Dear Tobin,

As so often happens in April, we’ve seen weather extremes this month.  We got enough wet, heavy snow to throw snowballs and build a small snowman, and it’s also been warm enough to play outside in the evenings with no jacket.  We got out our bocce set and our badminton net and accessories, and we’ve had fun enjoying the wide-open spaces in our yard and the park.  You’ve also been getting into skateboarding again, and you sometimes hold Callum up and scoot him around on your skateboard very sweetly.  I make you stay on our front stoop, since you and your brothers do not always doing a good job of maintaining a six-foot distance from passersby, on the sidewalk, but you do a good job.

I can tell you miss interacting with kids who aren’t your brothers.  There’s a free lunch distribution program that we had never used before because I didn’t want to hog up meals from people who might be in tougher economic situations than we are, but then I learned that future funding is related to how many meals they distribute now.  A school board member was encouraging anyone who might like to go pick up lunch.  Because one of Miles’s friends was planning to go, we all headed over to the junior high and picked up lunches.  You and Callum saw friends, too.  Today you guys asked to go get lunch again, so we did.  More than anything, I think you guys are excited to go places other than the four-block radius around our house.  We didn’t see any friends today, but you really liked the frozen fruit cup and and cinnamon cookies.  I have to say I’m not super impressed with the nutritional profile of the lunches.  They seem to still be going by 1980s standards, according to which low fat content equals healthy, even if it’s packed full of sugar.  One of the components today was a package of cookies with things like “Spinach – Iron” imprinted on them.  There was no spinach in the ingredients list.  It was cookies with the word spinach on them.  It was very strange.  I’d be lying if I said they weren’t tasty, though.

** Note:  I have since learned that the funding situation is not quite so tenuous as I originally understood it to be, and the district is not anticipating any reduction in funding even if they don’t see an increase in pickup numbers.  We may not do the lunch pickup much anymore to make sure there are plenty left for those in greater need.  It’s still fun to do sometimes, though.

You’ve been doing Zoom sessions with your class and with your school librarian, doing online math and reading programs, cooking with me (today was freshly-squeezed lemonade, and you’re really excited to make homemade pizza with your dad this weekend), playing outside, and doing workout videos.  You’ve also done some online taekwondo classes.  It’s really important to keep you active, because almost every night after dinner, you get up from the table and start jumping and kicking and bounding around.  It doesn’t help that our dining room table is currently in the middle of what is usually recreational space.  Even when it was in its normal position, you were disinclined to sit still during dinner, but the current situation is even worse.  At the time of day when everyone else in the family is getting tired and ready to chill out, you’re ready for adventure.  If I didn’t clearly remember giving birth to you and also if you didn’t look just like me, I’d wonder if you were adopted.

Our home construction project, the reason our dining room table is displaced, is moving along.  We’ve had some delays for a variety of reasons, including reduced staffing from our contractor due to COVID-19 concerns.  Still, their current projection is that they’ll finish by the end of August.  That sounds like a long time from now, especially with all the togetherness we’ve been having, but I imagine we’ll persevere.  I know we’re going to love our enlarged and improved home when it’s done, and maybe it will even be safe to have a party to celebrate it with our friends.  No promises on that one, though.

You would love to have a birthday party, since you’re so social, but I have no idea whether we’ll be able to do that on any normal schedule.  Even though our governor does not seem too concerned about minimizing COVID-19 transmission, we’re practicing voluntary sheltering in place, as is pretty much anyone you’d want to invite anyway.

You were one of the stars of a video we made to share with our Family Folk Machine friends at our online open mic party.  It’s always fun to make videos with you, because you’re silly and expressive and smart enough to do a good job.  Another thing we’ve been enjoying lately is watching the show Eerie, Indiana together.  It’s a show I used to watch with my family when I was a kid, and I’ve really had a good time watching it with you.  Some of the references are a little dated, but overall it holds up pretty well.  It’s spooky without being too terrifying for a kid, though you do jump up and run away screaming now and then.  I think that’s more about your predilection for running around screaming than about being scared, though.

Your current favorites:  popsicles, the pizza and travel shows you watch with your dad on Netflix, the author Stuart Gibbs (you just started the Charlie Thorn series), running around like a maniac, salads, eating pizza, planning the pizza you’re going to make, Beyblades, playing Werewolf (both the in-person version and the online version), and your glorious curls.  You for one are not unhappy that hair salons are closed.  I don’t know if you’ll let me trim you up any time soon.  Things are getting pretty fluffy.

Right now you and your dad are working hard on pizza dough, and I love seeing you so excited and proud about a project.  Your enthusiasm and joy are constants in this house.  It can sometimes be exhausting to live with you, but it’s always an adventure.

I love you so much, you crazy little guy.

Love,

Mommy