14

Dear August,

Your 13th birthday party was one of our last main events before the shut down last year. At the time, I never would have guessed that your 14th would be restricted. And yet, here we are.

You have been a good sport about the pandemic. You don’t love wearing a mask but you’ve been good about it. You miss being able to go to friends’ houses but you’ve done a great job to adapting to do most things outdoors or online. You’d like to go into restaurants, theaters, and other fun place (bowling, arcades, museums) but you’ve learned how to make the best with what’s available. We’re really looking forward to warmer weather and everything being easier to do outside again. We’re all really looking forward to the possibility of getting the vaccine soon.

March 2020

We’ve spent a lot of quality time together this past year. Way more than most teenagers would typically be willing to tolerate. I suppose we are lucky that you only just started to have more of a taste of freedom the year before this one – staying after school for activities, riding the train to meet up with friends, making plans on your own – so you don’t quite feel as locked up as you could have. I suppose it helped that your friends were also in the same boat.

April 2020

There wasn’t soccer this past spring, so we figured out our own, socially distant version. You didn’t love it – you missed playing with kids your own age, not having to wear a mask, and getting to play real games. But you also loved seeing your friends and not having to only hang out with your parents and your siblings all of the time. And the statewide soccer association organized FIFA tournaments on the xbox and playstation and that helped too. And as it got warmer, we figured out ways to keep cool at a distance as well. In fact, we think we’ll be keeping the across-the-street-balloon-battles post-pandemic.

May 2020

This past summer was pretty good, all things considered. We figured out that beach dinner was the best way to get to the beach – easier to get a parking spot in the afternoon and fewer folks tended to be around. You appreciated the fact that you had to wear your swim shirt less and no mask in the water. We didn’t have to be as restricted about who we could hang out with at the beach, which was really nice for seeing friends, and beach dinner usually also meant chips or other fun snacks that you normally don’t have for dinner at home.

June 2020

We also got to do many of our other usual summer things, which was a relief. Movie nights and soccer camp happened, we got to do mini-golf and go-carting, outdoor birthday meetups with friends, and even a little bit of 4th of July sparklers. This month you had your first surgery too – your nasal passages were very small, so you had turbinate surgery to hopefully help with your having to blow your nose all the time (spoiler alert, it did not help as much as we hoped). It was not your favorite experience by far but ice cream afterward helped a little.

July 2020

We were able to carefully visit with both sets of grandparents, which was great. We went kayaking for the first time on the Yough with Grandma and Pappy and you were so-so on the experience. The river was low, which meant that it was easy to get stuck a lot, which was frustrating for you and Calum and made things a little tricky. You had more fun when we all switched and you got to ride in Grandma and Pappy’s boat. We were able to take Nana and Grandpa to beach dinner, which was very fun, and we enjoyed some game time with both grandparent teams as well. We even managed to squeeze in our Vermont trip – sort of – by combining as many of the things we usually do in Vermont into one day in Massachusetts. You and your siblings were a little bummed about the lack of hot tub option but we were all happy to be able to spend the day with friends doing some of our usual summer weekend fun times. The favorite part of that day for all of you was the backyard screen time. I am sure all of you would like that to continue post-pandemic as well.

August 2020

The return to on-line school in the fall was less exciting but you have done a good job this year staying mostly focussed. You don’t love school but you do miss being in person. We are really hoping that vaccines make that a lot more accessible for everyone by the fall. We did some frisbee golf for the first time this fall and we didn’t do team soccer this fall, even though it was an option. But we did do regular meetups with friends and that was really fun. We made you run a few laps before every practice and you thought that was the worst but getting to see and play with friends was really nice. You were due for some vaccines this fall and had to get them outside in a tent, which at least made getting shots a little bit entertaining for a change. We put together a basketball hoop for the driveway and that has helped get some energy out as well.

September 2020

We figured out how to do the pie party but couldn’t really do trick or treating in the same way this year. Still we managed to do candy sharing and we went apple picking and corn a-mazing and carved pumpkins and went to a cool light show at the zoo. We even did our own lantern parade around the pond and you made your own costume (you went as a well-known YouTuber). We also snuck in an out of state trip to Pennsylvania to celebrate Grandpa and Uncle Adam’s birthdays right before things started to get back with the pandemic again.

October 2020

Like many people, we had a quiet Thanksgiving this year. But even with the weather getting cooler, we still managed to squeeze in one last movie night, a few more soccer practices, and few more outings with friends.

November 2020

I was worried about this winter but we got lucky. There was plenty of snow to play in and it never got too cold and we ended up find a lot of outdoor things to do. We very much missed getting to see family for the holidays but the zoom meetups really helped. We’re really hoping to be able to celebrate together this year but this winter was not as bleak as it could have been, and we’re really grateful for that. Our friends were luckily is up for not going stir crazy as we were and the winter ended up feeling like it passed a lot more quickly than usual. The weather helped by not being too terrible but so did keeping busy. I hope we can continue to be this creative every winter.

December 2020

You and your siblings stayed up to welcome in the New Year (I went to bed, the new year comes whether you are awake for it or not) and, even though we could not celebrate with friends like we usually do, you were thrilled to get to celebrate all night. We did some curling for the first time this winter, which you thought was pretty cool, and we took more walks, which you did not. But adding snow and ice always made things more interesting and the fresh air and friend meetups always helped too.

January 2020

We got to do our winter chocolate celebration as usual and that helped. Your birthday was a Jackbox party with friends (no siblings allowed) and it was definitely a highlight for you. You would have preferred to meet in person, but online gaming with friends (meeting up to play among us and minecraft has been really fun too) has really helped a lot.

I can’t believe you’ll be going to high school in the fall. I can’t believe your entire 8th grade was during a pandemic. I can’t believe you’re 14. A lot has happened this year, but even with a pandemic, I think a lot of good things happened for you. I love you a lot and I am so proud of you. Happy birthday!

Love,

Mama

10

Dear Calum,

Happy birthday. 10 years old. Wow.

This past year was a big one for you. So much growing up. I’m really proud of all of the work you have done and the progress you have made. You’re becoming such a big kid, I can’t believe it.

April

You struggled a bit with the end of 3rd grade. A lot of big things were being asked for you at school, and I think it felt like a lot all at once. But then 4th grade started and all of the things that felt too big before were just right. You never give up and you always work hard, even when you feel discouraged. That’s not easy. You’re one tough kid.

May

This past year was also big deal because you were finally able to articulate the way you feel about who you are – that you feel a little bit like a boy and a little bit a girl and that you would like us to use “they” as a pronoun for you. It was not too much of a surprise, but it was good to feel that we understand how you are feeling and are be able to talk to you and about you in the way that feels the most right for you. Your school and friends and family have been really wonderful about it, and that has been pretty great too.

You loved doing travel soccer this spring. Your team really came together this season, and you finally had some wins, so everyone was really excited about that. But honestly you, and your team, just really enjoy playing, and it’s a joy watching you enjoy being on the field.

