Friday, August 12, 2011

August 3, 2011 Dear Max,

Dear Max,
Alex has an incredible Big Brother.

Alex has watched you go for two years now and has waited patiently to be old enough to go with you. Now that the start of school is just a few weeks away, Alex has started showing a bit of hesitation.

"Max, you'll hold my hand at Abintra, right?" he asked you today.

"No Alex," you quickly replied. "At Abintra we can't hold hands."

You saw the tears forming in your brother's eyes as quickly as we did.

"We can hold hands at our cubbies," you quickly added. "And we can hold hands outside."

The tears went away. The sniffles ended.

You made your brother so happy and we know you'll make him feel so safe at his new school.

July 17, 2011 - Dear Alex,

Dear Alex,
Here's some Alex stories for your scrapbook:

I was worried for a few weeks that Lentil was gone. While in Chicago I went to Macy's to see if they had another dog like him so I try to do a substitution. They didn't have one. When we got home, I found Lentil in a box full of other things.

You had a sleepover and Aunt Silvia's. In the morning, she made you pancakes. She started to put maple syrup on them. You asked her "Is it healthy syrup?"

You told mama that you needed a new stuffed animal because "Lentil laughs at me."

Then a few days later you tied up Alex and Picole with a string so they "wouldn't run away."

You and your brother came to our house closing and insisted on signing the loan papers.

July 15, 2011 - Dear Other World,

Dear Other World,
I never believed in you before I had children.

When Max was young he said something about being up in the clouds with Alex and they decided that Max should go first and then his brother would join him later.

Now Alex said that "When I was a little, little baby I was up in the sky. And then mommy found me and I fell way, way down and then I popped."

Alex told another story a week later. "All of us were up in the sky. I was sad that Max left."

Max doesn't remember being there or telling the story. Mama says she read that kids' long-term memory starts at five.

So is this a common kid story? Or did Max just forget what happened when he turned five?

Hmmm.

July 11, 2011 - Dear Coach Taylor

Dear Coach Taylor,
I know you're a fictional tv character, but where were you when I was playing high school football? Heck, where were you when I was playing any sport?

I'm still not over the disappointment of my high school athletic career thirty-plus years after graduating. I'll spare y'all the details and the whining. All I'll say here is that I wish I had a coach like Friday Night Lights Coach Taylor. I wish I had someone who believed in me, pushed me and got me to reach whatever was my highest potential.

I hope that my boys find some real role models along the way whether they be coaches, teachers, artists, poets or builders.

I have no idea what my boys will become interested in or talented at. I just hope they have someone who will encourage and mentor them along the way.

And I hope that I provide the support they'll need.

July 1, 2011 - Dear Dr. Doolittle,

Dear Dr. Doolittle,
My two-and-a-half-year-old insists he's a baby elephant. What should I do?

We were reading a book about elephants in the wild and the takers who try to capture them. There was a baby elephant in the story who ends up the hero. Ever since, my Alex calls himself a baby elephant.

I'm all for imagination.

I love animals.

And I appreciate that he may feel like he's growing up and trying to find someway to stay a baby after a year of getting mad when his brother calls him a baby.

But am I supposed to do something about this?

July 1, 2011 - Dear Monkeys,

Dear Monkeys,
I want to apologize for calling my boys "monkeys" today when they ran wild, wrestled without any regards to safety and refused to listen to my cautions.

They were certainly acting like animals. However, I think you monkeys are much more civilized than my boys were tonight.