10/10/2011

Monthly Miles Memo #45

Filed under: — Aprille @ 1:51 pm

My dear Miles,

We’ve found our routine.  Life isn’t too topsy-turvy anymore, and I think we’re all glad about it.  You’re a pro at preschool, you’re a great big brother, and you know how it all works.  Except for door locks.

One notable first happened this month.  You had your first professional haircut.  You’re not a very hairy guy, so we’d been coasting along so far with me just giving you trims, but the time had come that your hair had eclipsed my cutting ability.  There’s also the fact that you never wanted to sit still for my haircuts, so I had to do them in your sleep.  I’d trim one side, then roll you over and hope you wouldn’t wake up, then do the other side.  It wasn’t the best system.

So your dad decided to take you to a reasonably-priced hair salon in our neighborhood.  We all went together, and after promises that you’d get a treat from the Flavor Ice stand, you were ready to go.  You liked the animal-print cape the stylist put on you, and you really liked the lollipop at the end.  You did great, not shedding a single tear.

We’ve done some of our usual fall traditions, including a trip to the apple farm and working on your Halloween costume.  I’ll save details about the Halloween costume for next month’s memo when I can show pictures of you wearing the costume in its full glory.  For now, I’ll just say that you are a very good helper and quite adept at stuffing things with dryer lint.

The apple farm was fun as usual, though you spent more time this year chatting with a little girl than picking apples.  That’s pretty indicative of your development lately:  you’re much more comfortable with other kids and ready to talk and play with them.  Just yesterday at the playground, we could hardly drag you away from a little girl you were engaging in races down the slides.  A few months ago, you would have been clinging to my legs, but now you’re ready to jump right in and join the mix.

You’re starting to get strong opinions about your clothes, which adds yet another topic to the list of things about which you have strong opinions.  Your favorite things to wear right now are your spooky skeleton jammies, your Charlie Brown t-shirt, and your monkey sweatshirt.  We’ve been in a warm snap lately, but many times have I come to pick you up at school and seen you playing on the playground in 78-degree weather with your sweatshirt zipped up to your chin, hood over your head.  It seems common among kids your age.  A quick glance at the wardrobe choices of the 3-to-5-year-olds in your class tells me that you’re not the only one with some strong preferences.

We’ve had some sad news in our family this week.  After a long and slow decline, Pop-Pop died.  We’re all sad about it, but things have been hard for him for a long time.  We got to have some good time with him and Grammy recently, at Grammy’s birthday party and during visits we’ve made to their nursing home in Marion.  We visited Friday, the day before Pop-Pop died, and it really brightened both him and Grammy up to see you and Tobin.  Pop-Pop wasn’t very interactive, but he reached out and squeezed my hand, and I know that having you there helped make his last days a little sweeter.

We also had some fun time with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Michael over the weekend, but since I’m a little late in posting this, I’ll include a discussion of that and some photos in next month’s memo.

Technically, talk of door locks belongs in next month’s too, but that set of misadventures actually started a couple of weeks ago.  You, Tobin and I were out playing, and when we tried to get back in, I found that the door wouldn’t open.  What I think happened is that you were messing with the lock to the front door and it somehow engaged when we shut it.  That time, your dad was at work, so we were able to go to a neighbor’s house and call him.  He came home and let us in through the garage.  Yesterday, though, we were all together, and we had to call a locksmith.  I think our locks could use some lubrication or adjustment or something, because the locksmith wasn’t able to wiggle the front or side door lock loose.  He ended up opening my car door’s lock so we could use the garage door opener.  Skittergramps recommends spray graphite.  We’ll have to pick some of that up.  We’ve also had a stern discussion about how you don’t mess with the lock that locks the door from the inside.

You are, however, very good at using scissors.  You’re also really great at snuggling your little brother.  I’d say your pluses outweigh your minuses.

Heck, I’m sure of it.

Love,

Mommy

 

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