June

At the beginning of the summer you went to sleep away camp for the very first time and you loved it. I wrote you a letter and an email every day and your aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins sent you letters because I was worried you might be homesick and instead you were sort of embarrassed about getting so many notes at camp. When you walked in the door, the first thing you asked was whether you would be able to go for two weeks next year! If you missed us, it clearly was not enough to hold you back 🙂 The only thing you could think to tell us about were the macaroni and cheese pancakes that you loved to have for breakfast, but my impression was that it was pretty great. I think you loved all of the activities and the being outside so much and the independence. We signed you up again as soon as registration opened up.

July

We also did two weeks of soccer clinic this week and you loved it. It was hot and the days were long and I still had to drag you and August away at the end of the day (Hugo was less excited). You and August both want to go for every more weeks this coming summer.

All 3 of you also went to drop-in camp again this summer. You really enjoy meeting and being with people. You feel comfortable with big groups of people. You seem to just enjoy being social and having fun. You always felt that I picked you up “too early”. There is always something else interesting or exciting happening that you never want to miss out on.

August

This summer was very busy and you really enjoyed it. You love being and visiting with other people and, even though no one really loves all of the traveling, you especially enjoyed all of the time we were able to spend with family and friends, celebrating birthdays and a wedding and just seeing the people you love.

September

You love swimming and soccer and reading. You got into the Percy Jackson books this year and we have been reading them together every night. Sometimes you get impatient and read ahead. It’s been so fun seeing you love the series as much as August did and it’s been fun re-reading them with you, although between you reading on your own and Papa reading to you, I can never really remember what is happening in the story by the time it’s my turn to read again. You love reading graphic novels too and we have quite the collection. You and Hugo are big re-readers, so our little library is well loved.

October

Although you are always sad to see the summer end, you get very excited about going back to school, and this fall was no exception. Between starting soccer again and seeing school friends, September is a great time for you. We spend every afternoon possible on the playground after school and it is always a bit of a struggle getting everyone to head home. We have a regular afternoon school crew who also hang, so it’s been fun getting to know those friends better, and it always helps if everyone can leave at the same time.

November

This winter was a bit of a disappointment because we did not have much snow. You definitely had big plans for sledding and snowboarding and snowball fighting that were never able to be realized. We did get to get out with friends a bit, so at least we made the most of it, but it was disappointing not to get to have as much snow fun this year.

December

We did do swim lessons again this winter and you loved that. You moved up to the highest group before swim team. You’ve really come so far along with swimming, it’s been amazing to see your progress. You are excited to swim this summer.

You have been waiting and waiting to play volleyball at school and finally this year you were old enough for the program! Unfortunately, volleyball was canceled almost as soon as it started!

January

Moving to online learning was a big disappointment for you. Not only was your teacher at home much worse than your teachers at school, but you really missed your friends, and it took some time to get used to the new home routine. Your birthday party was also the first family casualty of the lockdown. You were very understanding about needing to reschedule your birthday party and I think we celebrated you in a pretty good way on your day, but the timing of everything was a bummer for turning 10 for sure!

February

It’s been a very busy year and you’ve grownup so much! I can’t believe you have been with us for 10 years already! We are so lucky to have you, Calum, and we love you so very much.

Happy Birthday and happy 10!

Ten!

Love,

Mama

7

Dear Hugo,

Wow 7. You are really not slowing down, are you? This whole having a third baby thing is not really working out the way I planned, what with you insisting on keeping on growing up and all. Good thing you’re so cute.

It’s really fun watching your grown into your own person. You look up to and admire your older siblings but you also have a really strong sense of self. You know who you are and who you want to be (and who you don’t want to be). And who you want to be is pretty amazing so far.

June

You might often be the littlest one in the crew but you hold your own with the big kids and you are just as happy to join in as you are to do your own thing. You get along just as well with the bigger kids as you do the kids closer to your own age. You like having older buddies and you loving have a good friend just 8 months younger across the street. You can get impatient with long board or card games but you are just starting to really enjoy playing games that are geared for your age, so family games is becoming more of a thing and it’s been really fun. You like Sleeping Queens, Moose in the House, Chef Cuckoo, and Spot It quite a lot and you will even sit through most of a game of Castle Panic and even sometimes Sushi Roll. You like playing soccer with your siblings but are just as happy with kickball or four square. You love staying to play on the playground after school.

July

We traveled a lot this summer and you were such a hero about it. You loved seeing family – many of whom you didn’t really remember meeting but enjoyed spending time with anyway. You can be a little slow to warm up in new situations but felt at home pretty quickly at all of the birthday and wedding celebrations this year. And you were great on the plane to see our friends in Seattle as well, especially since there were movie and screen and snack options.

August

You really like first grade. You really like school in general. I mean, sure, you prefer weekends and “veecation” but you really enjoy your classmates and your teachers. You like learning and you even like doing your homework. You’re really learning a lot and it’s so cool to see the work that you have been doing and how excited you get about it. You enjoy learning and doing math and you’ve always enjoyed reading, so it’s been really fun seeing you be able to read books on your own more and more. You love picture books and will read almost anything I bring home, but you especially love graphic novels. Your first grade teachers sent home a babysitter’s club graphic novel when we went home for quarantine and you and Calum loved it so much we ended up getting a whole boxed set. You also read a lot of Catstronauts and Witch Boy and 5 Worlds. You love to re-read books, which was helpful when the library was closed for a few months this year – you didn’t mind at all, you were so excited to read the books you love again and again.

September

You lost some teeth this year, much to your delight. You like yanking your loose teeth out and spraying blood everywhere and you like getting a dollar after. You like chewing on tooth pillows and wiggling your tooth and sticking your tongue in the new hole. It’s been a fun a gross journey to take with you.

October

You have been a little funny about food this year. You have become more picky about lunch and you’ve decided that you just don’t like smoothie anymore, so you have been fighting about that too You used to like pizza for lunch at school on Fridays until you decided that you didn’t anymore. Not even pizza not from school is on your list of good things. Ordering take out with you is a pain 🙂 You do still love apples, though, and Papa has to be careful if he is going to set one aside to take with him to work in the morning, because if you find it first, he will end up with an apple with a few bites already taken out of it.

November

You’re always up for an adventure and there is almost nothing you aren’t willing to climb up or over or jump down from. You like running fast and playing hard and you love making up outside games with you siblings. You love going to the beach and have started to get more and more brave about going into the ocean. You like building sandcastles and you like looking for hermit crabs and “sea pennies” and any other creatures that you can find. You really learned how to swim this summer and winter also, and you are really proud of that (we are proud of you too). You also absolutely love ice skating, which is great, because it’s such a great winter outdoor thing to do. And you spent many days this winter asking when it was going to snow so you could try out your new skis and sled. Sorry this winter was such a dud on the snow front, buddy.

December

You’re sort of helpful. You like being a part of things but you don’t really like doing chores (who does?). Still you are good at putting your dishes away and have been starting to get better at folding clothes and socks and putting them away. No one ever wants to clean up games after, but you will do if reminded (repeatedly). You hate to clean up the attic or your room but you actually really like when things are less messy so, with a little help, you are not always the worst about it. You love cleaning the mirror in the bathroom.

