Dear Callum,

I am pleased to report that this month has been pretty darn fun. You started your Humira shots for Crohn’s Disease (more on that below), you finished out your baseball season, and we went on an epic road trip. You’ve been enjoying going to your “camp” a couple of mornings a week, which is a Parks & Rec-sponsored playgroup in the park right by our house. You, a teenage counselor two, and other neighborhood kids make crafts, play games, and chat. You weren’t shy about attending at all, even though it’s been two years since you did it. Our park was under construction last summer, so they didn’t hold the camp there, but you were ready to bounce right back as if no time had passed. You’re brave about meeting the counselors, even though they change frequently. You get along with the other kids. I’m so glad your return to pretty-much-normal life has gone so smoothly. I credit your wonderful second grade teacher, Ms. Hill, with guiding into socialization. I’m confident that the next school year will go well for you too.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves—we’re not done with summer yet. You made big gains in baseball this year, becoming a consistent hitter and a valuable member of the Diamondbacks. You also had a lot of fun hanging out after your games to watch Tobin play. More often, you hung out with your friends who also had big brothers playing. You also enjoyed quite a few concession stand snacks. You really enjoyed the pizza, popcorn, and Snickers bars.

Unfortunately, we had to miss tournament week in baseball, because our vacation eastward was set to begin. It was a family reunion for my cousins, their kids, and some aunts and uncles. You jumped right in and had fun getting to know some cousins you hadn’t spent much time with before, especially cousins Torin and Evan. I hope we can make another trip out to the Ithaca area, because there was so much to see and do. We saw many waterfalls, frolicked in a beautiful swimming hole, played games in Uncle Al and Aunt Barb’s amazing basement, and got a sense of Ithaca as a community. After we got done with the family time in Ithaca, we took a day trip to Corning to see the Corning Museum of Glass. Your favorite part of that day, besides the pizza and French fries from the museum café, was the glass-making activity. Under the guidance of an instructor, you designed and blew a glass holiday ornament. You and your siblings so enjoy the ritual of decorating the Christmas tree every year. I know it’s going to be extra special as you remember our trip to New York when you hang our ornament.

We had the ornaments shipped to our house, because they were too hot to take home the same day, and it didn’t work in our travel plans to stop by Corning again the following day. When they arrived, you were very pleased to see the beautiful blue and purple ornament you designed, but you were even more excited about the cornstarch-based packing peanuts included in the package.You took it upon yourself to design and create a packing peanut cube. I haven’t figured out what we’re going to do with that yet, but it might end up on the Christmas tree as well.

Toward the end of our trip, you decided you want to become ambidextrous. You spent a lot of our last night and much of the drive home writing “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” with your left hand. It’s a good thing we got a bunch of free souvenir postcards with our admission to the Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls, because you used just about every bit of scrap paper we could find. You also made thorough use of the notepad that was in our hotel room in Erie, Pennsylvania. I hope the skill proves useful for you in some way. It was a long, hot drive home, because the air conditioning stopped working in the van we had borrowed, but you didn’t complain. I guess all that left-handed writing kept your mind occupied.

An important development for you this month was starting your Humira shots. You got your first one at the Children’s Hospital before we left. Your dad has volunteered to be the main shot-giver in the family, though I imagine I will need to learn to do it as well. The specialty pharmacist walked your dad through it the first time. He did a good job, but you were not so happy about it. The needle is small and the poke is shallow, just into the fat under your skin. However, you said the medicine felt like “burning hot needles” as it went into you. The first dose was eighty milligrams, and we were optimistic that the second dose would be easier, as it was only forty milligrams. Your dad did that one at home, and you agreed that it wasn’t very bad. The anticipation was a lot worse than the actual injection. Moving forward, your doses will only be twenty milligrams, so we hope that will be easier still. I don’t like seeing you scared and stressed, so I hope you’ll get more and more used to the shots and confident that they’re not very painful.

The doctors told us it could take eight to twelve weeks to see any improvement, but I feel like you might already be feeling results. One of your more troubling symptoms was sores in your mouth. We’d tried several strategies to address it, like cutting out citrus (a big bummer for a kid who loves orange slices, lemonade, and orange juice) and switching to a toothpaste with no sodium lauryl sulfate. Once we got the Crohn’s diagnosis and learned that mouth sores can be part of Crohn’s disease, we were hopeful that your mouth sores would improve too. Well, they already have. That’s made your teeth-brushing a lot easier, and you’re back to enjoying your favorite citrus foods and beverages. I told you we could go back to Crest Kids or whatever normal toothpaste you used to use, but you said you prefer the (more expensive) SLS-free kind. So it goes.

You’re the kind of person who wants a lot of advanced notice for things. We recently had a follow-up visit with your gastroenterologist, and she suggested getting you a pneumonia vaccine then and there. The Crohn’s medication make you immunosuppressed, so you are more susceptible to pneumonia. Also, the typical pneumonia vaccine contains a live virus, and you are no longer eligible for that type of vaccine. You were not okay with the idea of having a shot sprung on you, but your doctor was very understanding and said it was fine for you to get it at your next appointment with your pediatrician. That’s next month, so you’ll have some time to get used to the idea.

Your current favorites: watching fishing videos on YouTube, practicing Spanish and beginning Russian on DuoLingo, playing with friends and cousins, mini muffins, accumulating sticks, referring to your dad and me as “Denny” and “Aprille” when speaking to others (e.g., you asked your gastroenterologist, “Have you met Denny?”), singing and dancing, and going around shirtless. You’re having a ton of fun this summer, and I’m so glad your health is improving and you’re living a fantastic life.

Love,

Mom