Hey Chicken Little,

Mommy asked you this question a few weeks ago. You’ve shown that you can eat pizza with your cousins, your babysitters, and with us, but one afternoon when you were hangry you refused to eat a day-old slice that Mommy and I were heating up. 

Before this post continues, I’d like to take a moment to reflect in the love and life of Clementine “Boo,” Milman, our beloved best friend, who died April 8th of this year. Boo had been slowing down considerably and a week before spring break, had stopped eating kibble. She would eat special treats like sausages and peanut butter, however. The vet said that Boo had several tumors around her body along with pericardial bleeding around her heart. We are sad that she’s not with us anymore, but thankful that her death was not prolonged. 

Unfortunately, she passed away before we were able to make it back to Seattle, so we paid our last respects to Boo at the animal hospital several hours after she died. The nurses wheeled her out on a gurney covered in blankets; you noticed that her tongue was still a little wet and gummy. We pet her, hugged her, and thanked her for all the love one last time before she was wheeled away to be cremated. 

Now, about two months later, we don’t walk as much in the mornings or afternoons. I don’t get my podcast feed listened to as much as I used to, and there is still a big hole in our hearts and vacant space under the table where our Boo used to be. We miss her a lot. 

On to happier things…..we’ve started to bike more often lately…..more than three times a week. And Mommy bought a Rad Power Bike which has transformed her commute! We’re a biking family – ready for summer.

A few weeks ago, there was a dead rat on the side of the road, freshly killed. You were fascinated with it, with lots of questions about how it happened and what was going to happen with the creature. I taught you the word “decompose,” and we spent one entire trip to school discussing things that could decompose and what they would look like. We became citizen scientists, taking notes on how the rat had changed every day as we drove by…until yesterday when you informed me that you were bored of the rat and you didn’t want me to talk to you about it anymore. 

 The latest 1 Second Everyday Video: Here are the last three months with tiny tidbits of what you’ll see if you view them. 

March 2019: lots of snow activities, Grammy Milman’s funeral, and sneaking up on a crow.

April 2019: the last days of Clementine, some frisbee, Mommy’s vaccine is in use, friend Shawn over for dinner, and an early start to spring. 

 
May 2019: a track meet, biking, Mother’s Day, Mommy’s bike, Memorial Day on Guemes, and winning at the Safeway Monopoly game. 

What you’re doing these days:
You are 48 inches, 56 pounds, from your latest 5 year old checkup.
 
You are still challenged by some numerical concepts and the days of the week…. Recently you asked which is longer 15 minutes or half an hour? You still ask about if a shoe is on the correct foot. You don’t have a sense of time, really, and you still tell us “I don’t know my left from my right, Dad!”  I keep thinking it isn’t that tough, there are only two options, and the hand you WRITE with is the RIGHT hand, so how difficult can that be? 

You have, on the other hand, started doing “sumas” with your classmates and teachers, which is astounding. Several times in the afternoons when I’ve picked you up, all the students are a the tables doing pages of math addition problems. The teachers make up pages of single number sums like 3 + 4 or even 11 + 9, and they’ve taught you how to find the result! I am amazed and proud of you. 🙂 

After Easter, we had our first easter egg hunt. You were jealous because Finn and his brother Bridger had an overflowing bucket of candy and you were jealous, so I bought some candy-filled eggs at Fred Meyers and made an impromptu hunt. I hid the eggs on the first round and you found all of them. Then you hid them on the second round, and I found 11 of the 13, but there are still 2 eggs unfound to this day! 

We often have “Crosby time,” the 10-minute period where you call the shots and we play without me being in my adult ego-state. I learned this tool from the parenting class I’m taking.  During these times, you have me play “baby big cat,” where you pretend you are a baby leopard and I am the grandma-hunter who traps you, stuffs you in a box, and ships you to my grandson to serve as his pet. Most of the time you, the shipment, have to go overseas by airplane, so you have me give you turbulence by flipping the box over and over. You love it. One evening we spent almost an hour with those two damn boxes only while Mommy got dinner ready. Thank god it is only normally  10 minutes; then I can change the activity. 

When we have Crosby time outside, it is usually after I pick you up from school and we are at the park. There, you are a dog, I am the owner, and we have to take you to the vet to get your shots. But….you constantly escape by leaping out of the car (the play structure) and I have to catch you and carry you back in a specific manner (by the waist), time after tedius time. Invariably, you scratch me with your dog claws and escape, again, and we continue this dance until I’ve had enough….but you love it. You past dog names have been Cashew, Sasparilla, and Spacey. 

A recordingI wish I had a recording of this interaction with our Amazon Alexa, but I’ll just summarize here. I asked Alexa something about the Seattle Marathon (I wanted to make sure it was the next day because it would affect my driving route to frisbee practice). Alexa didn’t answer my question, but answered something totally goofy. Then she asked, “Did that answer your question.”

Mommy said, “No….loser.”

Mommy, for some reason, hates Alexa. 

In my life these days:
I spent much of this school year working on renewing my National Board certification. This time, it required about forty pages of narrative, reflection, along with a 10-minute video of my teaching and eight pages of student work with my commentary. It was tough, but I think I passed and this will keep me current for another several years. 

We’re planning a trip to Africa this summer! More on that later.

I just finished my twenty-second year of teaching!

I feel conflicted about Michael Jackson, who has been accused of sexual misconduct with at least two young boys that he hosted at his Neverland ranch. I knew he was a strange guy, but was sad to hear about this misconduct. You and your class were on a Michael Jackson kick a few months ago…your teachers played his music and two of your classmates comment often on how much they like Michael Jackson. I feel sad knowing that someone who was once a model for me (I practiced the moonwalk and his moves for many hours in middle school) and also a source of music for you used his power to harm young children.

In the news:
Alabama just passed the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the nation, essentially banning abortion for even rape victims and spells out jail time for doctors who perform abortion – more jail time than those who commit the rape itself! I am ashamed for our country and how it is moving backward with women’s rights and rights of the

Mommy’s vaccine is in use – the world’s first malaria vaccine. She has been working on it for most of her career. 

A summary of a book or podcast I liked:

I just finished The Last Pass by Gary Pomerantz and Bob Cousy – about the relationship between white Cousy and black Bill Russell, his NBA Celtic Hall of Fame teammate. Cousy wants to offer Russell one last pass, to make up for the lack of acknowledgement of him when they were young basketball players on the same team. 

I also read Crest of the Peacock, Blended, The Little Book of Hugge which I learned about from this Freakonomics Podcast How to Be Happy. 

Mommy and I just finished watching Icarus, the Oscar-winning documentary about the breaking open of the Russia doping scandal. 

Time to pick you up and head home, my love.

Hugs, Daddy