January

Of course, the really big news of this year was the pandemic happening. You’ve weathered it pretty well so far but it’s had a big impact on you too. You were sad to finish 1st grade without really getting to say goodbye to your teachers. You mailed your classroom teacher a note to tell her how much you really liked having her and were going to miss her. You mailed a classmate a letter back after he mailed a letter to you. You tried zooming with some friends but you were all still a little young and awkward for that sort of thing this spring. You really missed everyone during the first few weeks of lockdown but were a real trooper about wearing your mask.

February

We did a lot of hiking this spring because there was not a lot to do. You would frequently complain but then immediately run and find something to poke or grab or throw.You love hiking with sticks and almost stabbing people with them (although you would NEVER ACTUALLY). You like throwing rocks into water and at trees (and ducks) (poor ducks). You like balancing on logs and climbing big rocks. We spent a lot of time driving farther and farther out to find new places to have the same kind of adventure but you were a good sport about it.

March

There are a lot of things that you miss and that you look forward to. You would like to travel and see family again or even to just go in friends’ houses. You don’t mind wearing a mask too much but you would also prefer not to. You have been going a great job about mostly seeing your siblings but you would really prefer to see friends more. You sometimes ask, “After the pandemic, if we don’t die … ” followed by a request for something you would like to do. We talk a lot about the facts about what is happening and what we can do to be safe and what we don’t that would be unsafe. You don’t love all of the restrictions but you do understand. And you are doing a really good job of being safe. You’d rather the pandemic never happened or at least that it was finally over but you’re not letting it get you down.

April

Happy happy 7th birthday, buddy! I wish this could have been a better year for you (all of you) but I’m so proud of everything you have done and everything you are becoming. I hope this next year is a lot better and I’m so impressed with the way you’ve managed everything so far. Many, many birthday hugs and kisses, I love you.

Seven

Love,

Mama

13

Dear August,

Wow. Teenager. You were really excited about this birthday. To be a teen. I mean, I agree. It’s wild. You were definitely just our tiny wee buddy 10 minutes ago but here you are,  going to middle school and doing middle school things. Like turning 13. Dang.

March 2019

I mean, it’s not a total surprise. You have definitely been exhibiting teenage behaviors (mouthy) and emotions (FEELINGS). I am curious about how these next few years are going to shake out. What you will be drawn to. Who you will be drawn to. How you will assert your independence. How awful you will actually end up being while you try to figure out all of the ways you are feeling and growing. We have talked a bit about what you can expect, but it’s an ongoing conversation, and one you are not always excited to have but are definitely always curious about, whether you are willing to admit it or not. While I miss tiny you, it’s a nostalgia not a regret. I really enjoy getting to know the person you are and you are becoming.

April 2019

This was a big year of changes for you, in addition to just entering the teen years. You finished your year of “stand alone” middle school and entered your first year of “high school appended” middle school. You liked your middle school time and did actually make some middle school friends who were not just people you went to elementary school with, but you were excited to go to school at the middle school attached to the exam school this past fall. For the first time, you would be going to school with kids you had known since you were very small, and you were very happy about that. I mean, I get it, but I guess I did not realize how much you felt you were missing out on that, so it was really cute to see you get excited about that. You were a little nervous, although you tried not to show it. There were just a lot of unknowns, so it makes sense. We did some practice runs on the city bus to have an idea about what routes you could take and what time you needed to get up. You had some bus mishaps the first two weeks or so, figuring out which busses to take to school and which to take home, but you weathered them extremely well, and figured out pretty quickly how to navigate the system when you made a wrong choice. Your papa and I are so proud about how independent you have become with public transportation. Late this past winter you wanted to attend a video game tournament at a different school and you figured out to get to and from your school to that school and then home almost entirely by yourself. You still prefer that papa or I give you a ride somewhere, but I think you are also pleased with yourself that you can get around by yourself as well.

May 2019

I was not sure how much you were going to like your new school, which is a middle school housed within an exam school. You already had more work and homework than you were used to in 6th grade, and while you handled it just fine, your papa and I will both worried that it would be even more rigorous at the exam school. And maybe it is, but you seem to have developed some good independent study skills last year and have been managing just fine. Sometimes you complain about the workload, but overall, I think you like most of the work well enough and you don’t seem to be overwhelmed. What you really, really like are the after school programs. You have the opportunity to try out for the high school soccer team next fall and you have been staying for a magic and a video game club once a week each recently as well. Honestly, between seeing your friends at lunch (you have only one class with one of the friends you were excited to go to school with) and these clubs, you probably don’t even care that much about anything else. It’s very cute. I love that you love the clubs so much. It’s one thing I remember really liking about high school, and it’s really cute to see you liking all of that so much too.

June 2019

This fall you played JP youth soccer as well as participated in a soccer program at school. You tried out for the high school soccer team this summer. It was amazing. You went to every tryout for two weeks, all of us wondering when you would get cut, only to find out at the end that actually with their new middle school program, 7th graders aren’t even allowed to play on the high school team. Honestly, you were sort of relieved. Trying out for high school soccer was exhausting, and you did not feel like you could keep up. But your papa and I were very proud of you for sticking in there and trying so hard, and now you know what tryouts will be like for next time, which should help you be better prepared mentally and physically. You were not excited about the middle school soccer program, but many of your friends also played, and I think that helped a lot. Plus you still got to do your regular youth league, so you did not feel like you were missing out. You did a great job balancing everything, but I am glad we are not going to be juggling two soccer seasons again for awhile.

July 2019

You continue to love reading and graphic novels and screen time. You and your siblings lobbied hard for a playstation this year and we finally relented and let you have one. You’ve been really enjoying playing fifa and battlefront and a few other games that you asked for for your birthday. And you’ve been doing a decent job being social with your siblings on it and sharing and playing together mostly nicely. In fact, for your birthday, we rented a space at the video store with a big screen so that you and your friends could have some video game tournaments and pizza and it was your dream come true. And it wasn’t in our house, so everybody won.

August 2019

You really enjoyed visiting our friends in Seattle this past summer and you were great about the extended family road trips we took. You’re not too old yet to enjoy visiting family and that is really nice. You had fun going swimming and visiting with your grandparents, great-grandparents, and uncle and you do a good job chatting with relatives you don’t often see and do not know as well. You went to soccer camp a few week this past summer and you had to work pretty hard but you really liked it and are looking forward to going again this year – hopefully for a few more days this time. We have been sending you and your siblings to a drop in camp a few times a summer for the past few years and you have been liking that too. It takes you a minute to warm up to a new space, but now you feel pretty confident about it and know the things that you like to do and look forward to going. You’d like to see your friends more this summer than we have been recently, so we are going to work on that happening this coming summer too.

September 2019

You’re a good older sibling. You get impatient with and tease your younger siblings sometimes, but not often, and a good portion of the time is because they got in your business first. You haven’t gotten into a space where you want to be left alone yet. You don’t always want to do everything that they want to do, and you will just ignore them and read a lot of the time if you can, but you also enjoy playing video, or board or card, and outside games with them too. You might be older but you’re still a team.

