My sweet Tobin,

It finally happened—you lost your first tooth.  You’ve been waiting and waiting, feeling jealous of all the tooth fairy payments Miles has gotten, wiggling your teeth optimistically.  Once one of them got loose, it freaked you out a little.  I think it got itself into a weird, painful position a couple of times, which scared you off from messing with it.  Finally, though, it came out naturally.  You were pretty proud and excited, and it motivated me to look for a picture of the first baby tooth you got.  So much of childhood is being in a state of dental flux, from the first teeth in infancy to losing teeth in the elementary school years to braces and wisdom teeth later on.  Actually, kids seem to be getting braces earlier than they did in my generation, so that part might come sooner than I imagined.

Looking at the first baby tooth picture of you sure tugged at me.  Your little round, rosy cheeks and big smile make up so many my memories of your babyhood.  You’re still a sunshine puppy.  I remember when we took your passport photo, you weren’t supposed to smile (some kind of nonsense about facial recognition software), but we couldn’t get you to have a serious face.  We counted on customs officials being charmed enough by your cuteness to let it slide, and that gamble paid off.  You’ve been a smiler your whole life, and a gap in your mouth just makes it all the more charming.  A new, adult tooth is growing into the space vacated by your baby tooth, and it looks so big.  It’s hard to imagine that it won’t be long before your permanent teeth outnumber and eventually completely replace your baby teeth.

We’ve been having a fun summer so far, checking off the boxes on our summer activity list.  You and Miles already finished the first level of the library’s Summer Reading Program, and we cashed in our free admission to the Children’s Museum that was part of the prize package.  One good thing about your growing maturity is that I could trust you and Miles to go do big-kid activities while I played with Callum in the little-kid areas.  You guys did just fine, and Callum was able to do his own thing without getting in your way too much.

Your baseball season wrapped up a bit early due to last night’s stormy weather.  Miles still has a couple of games, but it will be nice to take baseball off the schedule after next week.  It’s been fun for you, but also tiring for everyone, and I will be glad to get back to more frequent family dinners.  You will probably be disappointed by that, since I think your love of baseball games is about 60% the playing and 40% the ballpark food.  Maybe I can start leaving your pizza out under a tepid warming lamp for hours before I serve it to you, since that seems to be your favorite way to eat it.

Photo by Gary Clarke

You’re a lot of fun to watch on the ballfield.  Like everything, you approach baseball with verve and enthusiasm.  It’s easy to spot you on the field, because you’re the one dancing around, running in place, or otherwise being wiggly.  This makes it sound like you’re not a focused player, which isn’t really true—you actually do a pretty good job, because you have a lot of energy and little timidity.

Photo by Denny

You are generous and kind.  We went to a special library time at your school today, which they’re holding most Thursdays during the summer.  Miles chose not to come, but he was quite pleased when we got home and showed him the book you checked out for him.  He’s been trying to find #11 in the Captain Underpants series for a long time, but it never seems to be available at the public library.  I did a cursory look for it on the shelves at school, and I didn’t see it.  You did the same thing, but when you didn’t find it, you asked your school librarian for help.  Lo and behold, they found it for you, and you were so happy to get it for Miles.

You were also excited to play bartender last weekend.  You cleared off the whole bar.  Your dad and I weren’t so excited about that, because instead of finding reasonable places to put the things you took off the bar, you just put them on the floor or in other awkward places around the house.  After we got that sorted out a bit, you packed a cooler full of beverages, set out coasters, and served them up to the family.  The drinks were free, but you accepted donations (donashones) to the Children’s Hospital.  We’re going to have to bring your donations to Dairy Queen the next time we go and stick them in their Children’s Hospital collection box.

Your current favorites:  that awful Crainor person on YouTube (actually he’s probably a nice person; I just can’t stand his voice), cozy cuddles, frozen yogurt, semi-nudity, PowerAde, and reading.  Your dad has been reading the Harry Potter books to you at night, and you’re getting close to done with #4, Goblet of Fire.  You are also doing a great job reading on your own.  We were able to play a game of Harry Potter Trivia together because you could reliably read the cards out loud.

You have another outdoorsy day camp next week, and I hope the rainy weather pattern we’ve had this week lightens up for you.  After that, we have a lot of exciting stuff planned, but I’ll review all that next month.  For the time being, I’ll just enjoy your smile, with whatever degree of toothiness you can provide.

Love,

Mommy