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

3.2, or Big Brother

Dear Corbin,


You are a big brother now!  Baby Miriam was born on Monday, March 26th.  You came over right after preschool to the hospital to meet her.  You were so excited, and you kept saying, "She's so tiny!  She's so tiny!"  You wanted to hold her right away, and you loved it when she grabbed on to your finger.  You stayed over at the apartment that night so that Dad could come back to the hospital.  You came to visit on Tuesday afternoon, and then Miriam and I came home that evening.  The first couple of nights were kind of chaotic, but we all managed to survive.

Everyone asks how you've been doing with having a new baby around, and I'm happy to say that you've been doing really well.  You get a little frustrated sometimes because you want to play with her, and of course she's too little to play yet.  You want to show her your toys and help us take care of her.  You've been doing well being patient.  I was waiting for you to hit the, "Take her back!" phase, but we haven't seen it so far.

You've even adjusted pretty well to not having me around for you all the time.  You did have one night when you didn't want Dad to give you a bath, and you got very upset.  I was talking to you afterwards, putting on your pjs, and I said, "You can let Dad help you do things.  He's a really useful Dad."  You said, "Like Thomas is a really useful engine."
I said, "That's right.  Dad is good at lots of things."
You said, "He's good at drawing.  And playing video games.  And making breakfast."
It was pretty sweet.  And ever since then, you've actually been a lot better about doing things with Dad as well as with me.

Overall, I think you've had a good first month of having a sibling.  She hasn't seemed to wake you up at night, which is good.  You're still sleeping in the crib, so we may have to work on that transition over the next few months, but I'm not worried about it. 

I got to observe your classroom last week.  It was interesting to see you interact with other kids and with your teacher.  When you saw that I had come in, you said you wanted to observe with me, so Rachel had to distract you by showing you something to work on.  It was good to see her demonstrate something to you; she goes through the steps very slowly and deliberately.  It gave me some ideas on how I can give you directions better when we are doing something together.  It was also good to see what the older children are working on.  We've seen so many changes in you already since you started school, and it was fun to see what other skills you might learn while you're there.  We've got you signed up for their summer program, but for three mornings a week instead of five.  Grandma and Grandpa Lam decided they wanted some unscheduled days during the summer weeks.  Hopefully we'll have a nice summer with good weather, so you can do fun things on your days off.

Speaking of nice weather this summer, I've been altering your shorts by adding an extra piece of elastic to the waistbands.  When I got out your warm clothes last fall, I packed up your shorts for Cousin Ray, thinking that you'd be too big for them this summer.  Instead, you haven't really gained any weight at all, so your waist is much to skinny for these 2T shorts.  Your head, on the other hand, is getting too big for your 2T shirts, so once again your shirts will be a whole size bigger than your pants.  Good thing we've gotten hand-me-downs in three different sizes, but unless you have some kind of growth spurt soon, we'll be working our way through them for the next four years.

You went to the dentist for the first time this month.  I wasn't sure how thrilled you would be about some stranger poking around in your mouth, but you were the perfect patient.  You opened wide when they asked you to, and you let them brush and floss and even do a fluoride treatment.  I was pleased and impressed.  It turns out your last two molars are a little late coming in, and the molars that you do have are really deep, like mine.  Other than that, they didn't have any concerns about your teeth, so it was an easy appointment.  Next time, they might try to take x-rays, which should appeal to your scientific nature, even if biting on weird plastic things doesn't appeal to your mouth.

So it's been a good month for us.  Dad and I have been tired, of course, but your schedule hasn't changed so you've usually been in a good mood.  Dad's been enjoying his new job still.  You spent some days in Madison and Menominee, taking the camper up to the cottage.  Lately you've been helping Dad do maintenance on the fish tanks, which you enjoy.  We've also been watching the IMAX movie The Ring of Fire a bunch of times.  I may have to find a cheap copy of it somewhere, just so I can finally get the next DVD on our Netflix queue.  My cheesy romantic comedies are being held hostage by your love of volcanoes.  Thank goodness I can still watch streaming videos over the internet.  (If that particular sentence becomes as dated as Beta vs VHS, just try to remember that I wrote this in the stone age.)

Love,
Mom


Your birthday celebration at school (just to give you an idea of your classroom):

You got "I'm a big brother" stickers from the nurses at the hospital:

At the dentist:

3.1, or Still an Only Child

Dear Corbin,

I was looking forward to writing a post all about how you're the best big brother, but I guess that's going to have to wait another month. Baby Sister seems to want to be on time, if not late. I much preferred your time table of coming a little bit early. You and I were talking the other day about what will happen when Baby Sister is coming. I realized that I should warn you that I would have to sleep at the hospital for some nights, so I made a point of bringing it up the other morning. When I told you that I would be gone for a couple of nights, you were quiet for a second. Then you said, "Where will Dada be?" I said, "He'll be at home with you. He'll be here to take care of you." And then we were on to different topics, so I guess you weren't too worried about it.

You have been insisting a lot that I do things with you, or for you, instead of Dad. I finally told you that you have to let Dad have a turn helping you sometimes. In fact, I told you that we would all have to take turns helping each other and helping Baby Sister, since she'll be a little tiny wrinkly baby who won't be able to do anything. That got a giggle out of you.