October 2019

One post birthday thing I want to squeeze in – I recently went to parent/teacher conferences at your school and everything that was said about you was so nice to hear. I know you are a nice kid and that you listen at school, but it was lovely to hear how much your teachers like you and appreciate having you in the classroom. You’re a good student and a good classmate. Not that I expected any less, but it was nice to hear about how thoughtful and helpful you are in the classroom.

November 2019

December 2019

January 2019

As always, it’s amazing watching you grow. We love you and we are so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. Happy birthday!

Thirteen

Love,

Mama

 

 

6

dear hugo,

happy six! please stop growing now, it’s getting to be too much and this past year went by too quickly.

we rounded out our last few months home together at the beginning of this year and it went too fast me for me and a little bit too slowly for you – you really enjoyed your 2-3 days of preschool a week and but you started to get really excited to go to kindergarten and i guess i don’t blame you. you and i had good times, but i am nothing compared to a room for of kids your own age and activities to boot.

june

i was originally not pleased with sending you 2 days a week over the summer but it turns out that i took on a new contract with more hours a few weeks before your birthday, so it actually worked out. your siblings went to camp on the days you were in preschool and i got to work 2 full days without interruption, so it worked out for everyone. you got out earlier than your siblings, so on the days i could get my work done on time, you and i would stop at the pool on the way home from preschool and swim for an hour or so before we picked up calum and august. you liked to jump in the water and swim to me but it was a little tough also because you couldn’t touch the bottom. still, it was always a nice way to cool off and to spend a little one-on-one time with you after a long day of working.

july

you really enjoyed going to grandma and pappy’s 70th birthday celebrations this summer. you like parties and you really like hanging out with family and cousins. you enjoyed sneaking in an idlewild trip too and get braver and braver about the rides you want to go on every year.

you still love going to the beach, although you aren’t too ready to go very deep into the water, you do love looking for “sea pennies” and other sea creatures. the little aquarium we got you this year was very useful for holding the hermit crabs you and wren and shona would collect (well, wren and shona would collect them, you didn’t want to touch them. but you liked helping them find them).

august

you had a lot of fun on out trip to montreal – probably the maple syrup crepe was your favorite part – but you love the adventure of traveling and you like exploring new places and seeing and trying new things. we did a ropes course on some landlocked pirate ships on that trip and you we were willing to do a few low ropes and a short zip line but overall that experience was a little too much for you. you were pretty brave, though, and you even overcame your few of one of the courses and decided to try it again after stopping halfway through, so that was pretty impressive.

we went to a few waterparks this year and you loved that too. you aren’t sure what you think of wave pools – you don’t mind going in the shallow wave area for a bit, but you can’t swim there and you get annoyed with jumping the waves pretty quickly and probably the big waves make you nervous too. but you love going down water slides and floating along lazy rivers and you are already to go again next summer.

september

we finally got to go see the penguins this year, we went to the museum of science, we went on some bike rides, had some s’mores, and we stopped at the playground with the big climbing structure – all things on your summer bucket list before kindergarten started this fall.

you continue to be great friends with our neighbor sawyer and we got to know the kids who live behind our house also. it’s been nice being able to hang with neighborhood kids over the summer and there is nothing more wonderful than hearing all of you yelling and running and playing together outside.

october

you were very excited to start kindergarten this year and i think the reality lived up to the expectations. you met several kids that you liked right away and seemed to have no trouble making friends at school, some even that you wanted to meet up with at a non-school playdate. it’s been pretty fun seeing you make friends that weren’t handed down to you from your older siblings, although wren and shona (and of course sawyer) continued to be your very favorite friends throughout the year.

you love halloween and changed your mind a bunch of times about your costume, asking to be a vampire for the latern parade and switching to a witch for trick -or-treat. i can’t believe how many times that dumb costume has been worn. i think next halloween it will finally be too small for anyone. i hope. but of course you were adorable, so i can’t complain too much.

november

this october we also missed the family halloween bike ride because you crashed your bike and had to get stitches on your lip. i felt so bad for you and you didn’t want to ride your bike for at least 6 months after. overall you were fine but really rattled. poor buddy, we all felt really bad for you.

this thanksgiving we went to see chewie and hattie, which you loved. we don’t usually travel for the holiday, but it ended up not being too bad, and it was nice to spend some time in milder weather and to see a cousin who we don’t often see that much as well. once again you and your siblings were great travelers.

december

you’ve really gotten excited about writing and drawing stories lately. you have a couple of little notebooks from nana that you write stories in, but you’ll write and draw on just about anything.it’s been really fun watching you use your imagination and your stories are really great. you really still love looking at books a lot too and have even started reading some yourself!

you and calum did two sessions of swim lessons this winter, partly as another way to get the energy out and partly because you especially could use a little more confidence in the pool. you were pretty nervous at first and spent the first two sessions clinging to the instructor but he was really great and you warmed up pretty quickly and by the end of the first session you were willing to jump in the pool by yourself and by the end of the second session you were doing everything they asked except putting your face in the water. we still have some work to do this summer, but i’m really proud of all of your hard work! you have come a really long way and i am excited to see you in the pool and the ocean this year.

january

this february you finally got to have ice skating lessons and you loved it. it’s not as easy as i think you were hoping it would be but you did pretty well for your first lesson and i think it’s going to be something you really enjoy over the next few years as you get better and better at it.

we didn’t get a ton of snow this year so you were disappointed about not getting to sled as much as usual but we still got out a few times and you are getting braver and braver on the hills there as well. we also took all three of you to some climbing walls this winter and you got really brave about that too! there was one wall in particular that your siblings could climb that allowed you to walk over to a slide after you had stopped it that you were stuck on for a long time and it made you very frustrated but you kept trying and trying until you finally got it! and then you (and we) were so proud!

february

you had a few field trips this year that you always wanted me to chaperone. i went when i could. it’s not always easy to squeeze in field trips with work but i really love that you still want me along, so i tried to go when i could. i did library books with your class this year like i did with calum’s kindergarten class and i loved being able to see you for a minute on monday mornings and i loved meeting the kids in your class. everyone is so very cute and sweet.

march

over april break we got to see more cousins we don’t usually see and meet pappy and grandma’s new puppy. it was a fun trip! your hair also got long enough to put into pigtails in april and that was pretty exciting for you too.

your grandparents got your caterpillars a few weeks before your birthday this year and it was one of the most fun and most disgusting birthday presents you have ever gotten ever. the caterpillars just got creepier and creepier and it was fun looking and not looking at them in the morning. all of them ended up making chrysalises and all but one survived! we let them go on your birthday and we’ve even still seen one or two around since.

april

happy happy 6th birthday, big kid who used to be my baby! i can’t believe how fast you are growing up but it is sure fun getting to be with you while you do it!

love,

mama

 

nine

dear calum,

wow nine-year-old! how did you sneak up on me like that? one more year until double digits!

