10/10/2014

Monthly Miles Memo #81

Filed under: — Aprille @ 12:03 pm

My sweet Miles,

Last night, part of your homework was to write your “words to know” in your favorite color.  Those aren’t words that are part of your weekly spelling list.  They’re just words you should recognize and be able to read consistently.  I read the words to you, figuring I could hand you the list if you got frustrated.  No need:  you wrote those words with your red marker quickly, confidently, and accurately.

Photo by Denny

I was telling your dad just last night how much your reading has taken off, even since just last spring.  You finish your nightly reading easily now, often to Tobin, which he loves.  You have great inflection and enthusiasm, and he laughs and laughs when you do funny voices.  I’m looking forward to your parent/teacher conference next month to learn more about what goes on with you in school.

You’ve also maintained a great attitude about piano lessons.  You look forward to them every Thursday, and you love to play “Everything Is Awesome,” the first song you learned.  You’ve moved on to new songs, but still, every time you sit down at the piano, that’s the one you want to play.  It’s also fun that there’s a duet part, so you and I often play together.

Photo by Gary Clarke

I love witnessing your excitement about your upcoming new little brother.  You’ve felt him kick a few times now, and you’re very interested in learning about his weekly developments.  You know all about umbilical cords.  You took my explanation of why I’ve given up all alcohol and most coffee very seriously.  Whenever I drink anything slightly unusual (e.g., hot chocolate), you ask with great urgency, “Will that hurt Little Potato?”   The other day, we read that Little Potato can now open his eyes and see strong light changes.  You got a flashlight and shined it on my abdomen, and lo and behold, he kicked.  He also kicked when you hit a strong C-chord while practicing piano.  That was cool, but now it’s hard to get you to practice playing with both hands, because you always want a hand on my tummy in case the sound gets him moving.

We’re headed out of town this afternoon, first to Ames and then on to Winterset for the Covered Bridge Festival.  The Ames stop is to see Uncle Larry and Aunt Lily, who came all the way from California.  We’ll also see Aunt Suzy and Uncle Joe, as well as Mubby and Skittergramps.  Then we’ll head on to southwest Iowa to hit the festival with Nana, Papa, and hopefully Uncle Michael.

In other family news, we had a great time at Cousin Debi’s wedding last weekend.  The weather was chilly, but you didn’t let that stop you.  You had lots of fun riding around on scooters and blowing enormous bubbles.  You had on a cute outfit, but you never really got a chance to take off your jacket.  I knew how cute you looked, though.

Photo by Denny

You remain front-toothless, and my dream came true of having your first grade picture with a big gap in your smile.  You’re excited about an upcoming school event:  the annual visiting author.  This year, the featured author is Peter Brown, and you’ve been enthusiastically telling us about the books he’s written that you’ve been reading.  We ordered a couple of the books, and I look forward to hearing you read them to me.  I’m anticipating a very dramatic reading of You Will Be My Friend!

Photo by Gary Clarke

Your current favorites: Wild Kratts, designing and drawing inventions, pasta, French fries, improving your upper body strength on the playground, swimming, Minecraft.

Photo by Gary Clarke

We’re going to have a fun month coming up, my dear.  We’ve got more adventures on the horizon, plus of course there’s all the fun of putting together your Leonardo daVinci costume and the ensuing Halloween festivities. Then, before we know it, it’ll be Thanksgiving and Christmas and two very important family birthdays, one of which is yours.  I can’t deal with the thought of you being seven, so I’ll just postpone dealing with that for a while.

You’re a good kid, Miles.  Thanks for hanging out with me.

Love,

Mommy

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