3/9/2011

Monthly Miles Memo #38

Filed under: — Aprille @ 9:58 am

Dear Scoop,

What a big boy you are these days.  Your dad and I were just commenting in the car last night that you’ve been very verbal lately, really thinking things out and articulating them clearly.  You love rhymes, and sometimes you’ll go on for minutes listing various rhyming words.  Maybe it’s time to haul out the Dr. Seuss books again.

Your favorite book right now is a really beautifully illustrated version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, by Jan Brett.  We picked it up at the library last weekend, and you’ve wanted to hear it every night (sometimes more than once) since then.  Whenever we get to the part where Goldilocks crashes through Baby Bear’s chair, you ask—nay, demand—that I go through a little dialogue in which I ask Goldilocks if she’s okay, and she answers that she’s not hurt, just a little scared.

I figure you got that from the many times we’ve had the same dialogue with you.  You’re getting adventurous, wanting to climb on things and not listening when your daddy and I tell you not to.  Sometimes there’s a crash.  Often there are tears.  Almost always, you agree that you didn’t get hurt, just scared.  I think you’re just getting antsy because we’ve been stuck inside most of the winter.  The other day, you were talking about the things we’ll be able to do when Darth Vader comes out.  You suggested that you could take Darth to the back yard and to the park, and that you could show him/her how you go down the slide.  You got so excited about the idea, I think partly for the show-offy big brother aspect, and partly just because you really want out of the house.  Then you wanted confirmation that I would go too.  Yes, honey.  I won’t put a 3-year-old in charge of a newborn.

You were awake when I got out of the shower this morning, and you saw my increasingly round belly and wanted to say hi to the baby.  I went over and stood near you, and you sang the ABC song.  You also still love to hear the story about how, when you were first born, it was a little scary to be in such a big, loud, cold, bright world with your arms and legs flailing around.  I’m not sure you understand that final image, because at that point you always say, “And then I said, ‘Come back, arms!'”  But you definitely understand the end of the story, which is the part where your daddy sang you the ABC song, and you recognized it from all the times he’d sung it to you while you were in my tummy, and it helped you know that you were with people who loved you and that you’d be okay.

It makes me so happy that you enjoy that story and want to recreate the situation for little Darth.  It’s going to take some adjustment once he/she’s on the outside, but you’re a sharp kid.  I hope you’ve grown up surrounded by enough love and security that you never doubt your value in our family.

After all, without you, who would test Daddy’s birthday cake to make sure it’s fit for consumption?  I made the cake in stages:  first I baked the layers and trimmed them to level the surfaces, and you ate a lot of the trimmings (verdict:  acceptable).  Then we filled the layers and did a frosting crumb coat, and you sampled the frosting pretty thoroughly (also acceptable).  Then, finally, we frosted the outside of the cake and decorated it.  You chose the appropriate decorative color for a 34-year-old man’s birthday cake:  lavender.  He loved it.

I hope next month at this time I can report that you’re well on your way toward being potty-trained.  That’s something we started working on in March, with the goal of having you all ready for preschool by June.  We’re not doing so hot thus far, not because you don’t understand the concept, but because you’d just prefer not to.  We plan not to buy any more diapers and just see what happens.  We may need to get a spare set or two of sheets (and pants…for everyone, since you do a lot of lap-sitting).

But we shall persevere.  The worst that happens is you can’t start preschool until later, probably not fall (since Darth is due in late August and we don’t want your world totally turned upside down all at once), but maybe winter.  We’ll see.  People keep saying “He’ll do it when he’s ready,” which I suppose is true, but knowing you, that might be around the same time we’re picking out a meal plan for the college dorm.

In the meantime, let’s make it through the cruddy, drizzly weather and make plans for some playground time.  I want to see you go down that slide.  Then I want you to tell Darth all about it.

I love you.

Mommy

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