8 was a good year for you. 7 was a lot of crabbiness but this past year was a little easier for you. you’re growing into yourself more and that is good.

april

you and august went to your first camp this past summer. august was a little intimidated and didn’t really talk to many kids the whole summer (you only went a few weeks and only two days a week), but you made a bunch of friends on the first day. you’re such a friendly kid and you enjoy meeting people and making friends, it’s always so lovely to see that.

may

you really enjoyed celebrating with grandma and pappy this summer, especially seeing and hanging out with all of your cousins. you liked the adventure of going someplace new and you liked hiking and swimming and boating and playing outside after dinner. summer is a great time of year before because you can just go and go and go and you don’t have to rush out the door the first thing in the morning. i like summertimes with you also.

june

you enjoyed visiting with nana and grandpa and great nana when they visited also and you loved when we went to montreal. you loved the crepes so much but also all of the activities that we did. you and your siblings are really good sports about traveling and hang in there pretty well on trips. it was a little tricky in our little apartment in montreal that was small and had no tv (very disappointing to everyone) and you had to be quiet, but you did a good job of sleeping in a new place and were very up for any adventure that papa and i planned.

july

this summer we went to a water park for the first time and you loved it. although there were a number of slides you could not go on because you were not tall enough yet, there were still plenty of things to do and you loved it a lot. you went on every slide you were big enough for and you loved the lazy river and the wave pool.

you still like school a lot. you love your friends and your teaches and you still love learning new things. you enjoy math and you like reading but writing continues to be a challenge for you. you have great support at school, though, and we are always working on new strategies to help you tackle things so they don’t get too cumbersome. as always, you work hard at everything you are asked to do at school, and with the exception of having to have some OT sessions a little bit over the beginning of the summer last year, you’ve been really good about working hard at the extra stuff too.

august

you were excited to start third grade this year because third grade means travel team. you are always excited to be as big as august at things and you have been waiting and waiting to be old enough to play real games in soccer. to be honest, your fall team had a really rough go of it. although you were one of the better players on the team, the rest of the team was still learning how to come together, so you didn’t have a single win! but you and your team were great and never lost heart. you were still excited for every game the whole season. your papa and i were very proud.

september

this winter you played some futsal on tuesday nights for a few weeks and it was great. a couple of your teammates also played and even in just a few weeks, all of you got to be stronger players. it was great to be able to get out and get some energy out and to do something that you love.

october

you and hugo also took some swim classes this winter. i wasn’t sure how much of a pain it was going to be and it was a pain to be cold and to change from swimsuits into winter coats to rush home for dinner after but you and hugo learned a lot! you got so much stronger and can swim so much farther now. mostly i just wanted you to have an extra activity during the dark winter months but you really improved so much in your swimming skills. i am excited to see how you do this summer!

november

this winter you were also asked to be involved with a ballet program through your school. you went once a week during the school day and you really liked it a lot. we got to see your dance recital at the end and all of you were so cute! it was amazing to see how much you had learned. they invited you back to take more classes next school year, so we are going to try that out. i am already stressed out by the schedule, but we will give it a shot.

december

this year for your birthday you chose to go with friends to the same laser tag that august did last year. we drove some friends from school to the suburbs and you got to play some laser tag and a few video games and then we came home and had cake and pizza. i drove the car with your school friends and wow – everyone is getting so big! it’s crazy to hear all of you talk like such big kids. you also had a few non-school friends over the day before for some cake and more pizza. all in all you had a pretty great birthday.

january

the biggest news for your this year is that while we were preparing to go to a rally to encourage people to vote for a ballot initiative to protect transgender rights and i was explaining what transgender means, i mentioned for the first time about being non-binary – how sometimes some people feel like a boy and a girl or sometimes like a boy and sometimes like a girl – and that clicked for you. “oh!” you said, “i’m transgender!” and so we talked about that some more and you decided you would like people to use the pronouns they/them/theirs when they refer to you. we told family and some friends and your school and we have been very lucky to be surrounded by some many people who are about and support you. you have been telling kids at school at your own pace and as far as we know, everyone has been good about it. we’re proud of you for telling people about who you are and we can tell that you are happier finally having the words to tell people how you feel.

february

we’re so proud of you and we love you so much calum! you are a great sibling and a thoughtful and loving classmate and teammate. we are lucky to have you in our lives and we can’t believe how big you are getting! we love you so much!

nine

love,

mama

12

dear august,

jeez. 12.

this year you finished up 5th grade – and your elementary school! wow. the last year was bittersweet for papa and me but i think you were mostly excited. you loved your elementary school (as did/do we) and enjoyed your time there, but you spend a lot of the year looking ahead to the newness of middle school. you were excited about having a locker and switching classes and being a bigger kid and, even though it felt like a big step(!), papa and i were excited for you too.

march

you had a really good spring soccer season – your team is finally winning at least as many games as they are losing, which feels pretty good – and you just really getting out and playing soccer so much. you enjoy playing with your teammates and it’s still mostly what you’d like to do as an outside activity any given day. you also played soccer on your school team in the fall in addition to JPYS. you had a lot of fun, even though you were one of the only kids who had any soccer experience on the team.

this summer you and calum went to camp two days a week. you were not super excited about going to a new place all day where you didn’t know anyone and it took you awhile to warm up to everything, but by the end of the summer you and calum were both asking to be picked up later. you enjoyed doing some programming on the computers and i think a lot of the outdoor activities. it helped that some days that you went there were kids you knew, too.

april

we had a lot of adventures this summer too. you had a lot of fun celebrating my parents’ 70th birthdays with our whole family on that side. you always enjoy hanging out with your cousins and all of you kids spent a lot of time being silly outside with each other and you especially enjoyed playing some card games with the aunts and uncles and grandparents (like super fight, one night ultimate werewolf, and exploding kittens). we were just talking about that week recently and you mentioned the biggest thing you remembered – that we had an old “square” (not flat) tv that we could not plug our apple tv into, ha! but you did get to watch some world cup anyway, so it wasn’t ALL bad, and you enjoyed when we went paddle boating and canoeing too.

may

we did not get to the beach as much this summer as i like to do, but you still enjoy going to the beach with friends. you are not big enough to go far out into the water with just friends, and you sometimes swim out there and sometimes take your boogie boards out there. it’s crazy to see all of you out in the water hanging out, swimming and talking and riding the waves. you are all getting so grown up! we went to a water park this year for the first time and you really enjoyed that too. you are getting brave enough to go on some of the bigger, steeper slides, so that is pretty fun, and you and your friend graham were big enough to go on your own for awhile without grownups, so that was pretty fun too. we also discovered wave pools for the first time and it turns out that you like them a lot, so that was pretty fun too.

june

even though it was out of our way, we decided to swing over to idlewild while we were celebrating grandma and pappy this summer. it made for a long day and everyone was tired after – and we had to leave the park early and eat dinner nearby, which was an interesting challenge that turned out mostly ok – but it was fun to be able to take you again. you haven’t quite outgrown it yet. you aren’t quite ready for the big roller coasters and you still really enjoy the water park there. i think we still have a few years left for it to still be exciting for you. hugo and calum, of course, still love it.

july

we enjoyed a visit from your paternal grandparents and your great nana this summer as well. we had a beach dinner and a picnic table dinner and all of you always think that is pretty fun.

