My dear Miles,

What do you know?  You turned sweet again.  I think last month’s memo happened to catch you at a time when you were coming down with a cold, and you weren’t exhibiting any symptoms besides grouchiness.  That has now passed, and you’re suddenly a pleasant person once again.  Hallelujah.

The weather has been nice lately, so we’ve been getting outside a lot.  This helps my sanity as we find ways to pass the afternoons, and you love going to the Faraway Playground.  Mostly you love taking off your shoes and socks and playing in the sand, which is fine if a bit messy.  However, you also enjoy playing in the wood chip area, which you don’t want to do barefoot.  Why do you always want to do the sand area first?  Do you know how difficult it is to help you get socks and shoes onto sand-covered feet while pushing a baby in a swing?

But that’s okay.  I’m glad you’re getting out and having fun.  I have to invent excuses to drag you away from the computer a lot of days, and a trip to the Faraway Playground is a good one.  You also enjoy taking trips to Hy-Vee for a treat, or even better, a sno-cone (or a Flavor-Ice, as they somehow got named in our household).

A couple of weeks ago, you chose rainbow, which is stripes of various flavors.  I had my usual, cherry margarita.  You took a break from eating yours and took a bite of mine.  “Yours is more tastier,” you said.

The next time we went to the Flavor Ice stand, I ordered a cherry margarita flavored sno-cone for my four-year-old.  It’s non-alcoholic, of course, but geez.  I can’t blame you, though.  It is a delicious combination.

Once recent trip to the Flavor Ice stand was to celebrate your school music concert.  The video I got of it wasn’t great, because you were hidden behind other kids a lot of the time, but it was still exciting to be in the audience.  You were so psyched about it.  Your music teacher, Mr. David, did a good job preparing you and your friends.  You talked about the concert for weeks before the actual event.  You sang us all the songs.  You did the actions.  Your dad and I know “A Sailor Went to Sea,” “Aiken Drum,” “Mother Goony Bird,” and “The Horse Stood Around” better than we ever thought we would.  You’ve come to really love music class at school, despite being suspicious of Mr. David at first (“I don’t like guy teachers,” you told us).  Now you are thrilled when I tell you it’s a music day at school, and you swoon when we mention Mr. David’s name.

Another exciting school event this month was V.I.P. day.  You chose Skittergramps as your special person, and despite being camera-shy, you had a lot of fun with him.  He was proud to be there with you, and he did get a few good pictures of you and your friends working and playing together.

Photo by Gary Clarke

His name-tag said “Gary Clarke, or Miles’s Skittergramps.”  Naturally, you made him add a couple more names, since you only rarely answer to Miles these days.  He had to add Marcus and Nemo to satisfy you.  I think he’s going to keep that name-tag for a long time.

It’s been rainy lately, and you’ve come to enjoy sleeping with the sound of the rain on the roof.  You’ve been cuddly at bedtime, enjoying “family sandwiches” and stories.  When I was a little girl, Skittergramps often used to fall asleep telling me bedtime stories, which annoyed me at the time, because I had to finish the story on my own.  Now I completely understand.  Most nights I awake with a start then look over to find you snoozing beside me.  Sometimes I fall asleep, wake up, check on you, and find you still awake.  Sometimes I wake up to find your face two inches from mine, peering at me.

You see, I’m tired pretty much all the time.  Taking care of two wiggly boys full-time is exhausting.  It’s not as hard as working a coal mine or something, but it certainly takes a lot of energy.  And you know what?  I’ve watched your friends at school.  You are not the wiggliest 4-year-old in Iowa City.

You might be the sweetest, though.

Most of the time.

I love you every minute of every day.

Mommy