Dear Moe (39th Month)

Oh, my goodness, Bean, it’s been quite a month. 

I’ll start with how happy we are that you are on the mend - you ended up with walking pneumonia, and were a pretty sick little dude for quite a while. We kept thinking it was a cold, because you seemed to be getting better, but then you stopped eating. For three days. You refused ice cream. I’ve never seen you do that before. It was insane. But the antibiotics have really helped, and you’re doing much better. You had your first big meal at O’Grady’s (you asked to go to “Stacy’s” for grilled cheese, and I wasn’t going to refuse you anything.) You still don’t have the same endurance that you did before you became ill, but that will come in time. Also, we were totally lax about the soother while you were sick, and we’re kind of paying for that now. 

I did remind you that soothers are for little babies like Caspian and that eventually, you’d have to say goodbye to your soother. You thought about it carefully for a few minutes before saying, “Caspian can have two of my soothers, but I will keep one in case he doesn’t share.” 

Before you became ill, we did conduct an experiment by taking your bed rail down. You said you were ready, so we gave it a try. It lasted for two sleeps: one night, and one nap. Each time, you fell out of bed and onto the floor with a crash. You weren’t impressed. As yours isn’t a toddler bed, but an actual day bed, we don’t have issues keeping the bed rail on for a bit longer. When we travel in hotels this summer, we’ll keep you surrounded by pillows. At the cottage in Maine, we’ll put some couch cushions on the floor or something. Maybe that will be a good step toward learning to sleep without it. 

You are still loving your gymnastics class, and a couple of weeks ago you had the pleasure of having Granny accompany you. You are definitely gaining confidence (picking up beanbags while walking on the balance beam, walking backwards, making big jumps), but you still have no interest in trying a front roll. Your favourite equipment is definitely the trampoline. I may see about enrolling you at Starr Gymnastics in the fall - it’s more expensive, but there is also more to do.

What have we done in the past month, besides staying close to home because you’ve been sick? Spring finally sprung - in fact, for while it was very summery weather - and now it’s gotten cooler again. You’ve enjoyed playing in your new sandbox on the back deck. You planted a tomato plant with Granny. You’ve greatly enjoyed watering her flowers, too. We made our triumphant return to the Farmers Market, where you proudly peed on a tree in the middle of the market. We’ve gone for some lovely trike rides - you rock your shiny new red helmet. If you get home from daycare early enough, we often go for a walk/ride together around the neighbourhood. Also, Uncle Mark and Aunt Janine surprised us with an enormous pinwheel lawn decoration. It’s huge and looks like a peacock. You adore it. 

Before you got sick, you had regressed a bit with your potty training. I don’t think anything was bothering you, I think you were just getting complacent. Overall, you do okay. If you do have an accident, it’s usually just one per day, and they are very small, usually on your way to the potty. We’re working on it. We need to keep reminding ourselves that although you have great verbal skills, you are only three years old. 

We introduced you to hockey on TV this month. It was the playoffs (still is, just not for us anymore), and although we don’t cable, we did manage to watch some games through the Xbox. You enjoyed watching the games, but were quite indignant when the hockey went away for a few minutes every so often for something called a commercial. 

Being sick meant that you watched quite a bit of TV. We introduced you to Toy Story 2, and we finally lost the Thomas the Tank Engine battle. You’ve watched it before at Robin’s and saw it on the Netflix menu and wanted to watch it so very badly. Because you were sick, we gave in. Good grief, buddy, I don’t know how you can watch those trains. Now that you’re feeling better, we’re trying to focus on other programs.  

You are learning your lowercase letters now, and doing very well. You still enjoy the tablet game that teaches you to write your letters, and are getting very good! I have a whack of games that I’d like to get for you, but I’ve been waiting until we go to Iowa next month. I want you to have shiny new games for the plane and airport. 

You love books, and we love reading with you. Some of your favourites right now include Chu’s Day, Stone Soup, the Llama Llama books, and Exclamation! We also recently rediscovered I’m Not Scared and The House of Twelve Bunnies. You can recite some of Chu’s Day by heart, and it’s wonderful. 

Next month will be quite an adventure, and I’m really looking forward to it. We’re going to see the Star Wars: Identities exhibit tomorrow at the Aviation Museum. Next weekend, you and I are going to Montreal for a little getaway, and we’re going to visit the Biodome. I’m pretty stoked about seeing penguins. And two weeks after that, we’re off to Minneapolis, Minnesota and Mason City, Iowa on our great mid-western wedding attendance extravaganza. I’m confident that you’ll impress me, like you always do. We still live by the credo that we want to be invited back wherever we go, and so far, we always have been. 

You are wonderful, darling. You are charming, funny, goofy, sweet, affectionate, adorable and generally awesome. Keep up the great work. We love you so much.