this summer our family took a trip to montreal and the three of you loved it. it was weird and exciting to be somewhere where most people spoke a different language and it was fun to explore a new city with all of you. we did a lot of silly and fun activities and i think we would all love to visit again some day. it was really nice to get some “just us” time. we enjoy visiting with family and friends so much, but it’s always really nice to just spend time together as a family also. you especially enjoyed trying crepes and reading manga but you were adventurous and up for just about anything as usual. we screwed up lunch on the way home and ended up finding a little burrito restaurant in VT once we crossed the border and you were very excited. burritos still tend to be just about your favorite thing to eat ever.

august

you were a little nervous about starting school this fall. or rather maybe not about starting school but just about what to expect from all of it. it turns out that switching classes and having a locker is about as cool as you expected (although you have not yet learned how to get to your locker between classes, so you end up carrying your big heavy bag around all day, which is not great for your or your back). you generally like your classes – especially learning japanese – and you like generally like the kids in class with you. you have a crew of kids you know from your old elementary school in class and/or lunch with you and you have made a few new friends through those friends. you like to play basketball at recess – and it’s so great that you still have recess – and you took a cooking class this fall and did some rock climbing and biking with a program at school in the fall too. homework is a lot work and none of us like it, but you are very responsible about getting it done soon after you get home. you do ok balancing activities and homework, but sometimes it is tough. a few times you have had to wake up early to finish, but overall you have a decent handle on it. you completed a required science project for the school science fair this fall and you were pretty frustrated at times (i think the teacher’s expectations were not always clear) but when it was all over you were pretty proud of your finished product (we were too).

september

you’re still on the travel team for soccer, although this fall you tried soccer at your school too. you continue to love soccer and your team did well this fall. you are hoping very much that whatever school you go to for 7th grade will have a junior varsity team that you could join.

october

you took a cooking class at school this past fall and you thought that was kind of cool (papa and i did too). it’s been interesting to see what you are interested in and what you get excited about. you haven’t really been at a school with many extra curricular offerings, so it’s been fun watching you explore.

november

this winter was a little bit of a dud, weatherwise. you were really looking forward to some snow days but they didn’t really happen! but you had a good winter break and you weren’t too sad about going back to school after. sometimes you would have to get up a little earlier in the morning to finish some homework and that didn’t seem to bother you much, so you started asking us to wake you up early anyway so you would have time to read a bit before school. it’s funny seeing you get up so early on your own, but you really enjoy the quiet in the morning before you start your day (me too).

december

for your birthday, we took some friends to dave & buster’s – somewhere mama and papa went 20 years ago with auntie m but haven’t been back to since – and you and your siblings had A LOT of fun. then everyone came back to our house for pizza and cake and a movie (ready player one). no sleepover this year, but you didn’t really mind, and everyone was much less crabby the next day, so it was a win for everyone 🙂

january

i can’t believe what a big kid you are becoming! we are so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. the tween is starting to come out a bit, but you are also a good brother and a good friend and a good teammate (and they love you at school). i imagine that the teen years will be a little tricky, but so far so good.

twelve

i love you,

mama

 

5

Dear Hugo,

Wow, hello there, five-year-old! Weren’t you supposed to be my baby forever? But here you are growing up on me!

This past summer with you and your brothers was really wonderful. You are a full member of the team and completely capable of participating in most things your brothers do – if you feel like it! You also enjoy doing things on your own quite a bit.

June

You were awesome on our big trip. You had one carsickness barf on our way out of LA and that was it. You did great on both plane trips and never complained about all of the driving. I think you really enjoyed the adventure of it all and you seemed to enjoy all of the new things we saw and the places we stayed. Part of me worries that you were too young for the trip and won’t have a lot of  memories, but part of me is so glad that you got to do so many fun things! One of my favorite moments was when you and I slept outside under a canopy on the deck of one of the houses we rented for the evening in Oregon. I was worried you would be a little nervous sleeping outside, but you loved it. The only tricky part was the fact that you don’t like store-bought bread at all, making lunches rather difficult. One day you refused to eat lunch for the entire 6-hour drive. I am flattered that you like my break but it made feeding you on the trip pretty interesting.

July

You would not leave me your side at soccer camp again this year. It was fine with me. I was just happy for you to play, but the camp coaches thought I was a little crazy. You enjoyed it though – until during break one day your broke your wrist trying to block a kick! Oh Hugo you were so tough but it was so sad. You were really brave though and recovered pretty quickly. A cupcake definitely helped. You were a little nervous to play in the fall, but it was fine. You still preferred that Papa and I hang out with you during practice, though, and sometimes you decided you would just rather sit and have a snack. Still, you were pretty proud to go both to camp and to JPCS. You don’t need to be doing all of the same things as your brothers, but when you do, you are pretty proud about it.

August

You started full day preschool this year, which was a little bit crazy. But unlike last year, you were excited to start school when your brothers started and there was almost no transition for you at all. You were a little indignant that you didn’t have a uniform like your brothers, but you liked having special indoor school shoes and your own backpack. You made friends very quickly, and talked a lot about Xavi, Finley, and Jordan in particular (I think you liked Jordan so much because Jordan thought you were funny). I didn’t know what I would think about you being in school for two full days – it seemed like a lot to me – but you loved it. And you loved it when you had to go three days in May. We are so happy that preschool was such a good fit for you this year.

September

You’re really into this whole Halloween thing, no doubt because it includes two of your favorite things – pretending to be something else/dressing up and getting candy! We spent a lot of time walking behind the group, you aren’t quite able or inclined to keep up with the bigs, but that was fine with you, because it gave you plenty of time to eat your haul. I think you ate a full 1/3 of the candy you collected on Halloween night. Your brothers were impressed and I was appalled that I had not realized just how much you had been having!

October

Hattie and Chewie and Aunty Diver and Uncle Birdlegs came to visit in November and you liked having Hattie and Chewie around very much. You also learned a lot of fun things at school this month. You are loving learning your letters and learning how to read and write your name. You are always so proud to bring home projects from school and to tell me all about what you learned or what you made.

November

You of course enjoyed everything about the winter holidays – you love cookies and presents and family and celebrating. You love visiting with family – especially cousins! – and you still remain pretty patient with the long drives to get to the grandparents’. You really love the snow and playing and sledding and mind the cold less than when you were smaller. We took you and your brothers to see the Urban Nutcracker this year and you enjoyed most of it. It got long and a little boring, but the music, and costumes, and dancing kept your entertained for a long time. It’s getting fun to take you to sitting still things 🙂 You also wanted to me to cut your hair short this month, so i trimmed it. Not enough for your taste, but all I could bear at the moment. You are enjoying it for now at least.

December

I found a pair of double-bladed ice skates on our Buy Nothing group this month and you finally got a chance to go ice skating. You loved it and are anxious to take lessons of your own (it’s incredibly unfair that Calum can take lessons and you cannot yet). You love playing with our neighbor Sawyer and you are always wanting to go to the zoo, the children’s museum, or the museum of science. You’d really like me to take you to see the penguins at the aquarium too. You are bright and curious and enjoy going places and seeing things. It’s fun to have you as my little buddy to go around the city. You are not too mad about having to walk places but you would always prefer to ride the train or even the bus whenever possible.

