2.12 or, Happy 3rd Birthday, Miriam!

Dear Miriam,

You turned three years old this month.  You picked out a small cake at the grocery store, and had lots of fun blowing out candles.  Dad and Corbin gave you a another set of dinosaurs, which you love.  It included a person and a woolly mammoth, which I think is totally ridiculous, given the several hundred million years in between us and dinosaurs, but of course you don't care.  Grandma and Grandpa gave you a new t-shirt, which you wanted to wear the next morning.  Grandma and Grandpa Thorne sent you several new books, which you enjoy.

You still don't care about potty training.  Sigh.

It was my birthday this month, too, and Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena came up to celebrate.  It's always nice to see them--that's definitely one of the very best things about living here.  I got some books, which is always great, and new serger machine from everyone in the family.  I'm very excited to try it out.  It has several options which my old machine did not, like 4 thread serging and free-arm serging.  I keep thinking that if you continue in your love of dinosaurs, I'll eventually have to replace the dinosaur dress that Aunt Tabetha gave to you, and then I'll be really glad of the serger.

Speaking of dinosaurs, it seems that brontosaurus exists again, and there are actually three known species of it.  Which is exciting, because now I can feel scientifically valid about buying you things that are labelled "brontosaurus" instead of "apatosaurus."  Science really does make life easier sometimes.

You had the easiest check up of your life.  You didn't have any shots.  You didn't have to do any blood work.  You weigh 25 pounds, and you're short.  You're in the 5th percentile of girls your age for height and weight, which is holding pretty consistent.  Being short doesn't stop you from wanting to climb all over everything, of course.

This was a fun month out in the front yard.  The monarch butterflies discovered our milkweed plants.  We had so many caterpillars that we had to buy more plants.  They start off as tiny and they eat the flowers and buds.  Then they grow bigger and eat the leaves.  Then they get enormous and eat the stems.  So our milkweed plants went from looking pretty and flowery, to looking green and leafy, to looking like little dying stick plants.  Fortunately, they bounced back really well, once the caterpillars had all crawled away.  We managed to spot one chrysalis.  We cut the leaf down and brought it inside.  When it hatched, you got to watch the whole process, until it finally flew away.  Hopefully, we'll be able to watch more monarchs in the future.

It's hard to believe you're already three.  You are becoming more and more vocal about your wishes and thoughts.  You like to disagree with everything we say, no matter what it is.  You are not a biddable child, by any means, but you are fun and sweet and smart and I love you very, very much.

Love,
Mom

 My birthday:

 Monarchs:

Miriam's laundry service:

Your birthday!

You and all your dinos:

6.1 or, Fish Nut

Dear Corbin,

This month, we had this conversation.

You: Can I have a granola bar?
Me: Yes.
You: Sometimes I need help tearing them.  But not this time.
Me: Okay, good to know.
You: Did you just call me fish nut?
Me: ...No, I said, "Good to know," fish nut.  What is a fish nut?
You: It's a fish with a nut up its butt.


We got a report card for you, from Mrs. Hedley.  She seems to think that you love doing school work, which makes me laugh, thinking of all the times that you pout over your homework.  You don't get any grades right now; you get an assessment on whether or not you are on track to meet academic standards by the end of the year.  It's actually very similar to the ways that you were tracked in Montessori, so it makes sense to us, although I gather there has been confusion among other parents who don't know how to interpret it.  Mrs. Hedley thinks that you're doing fine, so that's nice.

You got yet another birthday present this month.  Grandma had told you that she would buy you a scooter when you were ready for one.  You and Miriam and I were out playing one afternoon, and both of you wanted to ride the tricycle.  I suggested that maybe it was time to get you the scooter, and then Miriam could ride the trike.  You thought that was a good plan, so we picked one up at Target that weekend.  It was even on sale--it was good timing.  Dad put it together for you and gave you a strict lecture about always wearing shoes.  Then he tried it without shoes and promptly injured his foot on the break lever.  You have escaped injury so far, thank goodness.

It was mine and Miriam's birthdays this month.  You and Dad bought Miriam another set of dinosaurs, which also came with a volcano (appropriate), a human (inappropriate but understandable), and a woolly mammoth (what?).  She loves them, of course, but we had to expand our dinosaur toy storage to a larger bin.  I got a new serger machine, which is great.  I'm looking forward to having the time to explore all of the options that it has, that my old machine did not.

The interesting thing that happened this month is that our milkweed plants started sprouting monarch caterpillars.  There were so many that they ate our two milkweed plants down to little twigs and then went crawling off around the yard.  So I went to the nursery and bought more milkweed plants.  I had to make sure that I didn't bring home any extra caterpillars with the new plants.  We managed to keep the caterpillars alive, but we only saw one make a chrysalis.  We brought it into the house to keep it safe, and you and Miriam and Grandma got to watch it hatch out and eventually fly away.

This all happened at the same time that they sent home the sign up sheet for science fair projects, so we signed up to do a research project about the life cycle of monarchs.  Low hanging fruit, maybe, but every mad scientist has to start somewhere, right?

I hope that you always find ways to support the nature around you.  Every species on earth has an impact on their environment, but only humans impact the earth globally and on a huge scale.  Just like we can nurture our friends and family, we can nurture our environments, too.  Earth is the only planet we have right now.  We should try to make sure that we all die because of an unavoidable asteroid impact, and not because we just all wanted to take long showers.

Love,
Mom

 

 

2.11 or, Strange Animals

Dear Miriam,

Your three year old molars are growing in, which doesn't seem to bother you at all.  It also has not resulted in you eating any more.  You have a terrible habit of telling us that you want something to eat, and then not eating it.  Keep that up for much longer and your grandparents who grew up poor are  either going to start lecturing you or refusing to serve you.

