure will only feed the desire to explore the world that is hardwired into your DNA and your namesake.  

As your facial expressions continue to develop, I begin to sense that your aimless wonder is turning more and more into focused curiosity about the world around you. As your parents, we take our responsibility seriously to nurture that curiosity and expose you to all the rough and wonderful corners of the world.  Furthermore, in your coming months, we will be your sherpas to help you understand deeper what your newly found emotions mean.  How you can turn those tears into joy, confusion into curiosity, fear into faith and ultimately live a life chasing wild dreams and unbridled growth.

Your head may still bobble and your may hair stand straight up as if you’ve been playing with electrical outlets, but you’re growing stronger and into your own skin nonetheless.  Oh, and please forgive our incessant need to take photos and videos of all your amusing nuances, we’re simply first time parents living in the golden age of technology and social media.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so using that simple math, you will have accumulated several billion words by the time you can turn the camera back on us.

Your mom and I love you and cherish every moment we get to be present with you.  We can’t wait to see what the next months and years have in store for you, our son.  I leave you with words from a character you’ll only begin to appreciate once you get your head stuck in a honeypot:

“You’re braver than you think, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think”

-- Winnie-the-pooh

With love,

Dad