January

This February I registered you for kindergarten. I had a lot of feelings about that. In some ways I am very ready – you are such a pain at the end of the school day every day when I have to pick up your brothers. It is a struggle to drag you out the door and it makes me crazy. And I have work that I need to get done and you make it difficult. And I worry sometimes that you do too much screen time on afternoons that I am very busy. And it is hard to entertain you on non-preschool days when it is cold and rainy. But also I love spending time with you so much and I am not ready for you to be big enough to be at school all day. I will miss you and our time together. You also have had mixed feelings about it. At first you did not want to go to kindergarten, because you already have a school, but lately you have been getting more excited and are proud to tell people when they ask that you are going to go to school with your brother.

February

We went to an anti-gun violence rally this year and you were very proud to make and carry a sign. You were especially brave because we realized on our way there that you thought that people would maybe have guns at the rally that we might not be safe, but you wanted to go to tell people not to hurt kids with guns. You were quite relieved when we explained that people were just marching and holding signs and that no one was going to hurt anyone else. You kept asking about when spring will be, because you remembered that we eat chocolate bunnies on the first day of spring and you were very excited about that. You were delighted to learn that we also do an egg hunt with friends that have candy inside. You liked painting our spring garden foxes and coloring eggs. You are up for almost any family activity that is not a boring old board game.

March

This spring you really got into soccer and really started to play without needing me or papa. It’s been really fun seeing you come out of your shell – I think your preschool has really helped you with that. You have more confidence in new settings and you are not as shy around new people. I was a little worried about how shy you will be in the fall for school, but I think maybe you will be just fine. I came to talk to your class in April about what happens when you get a cold. I didn’t know what you would think but you were so proud to have me there. I was happy to be there too.

April

You finally convinced me to cut your hair so that you would be “more bald” in May. You kept asking and asking so I finally relented. I didn’t think about the fact that it would be right before your birthday and that I would have to look at the bald head for a full year, I might have at least made you wait until June. You were so delighted though, even though you had to have special extra sunscreen on your head every morning. You grew up so big this year, Hugo, I am so proud of you.

Happy 5!

Love,

Mama

8

Dear Calum,

Wow, 8. I feel like it took us a lot of work to get here. If I am honest, 7 was not my favorite age for you. Seven is regarded as somewhat of an emotionally downer year, developmentally, and that was not far off the mark for you. Not that you were not often delightful but you did (and still do) take the world quite personally, and I have to admit that it can wear on a person (and on you as well). The upside, if there is one, of all of your sensitivity to the great injustices that you have suffered is that you have extended this sense of raging against wrongdoing to the world around you as well. Your teachers have remarked on more than one occasion about how you speak up for others and call out unkind words or actions or point out ways that we can all be better. Your heart is very big, which means, yes, it does take things more personally but it also beats for more than just your own self, and that is a very beautiful thing.

April

It has been a challenging year for you academically as well. School is getting to be more, well, school-like, and that can be tough for you. You do like school very much, even if you are not always able to rise to the challenges as easily as others around you, and your papa and i and your teachers and staff at school have been working very hard to make sure that you feel supported and continue to be curious about learning. We did some testing and you do have some attention issues and you are doing some OT work this spring to help and see if we can get your reading and writing a little more organized. As always, you are patient with all of this and do your best and even find ways to enjoy it. I know soon you are going to start to notice how much easier all of this stuff is for other kids – particularly when Hugo starts school in the fall, I am sure, but we are hoping that by helping your put some scaffolding in place you will feel confident enough in your abilities that information won’t be too much of a roadblock for you to get over. You love reading and you love math and you love writing stories, so we want most of all is that those things continue to be interesting and exciting for you, even as you begin to recognize the difficulties they pose for you.

May

You continue to love soccer. You were excited to stay all day at soccer camp again this past summer and are so fierce and fast and tough. You are starting to recognize how much smaller you are than the other kids (sorry about those constitutional growth delay genes, buddy) but you have also noticed how much that doesn’t necessarily matter on the soccer field. Playing with your older brother all your life has given you skills and advantages that other kids your age don’t have yet and you use it to your advantage as much as possible. And while you are getting a little bored of clinic work this spring, you are super excited about starting on travel team in the fall.

June

You talk about gender a lot. Mostly you are sad that you cannot grow or nurse a baby, although you acknowledge that it is not altogether to terrible that you will never have to actually give birth. You love rings and necklaces and rings (although they are a bit of a distraction and you never end up keeping any of them on long) and you love deciding which earrings to wear. You and your little brother are excited about wearing sundresses again this summer and you have been impatient with the cold weather we had for too long this spring. You even asked for a navy blue jumper to wear to school, but you haven’t quite been sure about actually wearing it to school yet. You are nervous that the kids will say something to you. It makes me sad that that is what seems to be holding you back, as last year I think you wouldn’t have worried about that at all. Your papa and I try to make sure that you know that we support all of your weather- and location-appropriate fashion choices, but right now you are feeling pretty sensitive about what other kids have to say, so I think you won’t end up pulling that jumper out this year. But you do still love to wear sundresses at home, as well as leggings or shirts or shoes with sparkles or rainbows or anything shiny or glittery that you can find in your drawer.

July

You loved our trip last summer and just like August, you were really quite excellent in the car. You and August played some weird imagination soccer game or looked out the windows or sometimes did some activity books. You wanted very badly to go on this inflatable water obstacle course even though at the end there was a 10-foot free swim from the course to the side of the pool and you aren’t that strong of a swimmer. I ran over to the other side to cheer you on and you gave it all you had to swim all the way to the edge. You are one tough kid. And it was fun seeing how much you enjoyed everything we visited and saw. You were always up for an adventure and it was so fun being on the trip with you. You especially liked visiting with our friends in Seattle and really look forward to seeing them again some day (we do too).

August

You are really into riding your bike and you spend most of the fall being put out with me that we almost never rode to school. You even moved up a bike size this winter, which you were crabby about but now are quite good on the new bike. I hope that we can do some more bike riding soon, now that the weather looks like it might actually decide to be spring!

September

You like playing outside with Zachary and Emmanuel and you are as equally excited to play sports with them (baseball or soccer or frisbee or football) as you are to play imagination games (mostly star wars). This year you were super excited to try snowboarding and you are getting better and better at ice skating. You like playing board games (who was it? is a favorite) and card games (from sleeping queens, to pokemon or magic to exploding kittens). You love the iPad of course and play too many new games for me to count and have been getting into using the computer at home to play games you have learned about in school as well.

October

You love being read to, particularly as reading is a lot of work for you, but this spring you have started to work on reading some graphic novels by yourself. We read Zita the Space Girl and all of the Worst Witch books together this winter and that was super fun. We have been working on Amulet, but bedtime has been crazy lately and we are very behind. But I am proud of you for working on it without me!

November

You have been getting into art and drawing more. We got you gel pens like your Nana has and you sometimes will color in postcards, but you have started just drawing freestyle as well. Your artwork at school is incredible – both because you have an amazing art teacher but also because you clearly so very much enjoy getting to express yourself this way. It’s fun to see you sit still for a minute while you work on something.