We went clothes shopping this month, because we had a coupon for Kohl's.  I told you and Corbin that we were not there to buy toys, and then we walked in and their Kohl's Cares toy was the T-Rex from Toy Story.  So, you got yet another dinosaur.  Corbin found a pirate sword on sale for less than the T-Rex, so you both ended up spoiled again.  We managed to find some nice skinny shorts for you in the girl section, and a dinosaur shirt and dinosaur pajamas in the boy section.  I suppose I should warn you that I have no problems shopping in the boy section for you, or the men's section for myself.  I spent a long time wearing boy jeans and I still wear men's shoes.  If you continue with your love of dinosaurs and dragons and things like that, and if you keep being as skinny as you are, you might as well get used to buying whatever clothes you find that fit you, that you like, no matter where in the store you find them.

It was Corbin's birthday this month.  You had fun celebrating with him, playing with the kids, and eating cake and cupcakes.  You wanted to play with all of his presents, of course, but we managed to hold you off until he was ready to share.  You are a typical set of siblings; you always want what the other one has.  I find myself planning on buying things in pairs, just to head off some of the arguing.  There are many times that you play together happily, too, of course.  I hope those times increase as you get older.

One thing you are not very interested in is potty training.  I'm not sure if it's because you don't care yet, or because you don't like being interrupted to go sit on the potty.  I realized the other day that at your age, Corbin had started preschool and was mostly potty trained already.  I joked with Grandma the other day that we should just make you run around outside without diapers on until you get the idea.  But I worry that you'll start begging for treats when you pee in the right spot, like the dogs do.  You spend enough time pretending to be a puppy as it is.

You continue to sing all the time.  Grandpa sings a lot of songs with you.  Sometimes Corbin will sing with you.  You'll sing to yourself while you play.  Once, you were in the car with Grandma and Grandpa, and you were singing away in your car seat.  Neither Grandpa or Grandma could figure out what song it was.  Then you stopped singing and said, "Did you like that song I just made up?"

Your new way to avoid naps and bedtime is to ask for all of your stuffed animals to be in bed with you.  One afternoon, I lined them all around you, and told you it was a stuffed animal nest.  Another afternoon, you piled them all up on one side of the crib and napped on the other side.  Then another day, you piled them all up on one side and laid on top of them.  You're funny with your quilt, too.  When I look in on you in the mornings, you often have your legs sticking out from under your quilt, with the top of your body all covered up.  Sometimes, you have just your neck wrapped up and the rest of the quilt off to the side of you.  You're strange and funny.  Which means you fit right in, in this family.

Love,
Mom

5.12 or, Happy 6th Birthday!

Dear Corbin,

You turned six this month!  We had your check up at the doctor's office.  It started off well--they said you didn't need any booster shots.  Then they crashed the whole thing by doing a blood draw instead. So that was not fun.  They did tell us that you officially weigh 40 pounds, which means you can use the big seat belts in the car, with your car seat, instead of the car seat harness.  You like that very much, because you can lean around in your seat now, and put the windows up and down, and pick things up that are next to your seat.  So now you feel like a big kid.

It was Valentine's Day this month, of course.  This year, that meant a million Valentines and candies from school, and some martial arts.  The MA school that Evan goes to hosted a kid's party, and you went as Evan's guest.  You got to do obstacle courses, and kick things, and eat pizza, and watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (which, let me tell you, is nowhere near as good as TMNT 1, and now derives most of its entertainment value from the hair styles featured).

We went to Carter's birthday party, which was fun.  It was very nice to see them again, and you had a good time.  The party was an indoor playground with all kinds of inflatable bouncy things to play on.  Then of course there was pizza and cake.  It was all very loud, and gave me a headache, but you and Miriam got to have balloons, so you both thought it was fabulous.

You had two birthday parties, one for friends and one for family.  On Saturday the 21st, we baked cupcakes and decorated them.  Then Evan and Lili, and Carter, and Thalia came over.  We walked down to the park and played for a while.  Then we came back to the house and had cupcakes, and healthy snacks, too.  You all played for a long time, which was lots of fun.

On Sunday the 22nd, your actual birthday, we hosted Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena, and Cousin Sue and her husband Bruce.  We baked a whole second cake, and you got to open presents from people.  It was very nice.  You got lots of books, a cool Transformer, and an RC car.  Your birthday actually went on for weeks, because you got your last birthday present from Aunt Tabetha around my birthday, which was funny.

What are you like, now that you're six?  Some things haven't changed: you still like to draw, you still like dragons, you still like to attack anything that you can imagine is a bad guy, you still pick inappropriate times to demonstrate your affection (like trying to kiss me a million times while I'm trying to eat).  You're getting better at games, now, although I still say, "Look at the whole board," a lot.  You still like to play video games, and you still get frustrated when I make you stop and either do something else or get ready for bed.

Your biggest challenge right now is learning how to stay cool, and take yourself out of a situation.  You haven't gotten the idea yet that your input is not always necessary, and that arguing does not always help the situation.  I know it's hard: it takes patience and the willingness to feel like you didn't win.  And I know it's really hard right now when you're young, and you feel like you lose the argument all the time.  But I hope that as you grow into a man who does get to win, you also grow into the knowledge that there are things that are more important than winning an argument.  It's easy to win the battle, and lose the war.  Look at the whole board.

Love,
Mom


At the martial arts party:

We made a pirate ship:

Fun with Carter on your birthday:

Birthday cupcakes!

Cousin Sue and Bruce here for dinner:

You're six!