Dear Miles,

You’re just starting your second trimester of junior high, which is an adjustment for me because I’ve only ever attended schools that use semesters. You’re still getting the hang of things—you accidentally skipped choir on Tuesday because choir was on B-days last trimester and now it’s on A-days. I told you to write your teacher an email apologizing and explaining why you were confused, and you said you did it, so hopefully he’ll let it slide. The whole schedule can be quite confusing, with certain classes on A days (usually Monday and Tuesday, but this week it was Tuesday and Wednesday because you had Monday off), certain classes on B Days (usually Wednesday and Thursday but this week Thursday and Friday, also because of Monday’s day off), and Friday alternates between A and B. It’s a lot to keep track of, not to mention all the different approaches and timeframes teachers use to communicate assignments, deadlines, and tests.

You’re disappointed to be done with Family & Consumer Sciences, because you ended up really enjoying that. You hadn’t taken much interest in cooking or food preparation prior to that class, but it sparked your interest. You had some fun food labs. Everyone in the family liked the salsa you made except you, but at least you tried it. The energy balls were such a big hit you made a second batch to share at Thanksgiving.

After much debate, we ended up going to Mubby and Skitter’s house for a very small (just us and them) Thanksgiving. They’re retired and take COVID-prevention precautions very seriously, as do we. Since your dad and I both work from home and you kids all go to school online, we were able to make a pact to strictly isolate in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. It seems to have been fine, since we’re all doing well. We’re continuing our strict isolation for the upcoming weeks as well in order to be able to visit again at Christmas. That means no grocery shopping or anything. We leave the house to play in the back yard and that’s pretty much it. We’ve ordered so many grocery deliveries that we have favorite delivery people. Aboubakar is the best. He’s fast and accurate. Your dad suggested that Aboubakar should start his own delivery business, and I thought he should call it Aboubakar Aboubacares. (My deepest apologies if this is insensitive. But he really seems to care!)

Our school district recently received approval to offer an all-online option even post-pandemic. I mentioned it to you, not really as a suggestion but as a sharing of information. You immediately said “NO.” I agree that it will be valuable for you to get back to real school when it’s safe to do so, but it’s cool that it will be an option. There are kids who could really benefit from the more flexible schedule or less social interaction (maybe kids who are bullied or have anxiety issues) or physical challenges that make it hard to move around a big school. I think about our friend who requires frequent medical treatments and how nice it would be for her to not worry about falling behind when she has to be in the hospital. I imagine it will be much less popular once our population is vaccinated and rates start to plummet, but it’s still an interesting possibility for some situations.

Callum would probably stay home with me and keep doing online school forever, but you and Tobin are both anxious to see your friends for real. You chat with your friends online a lot, which is very helpful, and yesterday you and your friend Jacob were composing music together. Rumor has it you may be starting a band. I’m not sure how that’s going to work, but I wish you well.

As usual, it’s hard to buy Christmas and birthday presents for you. It’s going to be especially challenging this year, since past gifts have included things like passes to the trampoline park and theater tickets. I’m really bummed about not being able to go to a play with you, as that’s become a fun tradition for us. I have no idea when local theaters or touring companies will be active again, and an IOU seems too vague to be a reasonable gift. I just bought you new underwear, too, so there goes that idea.

What you want the most is a phone, and since your dad and I just upgraded ours, you’ll likely be inheriting your dad’s old one soon. I don’t think we’re going to put cellular service on it yet, since you never go anywhere, but we can set you up your own profile. Then it can be a personal wifi device, and you can use it to text and play games. The school is very finicky about cybersecurity (which, of course, I get), but I think they go a little overboard. I used to be able to text you using Google Hangouts, but then they blocked all non-school district accounts from contacting you on that app. You also can’t log into your personal account on the school computer, which is your only device at the moment since your old laptop went kaput. Having the phone will be useful, because quite often I find funny memes online that I want to share with you, but not enough to walk into the next room to show you. You and I have a similar sense of humor (“The 12-year-old boy,” I believe it’s called), and it’s so satisfying to hear you laugh through your closed door after I send you a particularly good one.

Your current favorites: pasta, stir-fry, lemonade, The Simpsons, Among Us, wearing the same clothes for days on end (that’s something going back to school will hopefully address), the chocolates in your deluxe Aldi Advent calendar, singing under your breath throughout the day, and not leaving your room. We’ve had a few lingering nice fall days, and I’m sure you didn’t notice at all.

You’re funny and smart and, overall, handling this nonsense pretty darn well. I love you and I’m proud of you. We’ll keep up the good work together.

Love,

Mom