December

You get along with your brothers quite well, although you frequently lose your temper and overreact to small injustices. This often gets you in trouble, even if one of your brothers initiated the altercation. One of the things we will be working on over the summer when we don’t have all of the extra school work to wear you out is how you can respond to perceived injustices. We have been working on understanding how it is ok to be upset but how treating everything like an end of the world situation isn’t helpful for you or anyone and intellectually you know that, but I think perhaps working hard all day at school just leaves you too wrung out to do much about it right now.

January

You love watching Dragon Riders of Berk and Wild Kratts and this year we discovered that we all enjoy Odd Squad. You love going to movies (minions and star wars are favorites) and really wish you could go on more sleepovers. You like pizza and quesadillas but you eat just about anything we ask you to, even if it is not exciting. You like cake and ice cream and cookies and brownies, any flavor but without fruit filling, please. You are funny and silly and loving and you still won’t sleep on the top bunk unless you are forced to. You love the cats and you love your uncle’s dog so much that sometimes we almost think about getting you on before we come to our senses. You are challenging and wonderful and we are lucky to have you.

February

Happy Birthday, my love!

Eight!

Love,

Mama

11

dear august,

it feels like just yesterday you were turning 5 and getting big enough to go to elementary school in the fall, but now it’s hugo who is turning 5 soon and you who are getting ready to leave elementary school. how did that happen so fast? if you are nervous about the transition, you haven’t really shared it with us. it’s starting to sink in that you likely be the only one of your friends at the school we’ll be sending you to middle school, and i think you are not so excited about that, but you are also a little bit ready for the change – you like the idea of switching classrooms and having a locker and checking out what options and activities your new school might have. i am excited for you even as i am not sure i am ready.

march

your tenth year was really nice. you are unsurprisingly growing into a really interesting kid. you love reading books and talking about them, you like watching sports (mostly soccer) and talking about them, and you like playing games and talking about them. you are curious and excited about a lot of things and it’s really fun to hear all about the things that you are curious and excited about.

april

you still like graphic novels and will read almost any genre, from sport manga to historical fiction to fantasy or sci fi or animal or kids. you don’t see a difference between “girl” books and “boy” books, so you read a wide variety of stories and tales without prejudice. you are “back” into chapter books. if the library had unlimited graphic novels that you had never read, you might only read those, but the problem is that graphic novels are ultimately too short and you read them too quickly, and the pile is never large enough, so you find yourself “forced” to read novels too to scratch your reading itch. right now you are reading a series about warrior owls (sure) that you chanced upon at a stop during our road trip this summer because there was nothing else for you to read before bed and you’ve been reading it ever since. you still love the rick riordan books and papa and i are still reading them along with you. we’ve read the entire percy jackson series together and almost the entire red pyramid series (well *i* finished it anyway) and we’ve just finished magnus chase. and we are all anxiously awaiting the next book in the apollo series to come out. you would love if we read more of the same books as you but sometimes we like to read grownup books too 😉 still, talking about books we have all read together is really fun and i am glad we have these series.

may

we got the three of you a computer last year and you’ve discovered email  this year. you spent a few months emailing with local and cross-country friends and that was really fun. your class was on the computer more during the spring of last school year, so i would get occasional emails from you with links to .gifs of cute kittens and it was always the best. and you are starting to learn how to use email usefully as well  – this year you sent me embedded links of the games you wanted me to put on your birthday wishlist. it’s crazy how grownup these little things make you seem.

june

you still love the iPad, of course, and although i still screen all of the games i download for all of you, i can’t keep track of everything you play anymore. you do still love fifa and other soccer games and you and your brothers are back into some games you used to play on the iPad that you can now all play on the appletv. it’s still a thing about who is first and can i finish this during the weekends and breaks when everyone is taking a turn, but overall you are pretty good about sharing the time with your brothers and with friends on the rare occasion that they get screen time with you.

july

you love soccer, of course, and finally had a really good season this past fall. you and your teammates have been really good sports about your frequently dismal records in the past, so it was especially exciting for you to have a winning season this year. you continue to be a good teammate and a good sport – encouraging your team to play harder and being patient when they make mistakes. you also have some excellent soccer skillz and it’s fun to watch you play.

august

you are starting to want to watch more big kid movies and tv shows, so one thing we have done is started to let you go up a little bit later than your brothers so that you and i could watch a tv show (troll hunters, on netflix) that calum and hugo find too scary. after we finished that, we started playing a few adventure games on the iPad together and it’s been really nice having that time with you. on mama snuggle nights (when i take calum and hugo up to bed instead of papa), you and papa have been watching soccer games or highlights or other papa and august things.

september

you continue to be a pretty great big brother. you are snotty and a brat sometimes. impatient or too full of energy to not be able to resist making calum angry or teasing hugo, but overall you like your brothers and once you get over being forced to hang out with him, you always have a good time. you also play with them on your own, calum especially, although unkindly you often demand that calum play what you want to play (soccer or magic, often). but they both look up to you and like you and often want to do things with you, so it still most often works out for everyone in the end. although you do play board and card games well with calum, hugo is the worst at sitting still, so he often gets bored or tries to destroy whatever is happening, so your best games with hugo still often involve a ball or running and playing. to that end, your uncle got the three of you a slack line with all kinds of climbing tools on it, so your papa and i are excited to put that up later this spring for all of you.

october

we took a big trip this past summer and you really enjoyed the traveling. i wasn’t sure if you would be bored or if you would think things were cool but i think we managed a nice balance between seeing things in nature and doing kid-centric things and it was really fun to see you and your brothers enjoy looking at big trees and the ocean and big lakes and geysers and hiking and staying in new places. you and calum and hugo were excellent with all of the driving (and you all LOVED the posh-compared-to-our-car minivan), which really helped. and seeing you meet friends we hadn’t seen in ages was pretty great too. i didn’t know how it was all going to work out, but it turns out taking a big trip with all of you was a delight.

november

you enjoy school and you are becoming thoughtful in your work (we can even read it sometimes now). although you have to do homework this year as it will affect your transcript for the exam schools (which you think you would like to try to attend), it has also been more thoughtful in 5th grade and you don’t mind doing it as much. your teachers have commented more than once about how thoughtful you can be in class and how interesting your contributions are when you decide to participate. you are also sometimes very much a 5th grade boy who is not very excited about being excited about school.

december

your class is watching some news this year, partly to be more informed and partly as part of the curriculum for the year learning to be more critical thinkers, and you often have news bits that you want to share or ask questions about at dinner. it’s very cool to see you engaging in the world in this way, you often have very insightful comments to make about what you have learned.

january

you’re getting taller. your hair is getting longer. your feet and hands are still a little too big for your body. you haven’t started to hit puberty yet but all of that seems just over the horizon and it’s so crazy to believe that you’re about to get so much bigger and that you used to be so tiny.

eleven!!

you’re a sweet and thoughtful kid and we are lucky to have you. happy birthday!

love,

mama and papa