Last night I showed Max the photo of him with his Daddy that I finally put in a "Daddy and Me" frame and placed on his new bookshelves. His reaction melted my heart, and turned me into a puddle of tears - he said "Ah!" and gave JP's face a big kiss.
I often worry that in the chaos that is raising (or just keeping up with) a toddler, I'm not living up to my promise of making sure Max learns about his father the way I want him to. I haven't gotten around to collecting stories about JP from friends/family/colleagues, but I have a lovely book that was put together by some of JP's college friends. I do have lots of pictures of JP around the house, and when I can relate a tidbit about him without falling apart, I do. And my parents are diligent about that as well.
Seeing how excited he gets when he sees a picture of JP makes me wonder if Max does have some sort of memory of his father. We know so little about that type of cognitive function in babies. It's probably just wishful thinking. His reactions to the pictures of Daddy are probably the result of the reaction he gets when he points to JP's face or makes a happy sound when shown a photo. But I kind of like telling myself that on some basic level, in a way that we won't ever understand or be able to explain, he does know his father's love. After all, he is the living reminder and the wonderful physical legacy JP left behind.
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