Dear Eleanor and Wesley,
We have hit a benchmark. Wes has officially and exuberately passed the threshold into Toddlerhood. As I’ve watched you literally learn to stand on your own two feet and wander forward, the physics are astounding. The kinetic energy of your momentum is generated through converting the vast potential energy of your disproportionately large baby head in relation to gravity with a wrecklessly agressive tilt towards your destination. In other words, you stumble like a drunkard. I watch in amazement as your chubby legs desparately fling your tiny feet forward in efforts to keep your precariously positioned forehead from crashing directly on the floor. Amazingly, it works almost everytime. You’ve even got a bit of jog going.
The audacity of it all reminds me of the attitude of people who get things done. I hope that mindset is a part of person you both grow up to be. At the outset, anything worth doing will come along with a mountain of reasons why it should not be done and why you are not the one to do it. Self doubt, poor conditions, and naysayers will weigh on you. Even your own mind will find safety in the idea of giving up before you’ve begun. Right at the start, you must be like Wes.
The initial push it takes to do work that matters is immense. What if it doesn’t work? What if it all falls apart? How could any of this be possible? The questions can ring in your ears like pounding drums. At times like that, you will find one of two options: a way out or a way forward.
I know those crippling refrains well. If I had listened, I can’t imagine who I’d be today. I would not know how to juggle or balance a ladder on my face. I would never have joined a band or recorded an album, I would not be an educator, and your Mom and I would have called it quits 6 months after we met. Life is a risk, and when you find the moments that are worthy, you have to live it.
With all the questions you could dwell on when you think about starting something, here are the worth while ones. Why not me? and How do I get started? Stand up on your own two feet, lean forward, and start stumbling.
Love,
Dad
thedadletters.com 
YES! I remember when The Brookie started her shenanigans. We had a living room full of sharp, jagged objects.
I can totally see your little guy careening about the room. Makes me want to have my arms at the ready to catch him. You nailed this whole walking/stumbling idea with your two questions. Thinking I’m going to write those on my mirror so I see them every day!