3.3, or Cloudy with a chance of Science

Dear Corbin,

It's been a busy month for us!  Grandma and Grandpa Thorne came to visit for several days.  It was nice to have so much time with them, instead of just a couple of afternoons.  We went swimming at their hotel, and we brought them to Midtown Global Market for dinner one night.  Dad and I took them out to dinner a different night, for Mother's Day and for Grandpa's birthday.  They went to school with you one morning to observe your classroom, which they enjoyed very much.

Auntie Tabetha came to visit for several days, too.  She also went to school with you one day, but not to observe your classroom.  She went to your all-school sing along, which she thought was pretty funny.  She brought you a little stuffed crow.  You carried him around pecking everything for a couple of days, and he's gone to bed with you a couple of times, too.  That's a large measure of affection for you; you often ask for stuffed animals at night, but then want to put them away before you go to sleep.

We had a fairly scientific month, as well.  You've been playing with a couple of microscopes, one at our house and one that Grandma Lam found in Madison.  We've gotten a couple of documentaries from Netflix, but they weren't about volcanoes so you didn't want to watch them more than once.  You planted tomato seeds with Grandpa Lam, and you've been watering them and watching them sprout.  The funniest thing that happened came from a trip to AxMan: we got you a giant inflatable frog that had its internal organs displayed on its stomach.  The best part, though, was that we were able to watch part of the solar eclipse on the 20th.  Dad and I made a pinhole projector and we all stood around outside projecting the eclipse onto your sketchbook.  It was fun, and it made me feel smug about my awesome scientific parenting skills.

 We narrowly avoided learning more than we wanted to know about severe weather last weekend.  We had been washing one of our big rugs on Saturday morning.  You had fun spraying it with the hose for a long time.  In the afternoon, I noticed some rain drops so we went outside to bring the rug in.  It started raining harder, so I sent you inside with your tow truck.  I grabbed the rug and ran in after you, and just then it started hailing like crazy.  Thinking about the two of us being caught outside in that hail is pretty scary.  Luckily, we didn't have any damage to the house or anything.  It rained heavily for just a short while.  After it stopped the gutters were practically flooded, so you and Dad went outside to wade around in them and float sticks down the street.

One of the changes that I've been noticing lately is in your artwork.  You have started adding more details to your drawings, which I find interesting.  Your hot air balloons now include a real basket and the burner equipment.  Your volcanoes now include a crater at the top, smoke clouds and ash, instead of only lava.  It's such a concrete demonstration of how your motor skills are developing.  It started out as just a fun observation, but when you managed to write almost your entire name on a piece of paper (copying from another sheet that Grandma wrote on) it moved into being kind of amazing.

You've been playing some new games lately.  We picked up Trouble at a yard sale, along with a checkers/tic-tac-toe board, so you played your first game of checkers with Grandma the other day.  I mentioned cuttlefish, which I thought you might remember from one of the ocean life documentaries, but you turned that into cuddle fish instead.  My favorite, though, was watching you and Dad play Venus Fly Trap, during which Dad sat on the couch with his arms open and you ran around saying, "Bzzz bzzz bzzz!" That, like so many other things that you do, made me laugh a lot.

I went back to work this month, so you've been sharing your afternoons with Miriam.  It seems to be going well.  Or at least I haven't noticed any change--you're still a bouncy little goofball when I get home.

Love,
Mom


More detailed hot air balloons:

Happy Mother's Day!

 Giant inflatable Bio Frog!

Helping Dad fix the toilet:

Science!

 You took this picture:

Month 1, or Welcome Home, Miriam

Dear Miriam,

Welcome to our family, little girl!  We love you so much and we're so happy you're here with us.  You arrived on a Monday morning that was cool and windy and rainy.  I was expecting you earlier than you came, but you were right on your due date.  You'll just have to put up with having your birthday the day before mine for the rest of your life.  Although, with the amount of friends and relatives that we have with birthdays in March, you're lucky that you're not sharing with someone that we know.

So far, you've been a pretty easy kid, which is such a blessing.  You had a bit of jaundice, so you had to sleep on a special light bed when you came home, but other than that you're very healthy.  You're up two or three times a night, and really only fussy when you're tired.  You haven't liked taking a bottle very much, but you'll have to get used to it soon, when I go back to work.  You are kind of a restless sleeper, which can be hard because it means that you want us to hold you all the time instead of laying you down.  Sometimes it's easiest to just put you in the carrier and wear you around while I do things.

I'm trying not to compare you to Corbin all the time, but it's hard to avoid.  Sometimes you remind me so strongly of him, and sometimes you just remind me of what it's like to have a newborn.  We've been surprised that you don't have any mongol marks like he did.  We keep wondering if his eyes had started changing by now, because yours have not.  You make funny faces and funny noises, like he did.  I even went back and looked at some of his baby pictures, to see if you look as alike as I felt you did.  But it's also a process of remembering just how many diapers a newborn goes through, and just how much laundry babies generate. 

I'm also trying not to be impatient with you, or myself, because I know how some things will become easier when you're older.  I have to tell myself to slow down, and to let you be yourself right now.  It makes me wonder how much you will affected by feelings of needing to grow up faster so that you can keep up with Corbin.  I know that I felt that way sometimes, and being compared to a sibling can be a hard thing to handle.  I hope that when you feel challenged that way, it is because of your own choice to challenge yourself and not because of something that you think we expect.  We have been proud and happy to be Corbin's parents, but we didn't have a second child because we wanted a second Corbin.  You are your own person, and you bring us your own unique reasons that we are be proud and happy to be your parents, too.

Love,
Mom