Dear Callum,

As excited as I was to take a long weekend trip with your brothers, I was worried about how you would do.  It wasn’t our first time being apart for a few days, but you’ve been in such a clingy stage lately that I was concerned it would do your dad in.  You had become so Mommy-centric that you wouldn’t even let anyone else help you go to the bathroom.  That strategy, while it caused you some discomfort while I was away for a couple of hours for meetings, had been basically working for you.  But three days is a long time to hold it.

Skittergramps came and spent the time with you and your dad while Mubby, Miles, Tobin, Aunt Suzy and I were in Florida.  That was very helpful—adding a special person to the mix helped assuage the “everybody left me” atmosphere.  You were the Three Adventure Guys, and you had pizza, fudge, barbecue, trips to the library, Tot Time, and the Natural History Museum, and probably a lot of other stuff.  You packed a lot of good excitement into the few days we were gone, and apart from some occasional sadness, your dad said you did well.

That’s good to know, since we’ve started talking about preschool.  We haven’t made a final decision on where you’ll be going, but it’s going to happen next fall one way or another.  It will just be half days, and I know you can do it, because both your brothers did.  You’re familiar with how school works, and while I don’t think you’ll be in the same building as your brothers, we’ll visit and let you see how it will happen.  One of the possibilities involves you packing a lunch that you eat at school, and you think that idea is pretty cool.  I’ll miss having a lunch buddy, but it will be good for you to get used to doing some things on your own.

Your dad and I high-fived at dinner last night over a trip he made to Goodwill, to which he donated a lot of stuff we no longer need.  We were happy to be past the little-potty life stage.  I also remarked on how nice it is that rough sleep nights are now the exception.  Most of the time you sleep well, which means that I usually do too.  Tobin seems to think you don’t like blankets, which I’m not sure sure about, because when you do occasionally yell for me in the night I often find you uncovered.  Tucking you in and making sure you’re warm helps.  You love your little stuffed deer Eddie (though you call it a dog) and your old favorite Curious George.

This winter started off mild, but the last few weeks have been brutal.  We experienced a Polar Vortex, which kept the big boys home from school for several days, then an ice storm and more snow that triggered late starts and early releases.  I’m very grateful to have a schedule that allows me to roll with these changes with minimal issues, and you’ve enjoyed having your brothers around.  We even took advantage of a school cancellation to take a trip to the trampoline park.  That has been a great addition to Iowa City.  You and your brothers all enjoy it, and they have different areas that appeal to different ages.  You mostly like boing-boing-boinging around in the open trampoline area and stacking up the foam blocks.

One curious thing that’s emerged in your personality lately is some anxiety about wasting things.  If one of your brothers is shaking some crackers out of a box into his bowl, you yell “That’s enough!” and tell him to stop to avoid wasting them.  I don’t know where this comes from, since we go to HyVee all the time, and surely you’ve seen that it’s pretty easy to replenish our supplies.  You have no qualms about non-food resources, though.  You’ve been really into using tape for a variety of purposes, and you do the full arm-stretch as you pull it off the roll.  You love wrapping and unwrapping and re-wrapping presents (even just items you find around the house), creating tape “webs” between pieces of furniture, and creating projects with boxes and duct tape.  I’m going to have to stock up on different varieties of tape next time I hit the dollar store, because this could become an expensive habit.

Your other hobbies mostly involve the things you do while you’re hanging around at your brothers’ activities.  You’ve made good friends with Julian, another kid who hangs around at taekwondo because his dad is the instructor.  You two love to chase each other around the rec center.  You also like shopping at the Co-op and Trader Joe’s when we’re in Coralville for your brothers’ piano lessons.  You like the samples.

Your current favorites:  doing projects with tape (lots and lots of tape), using your Silly String gun, spraying water with your various squirters, pepperoni pizza, Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad, and being right next to me.  You still enjoy art projects, though the paint doesn’t always end up on the paper.

Maybe by this time next month the brutal winter will have eased up a bit and we’ll be able to venture outside a little more.  In the meantime, we’ll stay cuddled up.  I’d better enjoy this snuggly mornings while we still have them.

Love,

Mommy