4/25/2015

The Tobin Times #44

Filed under: — Aprille @ 3:35 pm

Dear Tobin,

When nobody was looking, you turned sweet again.  I understand that this preschool age is a time of a lot of growth, and that has to be hard on you.  It’s funny how much you can change and grow from one month to another.  Sometimes you regress.  You’re never boring.  You are often concerned about the well-being of those around you.  You frequently wander into a room and ask, “So, how’s Callum?”  You know how to keep a conversation going by asking open-ended questions.  Mubby told me you guys were Skyping the other day and, when there was a lull in conversation, you said, “So, you had fun in Nashville?”  It reminds me of your great-Granddad’s bartender style.

I was chatting with the nanny of one of your classmates, and she said Ben is really excited about inviting you to his birthday party.  She told me that he doesn’t want to invite everyone in the class, because not everyone is nice to him.  I was so proud to learn that you’re a good friend.  You were super psyched to hear about the upcoming party, so I hope you have a good time together.  Ben’s one of the littler guys in your class, as are you, and I think sometimes the bigger boys get overwhelming.  You have plenty of experience holding your own with Miles, though, so you probably can usher Ben to safety.  Unfortunately, Ben won’t be joining you at Hoover in the fall.  You seem unconcerned about the transition, though we’ll see if that changes as August approaches.  Your friend Jack from Willowwind will also be at Hoover, though I don’t know if you’ll be in the same class.  You’re a pretty resilient kid, so I bet you’ll do fine.  I’m probably fretting about it more than you are.

Spring has afforded more opportunities for outside play, which you always enjoy.  The rainy days thwart you, but when the ground is dry, you love to play with your construction toys in the dirt in our front yard.  You also sometimes drag your big Imaginext toys outside, because for some reason they’re just more fun to play with out in the sun.  Warm and humid days bring out your trademark curls, and I love fluffing them.  You’ll probably find them annoying when you’re older, but for now, I’m glad you’re proud of your crazy mane.

You’re full of enthusiasm and joy, and your lust for life brings a smile to my face many times a day.  We’re in Ames visiting Mubby and Skittergramps now, and when I told you about our plans for the trip, you said, “That’s my best dream!”  About fifteen minutes into our drive to central Iowa, you said, “I’m going to take a nap.”  You closed your eyes, leaned on the side of your car seat, and slept for an hour.  Then you woke up cheerful as can be.  That’s pretty major, since you’re usually very crabby when you wake up from a nap.  It was one of the most pleasant sleep experiences of yours I’ve ever witnessed.

We’ve been working in the garden together.  We put up a pea trellis and planted two kinds of peas, carrots, and two kinds of lettuce.  You’re not afraid to get dirty, and the hardest part is keeping you from digging up stuff that I’ve already cultivated.  You’re a great friend to worms, especially the small ones.  You hold them up and coo, “He’s so cute!”, not unlike how you coo over Callum.  We like to make plans for the summer, when we’ll run through the sprinkler in the back yard and take breaks to munch strawberries from the strawberry patch.  I hope you have a taste for fresh-from-the-vine peas, too.  Those were always my favorite as a kid, partly because I thought I was really getting away with something by raiding Skittergramps’s garden.  I didn’t figure out until decades later that he planted peas just so Tyler and I would eat them, and he didn’t care at all whether we did it straight from the source or off a plate at the dining room table.  Heck, he was probably happy we saved him the work of shelling them.

Your current favorites:  lunch dates with me at Panera, where you eat bagels with cream cheese; Imaginext toy videos, wherein adults play with toys and post videos; actually playing with Imaginext toys; lining up all the Imaginext characters and accessories in order of size, affiliation, and color; ice cream with “black stripes” (Hershey’s syrup); doing anything Miles is doing.  You guys recently inherited a computer that Uncle Tyler thought was beyond repair, but your dad put a new hard drive and some elbow grease into it, and now it’s a fantastic machine.  You love to use it, but you’re pretty good about balancing your screen time with more creative and active pastimes, too.

I’m looking forward to a fun summer with you, my little sweetheart.  We’ve got some fun adventures planned, both grand and small (kind of like you).

Love,

Mommy

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