My sweet Tobin,

You are busy, busy, busy, and you love it. Just about every afternoon and evening in your schedule is booked, you’re playing with friends after school, practicing and playing in soccer and baseball games, playing in your school band concert, and going to sleepovers on weekend. Sometimes it’s challenging raising a child whose threshold for being busy is so much higher than mine, and it’s definitely a challenge to keep up with your life. Your dad and I split the duties, and I know you’d like it if I could attend every single one of your events, but sometimes it’s impossible. I need to get your siblings to their classes and practices too, and your baseball games go too late for Callum on school nights. One might argue that they go too late for you on school nights too, but I don’t think you’d ever leave before the final inning. We’re nearing the end of the school year now, and I’ve promised you that I’ll stay till the end of your baseball games once the need to get Callum home to bed is less pressing.

You’re happiest when you’re running, jumping, swinging a bat or kicking a ball. Even around the house, you’re always moving, pacing, and wiggling. You had your school track and field day recently, and you and your friends had a blast doing all the events. Your team even won the 4×100 relay. It was thanks largely to a super-speedy anchor, but he couldn’t have pulled it off if his teammates hadn’t pushed him ahead. You finished the day happy, sweaty, and tired. You were also happy that I came. I was chatting with your friend’s mom at baseball the next day, and she said her son didn’t want her to come. I felt glad that you appreciate my presence at stuff like that, because I love going. I have been really grateful lately for the flexibility of schedule I have. Being present for the special moments in your and your siblings’ lives is so important to me, so it’s nice that you always make me feel welcome.

In non-athletic news, your school year seems to be wrapping up well. We spent a lot of the month preparing for the school spelling bee. I’ll write more about that next month, because it technically occurred after your month birthday. I try to limit the content of these letters to the events of the month, but last week was so busy I’m only now getting a chance to write it. Nevertheless, it was a lot of work to prepare for the spelling bee. Fifth and sixth graders are given a list of words generally intended for seventh and eighth graders, to push you beyond your usual level. We spent a lot of time practicing those words, and it was sometimes pretty frustrating. You had particular trouble with the words precipe, defendant, and fluorescent. We worked hard, though. Watch this space for the exciting conclusion to the spelling bee saga.

You’re still a good helper in the kitchen. You just helped with your favorite, beef and snow peas stir-fry, and you also got a kick out of scraping frozen margarita mix out of containers for your dad and me. You say you want to be a bartender someday like your great-Grandad, and I know you’d be great at it. Like him, you’re good at chatting people up and being charming. I’m sure you’d get a lot of tips.

You were a good sport about participating in the Family Folk Machine concert, but I fear your role in that group may not last long. For you, musical performances is more about spending time with friends and less about the satisfaction of making music per se. You seem to enjoy school band, but that’s more because your friends Ben and Elizabeth both also play saxophone so you get to hang out with them at rehearsals and concerts. Family Folk Machine is fun when your (other) friend Ben is available to play, but he’s also part of the FFM band, so he gets busy with his role doing that toward the end of the session. That leaves you without many peers, since most of the FFM kids skew younger. You’re a good support to Callum, but he’s getting big enough now that he can probably handle it on his own. It will be interesting to see what kind of involvement you choose to having moving forward.

Photo by Gary Clarke

Your current favorites: granola bars, pizza, playing with friends, being goofy, watching Scooby Doo with Callum, playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on the Switch, and cuddling up in bed with Callum and me for bedtime reading of the Humphrey series. You started doing that a while ago, and it’s become a tradition. Sometimes you and Callum jockey for space in bed, which in turn shoves me around, but I like having you there. In fact, you and Callum agreed that we’d skip Humphrey tonight, because you’re at a friend’s house for a sleepover, and we wouldn’t want you to miss out.

You’re a joy, a bright light, and a resilient kid. Though your life is not without its trials and disappointments, I can always count on you to bounce back quickly and find something to smile about. You are something to smile about, every single day.

Love,

Mom