Month 33, or Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Corbin,

We've had an eventful month, this November. You were in Madison at the beginning of the month to keep Grandma and Grandpa Lam all healthy. Then Dad and I both had off of work on the 11th, for Veteran's Day, and we all went to the Science Museum. You have become interested in volcanoes and lava, thanks to one of the illustrations in an alphabet book for the Leap Pad. You pretty much ignore every other page in the book, and you made us look up videos of lava on YouTube. You make us draw big volcanoes in your sketchbook now, alongside the hot air balloons and puffer fish.

So when a friend tipped us off to the Natural Disasters exhibit, we decided we'd better take you. It was about earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes, too, but you didn't care about any of those topics. You and I sat at the volcano simulation machine for about half an hour making different types of volcanoes and watching them explode. I got you to visit the part about tornadoes for about 5 minutes before you wanted to go back to the volcanoes. Then we got to see a demonstration about lava, and they even poured hot lava out right in front of us. It was a tiny little amount, but it was still neat to see it. We looked at the dinosaur skeletons, too, but you were sad that we didn't let you climb into the displays and touch them all. Grandma bought you glow in the dark stars and planets for your ceiling, which is something I had as a kid, too, but I think these stars will come down without peeling the paint off of the ceiling, which is a definite improvement.

The next Saturday we had our first real snowfall. We went down in the afternoon to celebrate Grandpa Lam's birthday. When we got home, you helped us shovel the front walk. Then when I wanted to you come in so we could go to dinner, you thought that was the worst idea ever. And when we got home and we wouldn't let you stay outside and play in the snow all night, you were even more upset. Between you and your father--and the dogs--we might as well move to Alaska and get it over with.

And then it was the week of Thanksgiving. I had the day off on Wednesday, so you and I and Grandma Lam went to have breakfast at Midtown Global Market. They do a children's program every Wed morning, and it was the day that dancers were going to come from the Cowles Center. You liked listening to the music and watching everyone else dance, but you didn't want to do any dancing yourself. Aunt Lena flew in on Wed night, after your bed time, so you didn't get to see her until Thursday morning. We made breakfast here and then Thanksgiving dinner at the apartment. In between, we fixed the fence in the side yard to keep the dogs in the back yard, played in the mud, raked leaves, and Dad started yet another speaker project. On Friday, we avoided the malls, and today everyone left town after breakfast. Aunt Lena flew back to Norfolk and G&G Lam drove down to Madison. I have the next two weeks off from work, so it'll be you and me finding things to keep ourselves occupied.

This is the start of big changes in your routine for the next several months. I was telling you the other day that it was going to be Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and then time to visit Indiana, and then time to start school, and then time to sleep in the big bed, and then Baby Sister is going come and live with us. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep up some of our good routines around naps and bed time, so that we can go through big changes with a well-rested you. And a well-rested me, for that matter.

Your first day of preschool will actually be the Monday after we get back from Indy, so hopefully the trip won't have been too crazy. You'll be enrolled in the five mornings a week class, from 8:30am to 11:30am. I'm really glad that we'll have a couple of months to get you settled there before Baby Sister arrives. I think it will be very helpful for everyone. When you were born, we didn't have any really need to get you on a schedule, or even much of a routine, and looking back I think it would have been helpful. My brain works better that way, and I think yours does, too. So I am interested to see if Baby Sister will respond well to being on a routine right off the bat. I'm a little bit nervous for your transition to school, for a couple of reasons. You're so used to one-on-one attention all day and I worry that you won't like being in a class. Also, I'm not looking forward to the massive amount of new germs that I'm sure will accompany you home. We might as well buy stock in Chlorox wipes right now.

You're a talking fool these days, and you have picked up some funny phrases. You ask for "one more last book," or "one more last thing." You are getting more and more creative in your play. You and Dad play lava monsters. You told me today that the little hole in the table was an ant hole, and that ants lived in the table. You like to run your hand around things and people, pretending that it's a spider. The other night you hooted at me and said, "I'm an owl." So I said, "Time to snuggle in your comfy nest, little owl." But when I tried that the next night, you said, "It's my comfy CRIB," in that indignant tone of voice that you've already perfected. I get things wrong on purpose sometimes, just to hear you correct me, because it cracks me up.

We watched an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba the other day about staying clean. They sang a song about tiny icky germs, which you wash away with the help of Super Soapy Pal and some magic shampoo. Which might explain the songs that you requested the other night.

In order:
the itsy bitsy spider
the icky icky spider
the clean clean spider
the just a little bit dirty spider

I also had to sing you "Madeline Over the Rainbow", after buying you the book Madeline and the Bad Hat. You have started finding a lot of cute ways to delay your bed time, which is frustrating to me. I find myself losing patience with you, and that's when you pull out the big guns of needing to use the potty or being scared. The other night, I had to send Dad in to you, and then eat ice cream and watch the BBC Pride and Prejudice to relax. I have a feeling over the next couple of weeks that Dad will be doing bedtime a lot just because I'll have you all day. It'll probably be better for everyone's sanity. And that's how much I love you--I do what's good for your sanity, even if you'd rather I just sang "Frosty the Snowman" to you another hundred times in a row.

Love,
Mom


The volcano page in the Leap Pad book:
You and Dad drawing volcanoes:
It was so warm on Thanksgiving, we played outside without out coats on!