Dear Miles,

Happy 11.5 birthday!  We celebrated yesterday morning with your favorite chocolate croissants, and I did my regularly-scheduled boggle about how old you’re getting.  I was talking to a friend who has a daughter your age, and she noted that her daughter has seemed really sleepy and lethargic lately.  I’ve noticed the same thing about you.  Maybe it’s a pre-teen thing, or maybe you’re just recovering from how busy you were during the first half of the summer.

Photo by Gary Clarke

You wrapped up baseball season with a solid performance.  Your team ended up getting second place in the league, and even though you probably don’t have a future as a pro ball player, you had fun and made friends.  You even got a hit and made it to base during the championship game.  You looked truly astounded.  Baseball games made for some very long nights, especially when baseball season overlapped with your animation camp at Filmscene, so I can understand why you would be tired out.

You enjoyed the Filmscene camp a lot, and you particularly enjoyed taking the bus downtown with your friend.  The camp happened to fall during a time when your dad was out of town for work, which normally I could handle, but the confluence of activities made me want to call in some backup.  Fortunately Mubby and Skitter were able to come and spend several days with us to help out.  Equally fortunately, your dad made it home in time to come to your film premiere.

You’ve had a lot of fun transferring the skills you learned in animation camp to your own projects.  You’ve been having fun enlisting Callum to “help” you make animations.  Mostly he provides sound effects, but he feels so special when you include him.  I’ve really appreciated how much I can count on you to help him.  Early this summer, I told you that helping with Callum would help your case in getting your own trombone.  You’re currently borrowing one from a friend, with the idea that we’d see how invested you got in trombone-playing before we bought one.  As it turns out, you love the trombone and in fact are quite good at it.  I was anticipating getting you one in the Christmas/birthday timeframe, but with all the great help you’ve been providing with Callum, it may well happen in the fall.  Best of all, I never even have to remind you.  It seems like you genuinely enjoy teaching him and playing with him, and afterward, you seem pleasantly surprised when I remind you that you’re earning credit in your trombone fund.

You still love Minecraft, reading, hanging out with friends (you’re very happy that your friend Jacob is back in town for the rest of the summer), and jumping at the trampoline park.  I sort-of-accidentally bought 3-month passes, so we’re going to be doing a lot of bouncing for the rest of the summer and into the fall.  I don’t mind, though—it’s a good way to keep you active, since your natural state can be a bit couch potato-y.

Your current favorites:  the Artemis Fowl book series, orange chicken from Panda Express, pasta, sleeping till 10:00 or later, various YouTube personalities I can’t keep straight, making animations, and recounting the storylines of FoxTrot comics.

I hope the rest of the summer is more relaxing for you, my dear.  We’ve got some good adventures coming up later this month and into August, but most of them won’t require you to wake up very early.  The next thing you know, you’ll be a sixth grader, and I’ll have to fret some more about how big you’re getting.  Until then, enjoy the rest of the summer.

Love,

Mom