Dear Callum,

My goodness, you’re a second grader already. I am thrilled to share that in-person school has been going wonderfully. You have a teacher who is kind, experienced, and attuned to her students’ needs. You are getting along well with your classmates, especially your best friend Griffin. You walk to school with your dad and Tobin and walk home with me, cheerful the whole way. Last night, unprompted, you said, “In-person school is fun…but it’s really long.” It is a long school day for you; you were accustomed to finishing by about 1:30, so going until 3:00 is something new. Still, it’s not so bad, because our old rule was no recreational screen time until 3:00, the end of a traditional school day. Now you get to chill out with the iPad or the Switch as soon as you get home, so you feel pretty good about that.

Before the school year began, you got to do another big-kid thing: being part of a science experiment at the University. Both your big brothers had done the virtual reality road-crossing experiment, so when I saw a call out for test subjects of your age range, I asked if you wanted to do it. You accepted the challenge and had a good time. The test involves a simulated neighborhood street with cars that pass, and you have to decide whether or not you can cross safely. We did the set of road-crosses together, then I left the room and you did another set without me. I think the researchers are trying to determine how kids make choices with and without their parents. So far, you’ve never had to walk to or from school without a parent, but I trust that you are capable of doing it safely. While the cars in the experiment were digital and harmless, we’ve been taking a different route to and from school that doesn’t have much traffic.

You did a great job in the experiment, and more than anything, I was happy to see that it was no big deal for me to leave the room. We’ve been such a tight twosome for the last couple of years that I was curious as to whether you’d have separation anxiety. It was all totally fine, and when we were reunited at the end, you were excited and proud. Your favorite part was when the researcher let you get “hit” by a car at the end. You were quick to emphasize that she gave you permission to do it—you didn’t mess up in your assigned task. You also enjoyed the post-experiment frozen yogurt.

We got through almost two weeks of school before you got your first cold in a while. We were glad that testing confirmed it wasn’t COVID, but it’s run through all the kids in the family now and was kind of annoying. Your dad and I have managed to avoid it so far, probably due to the techniques we’ve learned during COVID times. I’ve been using a lot of disinfectant wipes on doorknobs, faucet handles, and light switches. While COVID isn’t so much surface-borne, we got well-versed in meticulously wiping things down before that fact was well-documented. Colds are definitely surface-borne, which is presumably how you got this one, since you wear a KF94 mask to school every day. We keep our homemade air purifier running most of the time, and I wore a mask when I snuggled with you at bedtime during the first week of your cold. It’s good practice for the day when one of us brings COVID home. Though we’re doing our best not to, it seems likely that it will happen eventually, and I want to have some good strategies in place to keep it from infecting the whole family.

Of course, vaccines are an important part of our defenses. You and Tobin got a first-generation booster a couple of weeks before school started, and the the older members of the family just got bivalent boosters. Once those are approved for your age group, you’ll be up. One positive to this pandemic is that shots have gotten pretty low-drama for you kids. It helps that the COVID vaccines are nearly painless, and you’re getting accustomed to them enough that it’s becoming a pretty small deal. And, like post-experiment frozen yogurt, post-vaccine ice cream is always a good motivator.

I’m so proud of the great attitude you’ve shown as you try new things this fall. School is going great, you’ve dived into Family Folk Machine, and you’re even getting braver about trying new foods. You weren’t quite as thrilled by the grape tomato as you were by the breaded chicken, but I’m glad you were willing to branch out. It’s so much fun watching you learn and grow. Even though I don’t get to see it happen on an hour-by-hour basis anymore, I still appreciate watching you face challenges and expand your experiences. You still seem like our baby, but you’re really developing a lot. Your vocabulary sometimes startles me, and I like watching you think through complicated problems. You’re a thinker for sure, and even though it’s sometimes hard for you to get a word in during dinner table conversations with your verbose siblings, your thoughts are usually interesting and well-considered.

Above: you had picked out a book for bedtime reading, and you claimed that I took so long finishing up my evening tasks that you fell asleep waiting for me.

Your current favorites: strawberry ice cream with chocolate syrup, chicken thighs, reading together at bedtime, telling me about the games and activities you do in school, attempting to recreate those activities at home, Kool-Aid, waffles, Word Girl, and generally being a sweetheart. I have a good anecdote about your kindness and consideration for others, but since it happened after your month birthday, I’ll save it for the next Callum Chronicle. For the time being, I’ll just say that you know how to get straight to my heart.

Love,

Mommy