Dear Miles,

Despite your history as a generally surly person, you’ve seemed really happy lately.  You certainly still have your moods, but you’ve given me reason to be optimistic that your junior high years might not lead to the worsening of personality that so many people experience.  Of course, I don’t want to jinx myself by saying that too much, so for the time being I’ll just enjoy it.

Over the last few months you’ve become closer friends with kids you’ve known in school for years but with whom you’d never socialized much.  In some ways it’s a bummer that it took you so long to get to know them, because next year you’ll be inundated with new faces and chances to form new friendships.  On the other hand, I could see that being overwhelming for a person like you, so maybe having a larger core friend group will increase your odds of having an anchor friend or two in your new school environment.

The latest thing you’re excited about is the GSI, or Glue Stick Investigation.  That’s a club you created based on a very dubious claim of glue stick theft in your classroom.  Apparently a bunch of rival and allied groups with similar acronym names have cropped up, and you’re always telling me (through laughter) about the latest membership changes.  You even used a gift card Mubby gave you for your birthday to make a GSI t-shirt. Your teacher is a closer adherent (no glue pun intended) to the school district’s anti-junk-food policy, so no treats are allowed in your class Valentine’s Day celebration.  I found a good deal on glue sticks on Amazon, so instead of a chocolate heart, you’re enclosing a glue stick in each of your friends’ cards.

You would still spend most of your time watching and creating (mostly watching) YouTube videos if we gave you no screen time limits.  Your Mister Whacky persona remains an important part of your identity, and you even managed to get a bunch of kids hanging out at in the caucus childcare room to watch your videos.

We finally got some good packing snow, which you used to build a rather extensive snow fort.  The picture below is from only about halfway through the construction process.  We’ve had some temperature fluctuations since then, with some melting and re-freezing, which has turned your snow fort into a creepy snow-ghost convention.  Still, you had fun building it  You missed a few days of school due to snow and ice, so it was good to get you out of the house and doing something active during that time.  You’ve decided against playing baseball this summer, though you are going to do Let Me Run.  Your natural state is to be in a comfy chair with a computer in front of you, a position I can’t criticize too harshly since I enjoy it too.  Still, it’s good to find ways to get you to move around a little bit now and then.

I got you a sleeping bag in preparation for your birthday sleepover last month, and you’ve been using it as a general-purpose blanket ever since.  Fortunately (and I didn’t know this when I bought it), it has the option to unzip at the bottom, so it can be more of a sleep tube.  That’s useful for safety when you want to walk around the house with it on.  You sometimes let Callum get in with you.

You’ve been an especially good big brother to Callum lately.  You two have been playing a lot of Mario Maker on the WiiU, playing the adventure games you make up, and reading together.  The other day I overheard you reading a book to Callum even though neither your dad nor I asked you to—you were just having some nice hang-out time with your little brother.  I really appreciate that.  Your dad is going away for a few days early next month, and one reason I know we’ll do fine is because I have you for a helper.

Your current favorites:  Halloween treats, which you’re still hoarding; linguine with homemade tomato sauce; YouTube; the Simpsons; your insult Uno cards; and sleeping in late.  You are also into showers, one of which flooded the bathroom because you didn’t tuck the shower curtain into the tub.  We thought it might have caused thousands of dollars in damage, but I think the  industrial-strength fan your dad rented and left on for a whole weekend got it handled.

That whole debacle was an anomaly, though.  You mostly bring good things into our lives, and I’m so glad we have you.  You’re a little wacky, Mister Whacky, but you’re worth it.

Love,

Mom