You slept in your big bed two nights in a row this week. You've got another molar coming in, which you've decided will help you eat frozen pasta. And we've had a heat wave, which means I had to get out all of your summer clothes early. I have a sneaking suspicion that I either didn't keep enough pairs of shorts from last summer, or that I've put them somewhere I can't remember right now, because your shorts supply seems way too small. And also way too big, since you haven't gained any weight over the winter like I expected. You had your three year old check up early in the month, at which you came in at the 3rd percentile for height and weight. Nobody is worried about your health--you're certainly doing everything a normal three year old should be doing, and you eat like crazy. It just might mean that I have to learn how to sew some extra elastic into the waistbands of your shorts.

The warm weather means we've been outside a lot, which is nice. You've learned to ride a tricycle already. It's really fun to watch you pedal your way down the block, but we often end up having to push you on the way home. Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena sent us a new wagon, just like the one that they have. It's pretty fantastic--very robust with a nice sun shade. It folds up for storage or transport, and it's got a nice handle and good steering. It's even got a storage basket off of the back end. It's a pretty sweet machine. We've also dug up several worms, and cut down a bunch of dead flowers that got ignored last fall. I'm looking forward to taking you over to the mulch piles again. We had a lot of fun with that last summer. I'm also looking forward to getting several things in the house washed, not the least of which is the dogs, and I think you'll enjoy helping with that, too. You tend to enjoy anything that involves squirting the hose around.

The really exciting news from this month was that Dad got a new job! We're all very excited for him to have a job that he enjoys again. When Grandma Lam told you that Dad got a new job, you said, "Go see it!" which made us laugh. We were also joking about the possibility that Take Your Child to Work Day would be pretty fun, if you got to go to work with Dad and use table saws and soldering irons, instead of plug in monitors or file paperwork.

And other than that, it's been a quiet month. When I was in high school and college, I used to think that quiet meant boring, that you were clearly missing out on terrific, mind-expanding adventures. I feel differently now, although I still hope to have travel and exploration in my life. But it's much easier now to understand the blessings of an ordinary life. It feels good to be able to give my time and energy to our family, instead of to worry or to work. I like being able to show you how a microscope works, or watch Mighty Machines videos, or get you your own egg beater and help you make scrambled eggs for yourself. And if it means that our vacations are to National Parks instead of nations abroad, well, I think there is still plenty of excitement to be had, if you're open to it.

Love,
Mom


This is the self-portrait you brought home from school in your Friday Folder. It's you, with spiny arms. We think it's pretty awesome.

Month 36, or Your Third Birthday!

Dear Corbin,

You are three years old! In many ways you are exactly the same kid that you have always been. You are sweet and funny. You always want to help us, even when we're just turning on the computer to watch a video. You are curious and determined. You like to learn things, and then you like to tell us all about them.

And in other ways you are changing every day. You've started to ask me, "What do those letters mean?" when you see text, even if we're not reading a book. You have picked up new habits from school, like arranging all of our shoes neatly when we come home from somewhere. You used to hate showers, but you've enjoyed taking a couple of showers at night with Dad, instead of a bath, which I think mainly stems from the fact that you can splash a lot more when the shower curtain is closed.

Your vocabulary grows and grows, but now you like to use it to tell us what to do. "You drive that train." "You stay downstairs." "I'm going to do it." You've started trying to give the dogs commands, too, but they just end up looking confused. You have a couple of new interests: asteroids (especially crashing into the earth) and the Hindenberg. The other night we were putting on your pjs, and I started singing Old McDonald Had a Farm. It turns out that we've been wrong for years. Old McDonald doesn't have any animals: he has asteroids.

This will be the first birthday that you'll have at school. It's also the first time we've been invited to a party for one of your classmates. We declined because we were going to have cake and presents for you at home on the same day. That got postponed, though, because you've had one of your rare bouts of sickness. You woke up very early in the morning on Sunday with a high fever, and spent almost the whole day curled up on the couch watching episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba, Thomas the Train, and playing video games with Dad. Monday you didn't have school anyway, and we kept you home Tuesday and today. So we did your birthday stuff on your actual birthday today. Luckily, nobody told you between then and now that your cake was already in the fridge.

Cake! In the fridge!

I'll tell you that joke later.

Other than that, it's been a fairly quiet month for us. Dad brought home some delicious dessert treats on Valentine's Day, to go with your giant heart balloon. You got some Valentines cards from some classmates, which meant I had to answer a lot of questions about, "What does Scooby Doo do? What do Smurfs do?" Ah, pop culture. I started pre-natal yoga class again. You got a hair cut. Two friends gave us hand-me-downs for you, which should set up your wardrobe for the next 12-18 months. I got a massage, during which the therapist ran her hands over my left shoulder and said, "This is the side you carry your son on, isn't it?" so I guess I was tense in that shoulder.

This is your last birthday as an only child, which is kind of a strange thought. I imagine in the future that we'll need to get better at doing something actually special for your birthdays, especially if Baby Sister's birthday ends up just a few weeks away. I had to share birthday parties with a couple of my cousins, and while I like my cousins very much, it was kind of a drag. I'm not really a celebratory person, but someday you'll probably want more than just a cake. I think what holds me back sometimes is the fact that I celebrate every day that you're in my life. So while the 22nd of February is undeniably meaningful, it just doesn't outweigh the other 364 days of the year that I get to be your mom.

Love,
Mom

Presents before breakfast!
Cake before dinner!After dinner drawing. I would like to point out the zeppelin in flames, drawn next to the box of crayons. You requested a drawing of the Hindenberg, and then you were so disappointed in what Dad drew that you went upstairs and got the book which had the actual photo of the Hindenberg, so that Dad could draw it the right way. Oh, the humanity!