1.11 or, Same Old Fun, Different Day

Dear Miriam,

Unlike your brother, you had a rather boring month.  I am guessing that will generally be the case for you in February.  Which does not mean that you are a bored, or boring, child.  You've been loving the weather.  You want to play outside all the time.  You like to take walks, and play in the mud, and push the tricycle around.  You love to ride in the wagon, and then help me pull the wagon, and then push the wagon while I pull it.  The other day I filled up a little bucket of water for you, and you carried it around with one of the scoops, scooping water out onto things in the yard.  You bring us various pairs of shoes to put on so that you can go outside and play.  Some of them are even your shoes.

One of the reasons that it was a boring month for you was because you missed out on a bunch of the birthday stuff.  Corbin went to Carter's birthday party, but you stayed home to take a nap.  Then when Carter came over for Corbin's birthday, you napped the whole time he was here.  You ate a slice of birthday cake after dinner, instead.  You were there when Corbin opened his presents from the family.  Grandma gave him a new inner-tube, so the little pink one is now all yours.  Now, if only he would get a new big shark and a new Toothless, you'd be all set.  We'll see what happens next month, when it's your birthday.

It was Valentine's Day this month.  Corbin and I ended up at the grocery store the day before the holiday to buy balloons.  We picked one out for you that was heart shaped, with a bear on it.  You still wanted to play with Corbin's sometimes.  Yours ended up next to your chair at the table, and now you've played with it so much at dinner time that it's kind of sticky. 

You still love to dance around with us, and dance by yourself.  You've started telling us, "Dance like a robot!" which means you're supposed to wave your arms around mechanically.  One day you said that, and then Corbin said, "Dance like Dad!" and did the silliest dance he could think of, which made us all laugh.  Sometimes you'll stop dancing and put your head on the floor and stick one leg up in the air.  I can't decide if it's because you're dizzy, or because you actually think that's a dance move.  Either way, it's quite funny.

You sat on the toilet for the first time this month.  Once after dinner, I made the joke that you wanted to get down so that you could go potty.  You repeated me, like you usually do, so then I said, "Do you want to sit on the big potty?"  You headed over to the bathroom and knocked on the door until I let you in.  We took off your diaper and sat you down, but of course you didn't go potty.  But since then, sometimes you tell us that you want to sit on the potty. 

Speaking of going potty, this month, we had this conversation:
Grandma: Miriam needs her diaper changed.
You, pointing at me: Blue shirt!
Me: Yes, Mama's wearing a blue shirt.  What is Miriam wearing?
You: A poopy diaper!



It wouldn't surprise me if you did potty train yourself before you were three, but hopefully not before we use up that box of size four pull-ups in Corbin's closet (even though they have Cars on them).

Love,
Mom


Wearing Dad's Cat in the Hat hat:

"Floating" in the pink inner-tube:

5.0 or, Big Kid

Dear Corbin,

You turned five, which is astounding and exactly right, both at the same time.  It is amazing that you're already five, but it feels like you've been a big kid for such a long time now.  You are capable of so many things now: you buckle yourself into your car seat, you help me set the table, you get snacks for yourself, you build cool spaceships out of Legos, you make jokes with us.  Of course, in other ways, you're still the same kid you've always been.  You still love to play, whether it's in the mud, or video games, or with us.  You still love to learn about the earth, or the human body, and do science experiments.  You still love to read comics, or funny story books, and you'll laugh and laugh and laugh.

This was the month of birthday parties, and not just yours.  Your friend Carter from school turned 4 in the middle of the month.  He had a birthday party at an indoor playground near our house.  It was the first time we've been to a birthday party for someone from school.  We were all getting over a cold, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and I'm glad we went.  This was also the first time that we had gone shopping for a present for someone else.  You pointed out many toys that you also wanted, but we managed to stay on target and only buy the present for Carter.

You had three birthday celebrations.  The first was on the 17th, when Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena came up to visit.  It was President's Day, so you had off from school.  You had fun visiting with them, and then after dinner, you got to open your birthday present from them.  They gave you a Squishy Human Body, which has a skeleton and internal organs that you can take all apart.  You had seen it once in a store and were terribly disappointed when we didn't buy it for you.  When you opened the wrapping paper and saw what it was, you were so excited and happy.  You said, "This is what I've wanted my whole life!" and told them thank you about a million times.  It was pretty awesome.

The second party was at school, the Friday before your birthday.  You and Grandma made a birthday poster with a picture from each year of your life.  Then you and I went to the grocery store and picked out some chocolate mini-muffins to take as a treat.  Grandma and Grandpa and Miriam and I came to school to celebrate with you, but Grandpa ended up taking Miriam outside instead.  You explained each of the photos, and then everyone sang Happy Birthday.  It was nice.

Your third party was on your actual birthday, which was a Saturday.  You opened presents from us in the morning, and we made birthday waffles for lunch.  Then you and Dad baked a little cake.  In the afternoon, Carter and his mom Becky came over.  They gave you two Lego sets, so you and Carter played Legos for a long time.  Then you guys frosted the cake and we had cake and ice cream.  It was a good birthday.

It was also Valentine's Day this month, which was half of the occasion for buying balloons.  The other half happened at the park.  We were there after school like we usually are, and we saw a bunch of balloons floating away into the sky.  I pointed them out to you, thinking that you would be interested.  You were standing up at the top of one of the slides.  The next thing I know, you're coming down off the playground, with tears streaming down your face.  When I asked you what was wrong, you said, "I'm so sad for that person who lost their balloons!"  I tried to tell you that sometimes these things happen.  I told you a story about how the balloons meet a baby bird and help him get back up to his nest.  Then I tried to tell you that maybe someone let them go on purpose, and maybe there was a toy floating off on a big adventure.  But nothing worked, you just kept crying and talking about how sad that person must be to have lost their balloons.  So I finally told you that I was going to buy you a balloon tomorrow for Valentine's Day, but that we could go and buy it a day early instead.  You picked out the balloon for yourself, and we picked out one for Miriam, and then we were VERY careful getting them into the car and into the house.  You had picked out a rather big one for yourself, and then you had fun tying a little pig onto its string and floating the little pig all over the house.

We have been working our way through a Question a Day journal that Aunt Lena gave you for Christmas.  Some of your answers are funny, but some are really interesting.  One question this month was, What does one of your parents do for a job?  Your answer was, "Dad makes lots of money.  Mom works on the computer."  Which is fairly accurate, really: Dad's the only income we have right now and when I need to use the computer to apply for jobs, I tell you that I need work time on the computer.  The journal has spaces for you to answer the questions in three different years.  I think when we're done with this year, I might put it away until you're older, so we can really get some good contrast in your answers.  Although if you still answer that question with, "Dad makes lots of money," in future years, I'll certainly be fine with that.

Love,
Mom

At Carter's birthday party:

School birthday:

Presents from the family:

Birthday at home: