February 2017 (6 years and 5 months old)

Dear Patrick,

• From their world travels, your Aunt Katie and Uncle Sonny have provided you with enough show-and-tell material to last a lifetime. We picked them up from the Charlotte airport and had a wonderful welcome home lunch, hosted by the McConkeys before coming back to Greenville.
• I looked out of the kitchen window on a particularly warm Saturday afternoon on 2/11 and saw you and JP standing shirtless on a dirt pile laughing like kings.       
• During Landon’s birthday party at Gravatopia you were fearless, leaping into foam pits from great heights and swinging on a trapeze. You are light and strong and it is possible that you are made entirely of rubber.  
• Worried by the reds and yellows we saw appearing more frequently on your school behavior chart, your father and I made a meeting with Mrs Robertson on Friday at 10:30am, which not only put our minds at easy but also became very informative. We learned that essentially everyone is one red. And the teachers call you the "Little Mayor" because you talk to everyone and everyone in the class loves you. Your happiness can be distracting and get you into trouble - especially with Mason. When I expressed concern about being labeled red and worried you might see yourself in a negative light, Jenny Robertson explained how amazingly "self assured" you are - even at this young age. Most kids apparently exhibit group dynamics - like sheep following the herd, but not you. You are strong and independent. It was nice to hear from your teacher..     
• On Sunday 2/12 we let you watch the movie “Ant Boy” and afterwards you walked around the house convinced you were also an ant with incredible strength and heighten gift of smell. You kept performing acts to prove it, like tearing paper with your bear teeth and closing the front door “with just one foot - it’s nothing for me.”     
• On Monday 2/13 from the shower you yelled over and over, “Mom!” Your father and I were just in the next room and since your Dad had a better line of sight on you, I encouraged him to respond. “Patrick, what do you want,” he asked with exasperation that only comes with trying to cut through the noise of your beckoning. You replied with excitement, as if we had been talking about it all night, “Did you know that ice cream cones don’t hold ice cream - they hold flowers!"     
• We watched “Honey I Shrunk the Kids." That feels to me to be a milestone of sorts.     
• You told us over dinner on Thursday 2/16 that you heard at school that “brown boys trick peach girls.” Sonny, Katie, Dad and I were so shocked that none of us were able to address it adequately that night over dinner, but a few days later, I reminded you what you had said and took the opportunity to discuss the danger of generalizations and the concept of racism so that we could build on it later. "No one is defined by the color of their skin." 
• On President’s day 2/20 you wanted to go to the Kroc Center but I had to wait for the plumber and explained that I could not take you. A moment later I saw you carrying a cereal bar, a water bottle, one of your new library books and Elephant up the sidewalk. You told me that you were going to live with the Howells. “You’ll get another kid," you assured me with a pat to my arm. "He can have my old room... but just don’t let him play with my Lego Pig Castle.”
• You dressed as "Thing 1" to celebrate Dr Seuss' birthday. Mr. #1 Thing.