Dear Callum,

You were an eating machine yesterday.  This is the first time I remember noticing a major uptick in your appetite, so you must be on a big growth and development spurt.  Last night for bedtime snack you ate Chex Mix and two scoops of peanut butter, even after eating breakfast, lunch, snack at school, after-school snack at home, and dinner.  You’re normally not an eater of big quantities, so your behavior yesterday stood out.  You’ve also had some leg pains lately, which Dr. Google and my previous experience with your brothers tells me are probably just growing pains.  I remember having them as a kid, too.

One of the best parts about having a third child is how much less worried I am about doing things right by someone else’s definition and how much more willing I am to flex to the situation at hand.  The other night you woke up around 4:30 a.m. and came into our room complaining of a leg pain.  I know the “correct” response would have been to comfort and medicate you as appropriate and put you back in your own bed, for fear of creating bad habits.  Now I think about Miles, who barely even lets me hug him anymore (I consider it a win when he doesn’t wiggle too hard in an attempt to break free), and I scoop you right up into bed with your dad and me.  You aren’t going to need my cuddles forever, sweet pup, and I want to take advantage of these times when sleeping next to me solves all your problems. By morning, your leg was fine.

You sleep with a whole menagerie of stuffed animals, though you’re not particularly attached to any one.  You just like a lot of company for sleeping.  On any given night, your probably have at least six of your collection with you:  Curious George, Eddie the deer, Teddy the bear, Teddy the dog, Pengwee the owl, Penguin the penguin, Sharky the shark, your Nemo blanket, and Stuffle the panda.  The night when you came to our bed, you brought Pengwee and a travel neck pillow.  You’re not picky; you just like representatives of your gang with you.  We have a lot of conversations with them at bedtime and in the morning when I come check on you.  A lot of times one of them is feeling sad and needs some love, which we take turns providing.  Sometimes they have owies that require kissing.

We have a trip coming up, and I asked you which one you want to take with us.  You thought about it and said, “Not Stuffle, because I wouldn’t want him to get lost.”  I pointed out that the last time we went on vacation, you brought Curious George, and he didn’t get lost.  My goal in that interaction was to assure you that we’d be careful not to lose your special toy.  You replied, “We should take Curious George, then.”  I guess you interpreted what I said to mean that Curious George has special not-getting-lost qualities.  Maybe we need to get him chipped so I can keep that promise.

Winter has been a bit of a drag, though honestly it hasn’t been a terrible one.  We’ve had a few days when the temperature went below zero, but mostly it’s been pretty mild.  We had one good snow for sculpting, and you and your brothers spent a long time outside playing in it.  Otherwise it’s just been that grey, dirty kind of weather with ice-encrusted dirty snow on the ground that so often comes with February.  You don’t seem to hate it too much, though.  Almost every day after school I have to drag you to the car, because you would like to pick up big chunks of ice and snow and smash them on the ground.  Actually, in your ideal world you’d bring the ice chunk into the car to bring home, but I nix that every time.  I know I started this letter on a note of indulgence, but a person has to draw a line somewhere.  No ice chunks bigger than your head in the car.  Sorry.

Your current favorites:  playing with Play-doh, especially the pizza-making kit Mubby gave you for your birthday; working on your class Valentines; other hands-on projects, like the dinosaur fossil-excavation kit you rescued from our Goodwill pile; strawberry ice cream; sophisticated cheeses (you are fond of parmigiano reggiano and aged manchego), and playing with both your brothers.  You especially enjoy having rough-and-tumble time with Tobin and cozy time Miles.  You’re very lucky to have two brothers, so there’s always someone ready for you whether you’re looking for a dance party or a cuddly story on the couch.  You’re so sweet and fun these days, my swiftly-growing little pup.  I love hearing about what you did in school and all your curious questions.  We’ve watched a video about how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly about a hundred times (it turns out I did not have a clear understanding about how the chrysalis forms), and it’s so cool to watch you learn and absorb what the world has to offer.

Keep up the good growth, my sweetheart, and always know that you have a place next to me.

Love,

Mommy