Dear Callum,

This month has been busy, crazy, stressful, and weird. You started the month full of excitement, because you were having a great basketball season and you got invited to a friend’s birthday party. Even though you’re still a beginner at basketball, you had wonderful time playing. Your dad was the head coach of your team, and you improved your skills and supported your teammates. It didn’t seem to matter to you much that you didn’t do a lot of basket-making. Your favorite part was dancing and high-fiving your teammates to celebrate successes. It was a lot of fun, and I’m happy that you got to have such a good experience.

School has continued to go excellently for you. We had your spring conference, and your teacher had nothing but glowing things to report. You have blasted past the end-of-year standards in both math and reading. You’re an enthusiastic participant in all class activities and a good friend. I’m so grateful to your wonderful teacher, Ms. Hill. She has done so much to ensure that your year is a positive one. She frequently sends me notes about how well you’re doing and the things that are on your mind. You tend to take on the stresses of your classmates. One time Madeline couldn’t find her earmuffs, and you were quite worried about it. That’s not unusual for you, as you’re very empathetic. We were reading a chapter from our latest Humphrey book at bedtime the other night, and the substitute teacher character was recounting how once, in a different substitute teaching assignment, the students were rude and threw paper at him. You got teary at that thought.

The biggest challenge our family faced this month was Artemis getting COVID. Fortunately, our efforts to contain it worked. It helps that Art is very happy to stay in their room alone all the time anyway, so between that and our other methods, no one else got it. We wore masks in common spaces, kept the windows cracked most of the time, and ran our Corsi-Rosenthal box at full blast for days on end. I don’t know if we could be that effective if you or Tobin were the one testing positive, because you both need a lot more parent interaction than Art does. For the time being, though, we’re under control. It also helped me be a little less fearful of COVID. I still don’t want to get it, and I still recognize that it would probably be a lot more unpleasant for those of us over 40 than it was for Art, but we got through it. Art’s case was very mild, pretty much just some fatigue and congestion.

The biggest issue was the worry over whether you and Tobin could do your activities. You both loved basketball so much, and you were so excited about the birthday party. We burned through our supply of home tests with frequent nose swabs, but nobody besides Artemis ever had a positive. We were extra vigilant with masking, but you still got to do all the fun stuff you hoped to do. Your friend’s birthday party was lots of fun, with pizza, arcade games, and swimming.

You’ve had a few non-COVID health issues lately, with some bathroom trouble and a painful gum (maybe related to an emerging molar) that has resulted in a swollen lymph node. It doesn’t seem to be at a deeply concerning level, though I do have an appointment scheduled with your pediatrician later this month just to make sure you’re under control. We’ve tried removing lactose from your diet with no obvious effect, though maybe we’ll have to be more vigilant about trace amounts of whatever might be bugging you. You’ve been very interested in trying new foods lately, so this seems like a bad time to be limiting your diet. We’re not sure it’s food-related anyway, so I guess we just need to keep an eye on you and see how it goes. Overall, you don’t seem to feel bad. Your spirits are good and you don’t complain about any kind of pain most of the time.

Your current favorites: practicing Spanish on Duolingo, doing math problems on the whiteboard (double-digit subtraction with regrouping is no problem, much less traumatic than the subtraction story problems from last year where you got so concerned about the fish that swam away from its family), granola bars, steak, playing catch with your dad, playing chess with Tobin, Scratch programming with Artemis, and saying funny things. Ms. Hill commented on your immense vocabulary, and that didn’t surprise me a bit. You have a good brain for words, and I’m always interested in the funny and astute things you have to say. See Stuff My People Say for many, many examples.

You’re such a sweet kid with a kind, loving approach to life. Ms. Hill remarked on your “sincere heart,” and I couldn’t agree more. I sincerely love you, my sweet heart.

Love,

Mom