Thursday, January 24, 2013

3.11 or, Not the Post You Were Looking For

Dear Corbin,

This month, I was supposed to be writing a post about how lovely it was to see the Thorne side of the family for a Second Christmas in Madison.  Instead, I can write about how lovely the staff at Children's ER was (again) when they treated your fever of 105 and your double ear infection.

We had been having a pretty nice month.  It was cold here, of course.  School started again, which actually was the source of some tension.  We had been feeling for a couple of months now that you just weren't as happy in this class with this teacher.  You told us more often that you didn't want to go, and we noticed you picking up some words and play ideas that we didn't like.  I went so far as to mention to the director that we might want to move you to a different class.  But then I volunteered to help with an Open House event and ended up having wonderful conversations with both of your teachers, the director and the former director.  They all mentioned how much better that whole class is getting along.  One student left, and there were two new students, so the personalities were getting along much better.  Your teacher mentioned that she especially noticed that your attention span was really improved, and that you seemed much more interested in learning new activities.  The really fun part was that you had been showing one of the new kids some of the materials, which they thought was great.  So school seemed to be going well, and then you missed almost a whole week because of that fever.  It seems like just when we get into a routine, we get sick again.

Dad had an ear infection, too, for the first time since he was a kid.  He suffered from them a lot when he was young.  So did Uncle Alex.  I really hope that this is not the start of chronic ear infections for you.  We know several kids who have gone through a ton of ear infections and ended up with tubes in their ears.  I'm hoping to avoid all that.

You and I did get to have a really fun Saturday with Adrian and Cindy, though, at an indoor playground in Edina.  They had a huge climbing structure, with slides and tubes and look-out windows at the top.  They had a gym, too, with a bouncy house and lots of wheeled toys to ride on.  You worked up quite a sweat, even though I didn't dress you very warmly, and you drank about half a bottle of water while we were there.  It was a lot of fun to watch you playing and have the chance to chat with Cindy.  Then both of us spent time climbing around with you guys.  I imagine we'll go back there again.

I've been exploring your Theory of Mind lately.  The Theory of Mind is being able to understand that other people feel differently than you do, and have different information than you do.  So I've been testing you lately to see if your brain has made that leap.  If you ever needed proof that your Mom is kind of dorky, there it is.

One of the other conversations that we've been having these days is about feeling more than one feeling at a time.  That we can love someone even when we're angry with them, or disagree with them.  I think it's important to teach you that.  You should always remember it, because there will never be a time that we don't love you.  No matter how angry, not matter how much we disagree, we will always love you.

Love,
Mom

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