My sweet Miles,

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had three separate people from three different parts of our lives rave about you.  One person said she noticed how happy you’ve seemed lately.  Another said you’re becoming one of her favorite people.  Another said she and her family talk about how much they like you.  Now, of course this doesn’t shock me, because I think you’re wonderful.  But I’m your mother, and you never now how much of my opinion is objective and how much is tied to the fact that the long-term success of my lineage depends on you.  It’s immensely satisfying to know that your kindness, your focus, and your sense of humor are being noticed by others.

I was at school the other day doing some volunteer work, and a teacher who also lives in our neighborhood mentioned that she saw you work on a snow fort all alone last weekend.  I felt the need to defend your choice—you are someone who is happy to work alone, who enjoys the satisfaction of doing a project for its own sake.  She said, “Yeah, that’s probably what I would have been doing at his age too.”  You’ve always been that way.  At your kindergarten parent-teacher conference, your teacher said that you often hung out alone at recess and that she encouraged you to join in with others.  That freaked me out a little—were you lonely?  Shunned?  Friendless?  She assured me that you got along well with your classmates.  I talked to you about it, and you said you just needed a break from people.  I get that.  That personality trait has continued.  Unlike Tobin, who needs constant stimulation, you’re happier when you have a balance of solitude and companionship.

You have friends, including some close ones.  You have hobbies you enjoy, you’re doing well in school, and you’ve been getting along pretty well with your brothers lately.  Those facts add up to a good current life stage, I’d say.

You had plenty of brotherly time with Tobin a couple of weeks ago when we celebrated your eleventh birthday in a big way:  a trip to Universal Orlando, mostly for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Callum is too little to appreciate it, and your dad wasn’t too interested, so we recruited Mubby and Aunt Suzy and made an adventure of it.  My favorite memory of the whole trip was when Ollivander selected you to be the focus of the wand-choosing ceremony in his shop.  It was dim and atmospheric in the little room, and the spooky music made it all the more exciting.  When Ollivander locked eyes with you and invited you to the center to let a wand choose you, Mubby and I grabbed hands and trembled with the thrill of it all.  I think I teared up a little. You tried a few different wands with varying results, but when the perfect one chose you, a spotlight shined down on your head and your hair fluffed up in a magical breeze.

Your hair might have been the reason Ollivander picked you.  A good hair fluffing doesn’t get more dramatic than a Miles hair fluffing.

You and Tobin had a lot of fun using your wands throughout the park to cast spells at the magical spell-points.  You also enjoyed some butterbeer, bought souvenirs, and of course went on the rides.  The two main rides at Harry Potter World are the Forbidden Journey (which we liked so much we rode twice) and Escape from Gringott’s.  We could have spent longer at Universal, since we barely did anything outside Harry Potter World, but it was a good time in any case.  There was even a Panda Express at Universal Citywalk, so you got to have your favorite food as part of your birthday trip.  You proudly wore your Ravenclaw robe (which was actually useful as outwear, since it was rather chilly) and had a fantastic time.  Just this morning over breakfast you talked about wanting to go again.

Your current favorites:  trombone, drawing comics, pasta, jumping at the trampoline park, sleeping in (which you’ve been able to do a lot, due to a spate of school cancellations and late starts due to winter weather), YouTube, and lemonade.

We’re starting to get your summer schedule planned out, and you say you only want to go to one camp:  FilmScene.  You’re already registered for that one, and I rather you didn’t sit on your butt all summer watching YouTube.  I don’t mind so much when you’re creating and editing videos, but we may need to set some goals and schedules about passive versus active screen time.  I may also need to look into season passes at the trampoline park, because I think you and your brothers would boing-boing-boing the whole summer long if it were fiscally sound.  I have to admit that I enjoy the trampoline park myself, so I don’t mind taking you.  It was a fun activity for a no-school day yesterday.  However, if we keep getting school cancellations at the rate we’ve had them lately, you won’t have any summer break left for us to schedule.

It’s been a really fun month, my sweet boy.  I’m proud to be your mom.  Keep up the great work.

Love,

Mom