Everyday I Write the Book

Shortly after my son, Isaac, was born, I wrote a short book for my daughter, Lucy, who at the time was just about 2 and a half years old. That sounds so literary of me, but honestly, it’s nothing fancy and it wasn’t on the shortlist for the National Book Award for young people's literature. It’s self-published – if you call using KodakGallery.com’s photo book feature “publishing.”

Basically I picked out my favorite photos from her life so far and turned them into the story of her life through the captions. I figure it’s high time to do the same for her little  brother, especially since I recently bought a $10 Groupon to let me do the same thing through Shutterfly.com.

Here’s the problem: The coupon expires soon and I’m finding myself at a bit of a loss for words. The pressure is on and as a former reporter, I still thrive under the gun of a deadline, and you all know that I can usually find something to say about my kids. And yet I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to write about Ike.

Is it because I don’t have as much material to work with, given that he’s 17-months-old and Lucy was about a  year older when I wrote her story? That’s definitely true. But it’s not like this kid hasn’t given us a bunch of material already.

I think it’s more that he’s the unwitting victim of Second Kid Syndrome, where the unfortunate second-born child has a skimpy baby book compared to his older sibling. There’s just less of my time to spread around now than there was when there was just Lucy in our lives.

In some ways, I think this is a good thing for our younger child. For one thing, I think this time around, we are raising a kid with fewer peccadilloes, partly because he’s just got a different personality than his sister and also because there isn’t time to cultivate them in him when we are busy catering to his big sister’s ingrained whims (think the indulgence of while Isaac pretty much just gets hugged and kissed and tucked into his crib and that’s that until sunrise).

So it’s good that I have a Groupon deadline hanging over my head – I’m not about to waste $10. But it will also cause me to devote some extra brainpower to my littlest one and why I think he’s different and special. And I’m sure I’ll slip some photos into the book of his big sister, too.