Eugenious

Dear Sylvan,

74 months old?! I remember figuring out how old I was in months when I was 80-something months old. Half a trip around the sun and you’ll be there. While I could count up all the months it’s been since I last wrote you a birthday letter, I’ll dismiss with the self-flagellation and just get to the point. You’re growing every day, and I want to write some of it down for you.

• You come home from school each Thursday with a new library book. While other kids might be taking out picture books or chapter books or other fiction, you’ve brought home only non-fiction, mostly science-y books with plentiful photos. Two weeks ago, you brought home a book of science experiments, and last week it was a book of photographs of organisms that create compost. This week, it’s an Eyewitness Shells book, heavy on both the photos and the information. While your Dad and I think these books are wonderful, you only respect them. I think you find them interesting, but you’d much rather read the latest Captain Underpants installment. I’d be interested to see how you make your choices in the library.
• You’ve made a friend in Tephra, a victory of which you can be proud. Through gentle movements, a quiet voice, and giving her water or an open door to the outside world whenever she asks, she’s grown to trust you. Tonight, she coaxed you into the living room, where she flopped down and asked you to rub her tummy. Daddy said, “It took me longer than six years for her to allow me to rub her tummy.”
• I don’t know if you’ve read a whole book yet, but you did read this poem by Shel Silverstein—”Lazy Jane”—last night. We both giggled.
• You LOVE playing video games. And talking about them, and drawing them, and watching Daddy play them, and probably dreaming about them.
• We have a tentative date planned for Sunday. I’m planning to go up with the Willamette Backcountry Ski Patrol to find out how to open the cabin, run the generator, etc. I invited you along, and you really want just the two of us to go. “You and Daddy get to go to the movies all the time” (or six or seven times a year; is that all the time?). But I do understand. Family dynamics change things, not always for the better. For instance, I wish I could encourage you to treat your sister as gently as you treat Tephra.

Good night for now, Sweets.

Love,
Mommy

This entry was posted in the categories Birthday letters, Sylvan by julie on Monday, 7 November 2011, 22:47. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.