6.12 or, Happy 7th Birthday, Corbin!

Dear Corbin,

You turned 7!  Seven years ago, you were a little, scrunchy-faced baby, and now you're so big I can hardly lift you up.  Although, that probably says more about my lack of arm muscles, since you're still only the 3rd percentile for height and weight for your age.  We went to see a different pediatrician for your check up.  She's very cool; hopefully we'll see her for a long time.  She noted that you did grow since last year, so you're just on the small size it seems.  The only time I wish you were taller is when I want you to set the table, and you have to move the kitchen stool to get the plates down.

You got some fun presents for your birthday: a new LEGO set, and a new How to Train Your Dragon play set, and some books, and some spending money from Grandma and Grandpa Thorne.  You spent some of that on a set of How to Train Your Dragon DVDs, which we found at Target while waiting for you pink eye medication prescription to be filled.  Happy birthday!  Have some pink eye!  Ugh.  Birthdays are way better without the pink eye.

We had a party at the park for you.  You invited a handful of kids from school, most of which were girls.  We played some bocce ball, blew bubbles to chase, drew with sidewalk chalk, and did a scavenger hunt for little plastic animals and ninjas.  You all got cupcake frosting all over your faces, which was pretty funny.  It was nice to meet some of your school friends and their parents.  Grandma sees them every day, of course, but we never get to meet anyone.

It was Valentine's Day this month, of course.  You declined to pass out any Valentines at school, but you did enjoy getting a bunch of them from your classmates.  On the actual day, which was a Sunday, you and Dad and Miriam waited until I went to my yoga class, and then surprised me with chocolates and shiny earrings when I got home.  It was lovely.

You had a school fundraiser this month, the Dance-a-Thon.  I'm not always fond of the fundraisers that they do, but at least this one doesn't involve buying candy.  I made you do a little video and we emailed it to some folks to see if they'd like to send you some money, which they did, so we did a second video afterward to say thank you.  I have a love/hate relationship with school fundraisers.  I love our school, but I wish they would do one or two check writing campaigns per year and get it over with.  I would rather have you get a real understanding of how to support a good cause, instead of thinking that selling candy is the way to do it.  But we did get an update on the chicks that we donated through Heifer, so that was fun.  I hope that we help you learn how lucky we are, and what it means for us to be able to help others.

Love,
Mom

Your LEGO walled garden, to protect it from zombies:

3.10 or, A Picture Page

Dear Miriam,

Ms. Aida gave you a color-by-number coloring book as a gift.  You love it.  You want us to color with you all the time, which is fine with me.  I enjoy it.  You like to work through the numbers in order, and you're getting quite good at coloring within the lines.  I don't tell you that, though, because I don't want to encourage too much conformity.  Someone in your life will curse me for that someday, I'm pretty sure.  You're funny about how much you let us help you color, though.  Sometimes you want us to actively color with you, and then sometimes you lay your whole body across the page while you color.  I find it really amusing.

You've been doing some interesting free-style drawings lately, too.  Dad wanted to make sure that we saved a couple of them.  You're even able to write your name on them.

This month, we had a funny conversation about music.  We were running errands one day, and you wanted to listen to music.  So I put in a Pat Benetar disc.  We were a few minutes in and you said, "This is a girl!"  So when we got home, we watched a bunch of videos of female rock musicians.  Times like this I'm grateful for the internet.

You're still not sleeping very well, mostly because you want us to sleep with you all the time.  Sometimes I can tuck you back in and then go back to bed.  Sometimes I end up sleeping in your bed with you.  It rather drives me crazy, but I haven't seemed to find the right time to crack down on your sleeping habits.

So January went by pretty quickly.  It seems that time moves much faster now.  I don't know if that's how everyone feels when they get to be my age, or if I'm just bad at living in the moment.  People will tell you that I'm a creature of habit, too, and it's easy to let the days roll along in our usual rounds of chores and activities.

I did start classes in January for a certificate in Project Management.  The goal is to pass one of the project management tests, and then hopefully use that to get a better job.  We have to afford your favorite granola bars, after all.

Love,
Mom