Dear Ruby

Dear Ruby,
So, we are in the middle of it..this moving event, and I am dismantling the only world you ever known, piece by piece, and expecting you to act normally and go to bed on time. I brought you to the Zoo the other day and we saw ducks. You have been a good little nugget. We are moving primarily because this place is not good for you. Lead paint enters the bloodstream and disrupts the migration of neurons. That is why we always mop together in the morning, Ruby, you are such a good little cleaner. In the new place, we will mop less and spend more time hauling laundry for blocks to the laundromat.
I wonder what damage I have done to my own brain with that heat gun, that sanding. I hope there was not too much asbestos in that beaverboard we have everywhere. Technologies change, and since the Romans we have been poisoning our children with lead to make them docile and stupid. I do not want you to become docile and stupid and therefore we mopped for months and now we are moving. It is impossible to live in a place like this and not work on it and the act of working on it is what must have made your lead levels so high last fall. This fall we will be walking distance from a decent park and dad and mommy will have a coffeehouse and a pub to go to. I have missed those things, though I will miss the chorusing crickets here. I will miss turning over rocks in the backyard with you and I do not know what to do with your sandbox. You will see more of mommy though, however, and I know that is what really matters to you. It will be much easier for her to get back from work and see you, and that is another reason why we are leaving.
We are renting this house to punk rockers, lesbians, and the sort of young people who live collectively and like to pay very little rent. First of all, this type of person never has children, and second of all, I think they are the only kind of people I could act as a landlord to. The break things, yes, all the time, but they also know how to fix things sometimes and I understand their behavior. I have no idea if this plan will work, but it gets you out of the house in time to keep your refusal to utter the words for "Juice" and "Green" from worrying me even more than they do, but we live in a society where doctors have made any departure from normative behavior and illness, and I think you communicate just fine with your "Yes" and your sign language, and your animal noises. I understand you pretty well and you know it. The fact of the matter is you are important and I do not care fuck all about economic investments when they get in the way of taking care of you. Many, many people were hit hard by the depression the country went into basically at the same time you were born and we have done fine so far so we can afford to take a hit if we have to lose this house. The truth of the matter is, Ruby, that fixing this place up was a fun exercise and I would do it precisely once in a given lifetime, but I would do it that one time. Your mother has itchy feet and mine are more planted, but this city is like a hundred small cities and we long to return to those other places.
We will bring all of the cats, of course we will. We will also bring your rubber duckies. I love you, Ruby.