Letter to Kyle: Month One

Note: Once a month, my favorite blogger, Heather Armstrong (aka dooce), writes a newsletter to her four-year-old daughter. So, stealing a page from her book, I've decided to write my five-year-old son, Kyle, a letter each month.

Dear Kyle:

It's been a month since we found out about "Frank the bump" (as you call him), and you and Mommy (and everybody else) have been very supportive about it. You've been good about letting me get more sleep, you've been pretty easy-going when I'm feeling grumpy, and you've been fantastic about getting out of the house early every morning for my radiation treatments. In addition to all of that, you had a big day last Friday (18 April 2008).

Black Racer watching with Mommy
Normally, you don't like it when you're awake and I'm asleep (apparently it offends your wa). However, this last month you've let me take long naps on Saturday and Sunday mornings and you've even let me take naps after work. Mommy deserves some of the credit; after all, she's the one who plays cool video games or makes water balloons with you while I'm asleep. Still I really appreciate you letting me sleep. Although Frank isn't hurting me, he is keeping me from getting a lot of sleep, so any extra sleep really helps.

Getting more sleep keeps me from being so grumpy. Usually, I get the grumpies around your bath time; you are the master at dragging out the time it takes to get into the bath. It's not like you hate baths, you love 'em. But, you're busy playing with your legos and dinosaurs and you hate having to stop to take a bath. (If we could hose you down while you played with your toys, you'd be all over that.) So, once you have resigned yourself to having a bath, then you have to do all the other things you've been putting off: feed your fish, go to the bathroom, get your clothes off, etc. By this time, you've "wasted" a good ten or fifteen minutes and I'm starting to get grumpy with you. Still, you manage to get in the bath, get clean quickly, and charm my grumpiness away. Best of all, you don't hold my grumpiness against me. Thanks (and I'll try to be less grumpy).

The cool new shirt Grandma Issie made for you
The other thing you've been really good about is getting ready in the morning. Normally, you like to take your time in the morning: wake-up, have some milk, watch the Science Channel, think about breakfast, help make Mommy's coffee, wake Mommy up, eat breakfast, get dressed, and then prepare to get ready to plan to think about leaving the house. But now that I have radiation treatments every morning at 8:10 AM, you've been cramming your normal two-hour morning routine into less than an hour. (Of course, it doesn't hurting that the Cancer Center has free chocolate chip cookies made with M&Ms. That kind of chocolaty goodness would motivate anybody.)

In addition to all of that, you had Kindergarten Orientation last Friday. At first you were a little apprehensive about going, but once we got there, you warmed-up to the whole concept. You walked-up to and introduced yourself to the Principal without any hesitation and you had no problem going to visit your new classroom with your new teacher while Mommy and I stayed in the lunch room and learned about the school. When you got back to the lunch room thirty minutes later, you showed us the necklace you made:

Kyle's necklace
Yes, you even wrote your name. (In mirror-writing too!) I couldn't be more proud of you. I think you are going to have a great time in Kindergarten starting this Fall.

This year is gonna be tough on all of us, but we're off to a good start. Thank-you.

Love,
Daddy