Striking resemblance

Sydney Walk February 27th 1853

I always knew I had a great capacity for maternal love and I will be eternally grateful to LB for allowing me to experience it - even if only for a short while. He is a delightful child and I will smother him with kisses until he has to leave us. I am quite amazed by his constant inquisitiveness. Whenever the maid or I have our backs turned he is inside a cupboard, under a bed or struggling to open a window - on a never ending quest for enlightenment, I suppose.

Sadly, Josiah has been unusually tested with his business deals at the moment and has not been able to spend much time at home with us. I hope we can have LB for a good while yet - although I know that means Boo would still be stricken in her pregnancy, poor goose - because I know Josiah will adore him in an instant. He was not happy when I announced LB's arrival but he respects my wish to do Boo this service and I am sure that when he bounces the boy on his knee for the first time he will melt as quickly as I have done. This will perhaps serve better than the occasional picnic as a ruse to turn Josiah and I into proper parents....

Oh, the boy is wondrous! He reminds me so much of Josiah as he plays with wooden bricks and demands biscuits from anyone who passes. He has a quizzical look when thwarted which recalls Josiah exactly, and when he is happy he makes a little barking sound which is Josiah to the core. It is enough to make me wonder which is the right way round - do men become fully matured by the age of three, or do boy children grow taller but never any wiser? The two states are almost indistinguishable, whether three or thirty three. I may turn my hand to a scientific study of the development of our species, since I know of none in existence.