Letter to our 3 Year 8 Month Old

Dear William,

Today, on August 8, 2015 you turned 44 months old. You are 43 1/2″ tall and weigh 46 pounds, 10 ounces. You are wearing 5T or boys Small in shirts. You are in 5T two-piece pajamas; I don’t know what you are in footed pajamas since it’s summertime, so probably boys Small would be my guess. You are in 5T pants and shorts. Your shoes are size 12/13 (Crocs).

I put your new, larger Crocs on you this month. They look huge, but when I look at your big toe it is right where it supposed to be. Those other ones must’ve been way too small.

FIRSTS:

While we were traveling, we got on the plane and just as the plane was getting ready to back up, you informed me, “I need to go potty.” Terrified that you had a poop up your pike, I passed you to your dad… it was just a pee (thankfully a shorter time up). As soon as you and your father were locked in the bathroom, the flight attendant spoke over the microphone to the entire plane, “One up.” And we all sat there and waited. You delayed an aircraft from taking off.

While traveling, you wanted to assist your father by pulling our luggage from the carousel and out to the curb. Wheeled luggage is a must for any traveling toddler.

You had apple butter for the first time at Cracker Barrel in Iowa. 🙂 You thought it was dessert.

We let you watch some new movies this month… Brother Bear and we started Tarzan and then decided to wait until you were older. Wall.E was a huge hit and you really liked the entire movie.

I’ve had a hand stamp washable ink pad that I’ve used with you since you were very small. This month, I had some thank you cards for you to “sign” and for the first time this month, you did it all by yourself and your hand prints were perfect!

THINGS WE DID:

7/11 — Santa Ana Zoo with Grandma H.
7/18 — Breakfast with Uncle Chris & Grandma & Grandpa H.
7/22 – 7/28 — travel to visit family in Nebraska and Iowa, met friends at the Omaha Zoo & saw model trains at the Lauritzen Gardens
8/1 – Ringling Bros. Circus — too loud!
8/8 – nothing (per your request)

LANGUAGE/THINGS YOU SAY:

One day as we were getting ready to go in the store, I pulled out my Tula carrier to wear you. You said to me, “Grandma D. is going to get litter and littler and littler, and I’ll have to use your carrier to carry her.”

Grandma D. reported that you told her one day after a My Gym class, “Sometimes people don’t like to talk to me.”

You were fascinated with the safety procedure literature from the airplane. Each plane we got on, the first thing you did was reach into the seat pocket, pull out the laminated booklet and review it. You held it up and told me, “I’m gonna take this home and make it a different color. Red! And when I bring it back they will say you changed the color!” Examining the pictures on the plane’s safety procedures, you would point at various ones with the red line across it and exclaim, “Noo… We don’t want that to happen!” On the other pictures with no red line across, you would point and ask, “Is that safe?”

Aunt Marjorie had Bath & Body Works Twisted Peppermint foaming hand soap in her bathroom. You would wash your hands and walk around and make everyone smell them. Same with the strawberry scented hand sanitizer she had on her vanity.

At the airport, you randomly discovered your back pockets in your shorts and walked around saying, “My pockets are behind my butt!”

Road Trip fun: After two hours in the car together, you told us, “You are upsetting the child! Can’t you tell? I’m yelling!”

Listening to music, whenever you hear Elsa in the song “First time in forever,” you say, “I want to hear Elsa happy in Let It Go… this is the song that Elsa is sad.”

Driving roads in Nebraska, you saw enormous windmills in the fields and you said, “Look at the pointing carrots!”

Driving roads in Nebraska, you were excited to see that we were going on a dirt road. You asked, “Are we going off-roading?” (Like in the movie Cars!) When we transferred to a paved road, following the lady’s voice on GPS, you said, “I don’t like the lady! I want to stay on the dirt!”

Driving roads in Nebraska, you saw a body of water and exclaimed, “Look at the ocean!” I replied, “That’s not the ocean.” You said, “Look at the swimming pool then.” I said, “That’s not a swimming pool.” You said, “Then that’s a pond. Look at the pond.”

Driving along Nebraska farm roads, you looked out and saw all the corn growing and said, “That’s corn, like in Planes!”

We stopped at a stoplight that was set on a timer in the middle of nowhere. While waiting for the arbitrary light to change to green, you told me, “Jump out and go get some corn and soybeans, mommy! Go pick some corn!”

After driving awhile, you informed us, “There’s no home here, we’re not in California.”

You stuck your foot up on the center arm rest in our rental car, nudged your father and asked, “Say, What’s between your toes?” You spread your toes and then said, “I have a surprise for you!” Whispering, “It’s a present!”

Watching Toy Story 3 on the airplane, when it got to the Monkey Alarm scenes, you would take your headphones off and wait for the scene to be over.

While at breakfast with family one morning, you were clinking your fork. I immediately stopped you, you took my hand and started clinking on one of my rings, you then told me, “This is my wedding ring.” And in conjunction with that you started singing, “Only you can make me happy… ”

Listening to GPS instructions, you told her, “Thank you.” GPS gave instructions and your father didn’t hear them because you were talking and he asked, “Do I turn left here? You answered before I could, “Yes, yes turn left.”

While we were landing in the airplane, we attempted to teach you how to chew gum for the first time. You chewed for about 30 seconds and then swallowed it. You said you wanted to try it again, and the same thing happened. So, despite you requesting to try it again, I think we need to give it a little more time.

At any Walmart we go to, you say, “I want to see if they have a Prospector or an alien and a cookie, too!” When we were in Iowa and Nebraska, we checked the Walmarts there. Also, a Toys R Us store. The Toys R Us store didn’t have anything of interest and a couple weeks after we were home, you told your Grandma D. that Nebraska didn’t have a good Toys R Us store.

On our way to the zoo in Omaha, your father had bathroom issues that morning. I said to you, “It may just be you and me going to the zoo today.” You replied, “Well, he has long legs, he could catch up with us.”

One Sunday, your father was leaving for his weekly basketball league game. You didn’t want him to go, so you grabbed his hand and said, “Daddy, I want you to lose track of time!”

Playing outside in the sand, you had a Hot Wheels car and you were sliding it around. You said to me, “The cars go on crazy street! See?” You were referencing Lombard Street in San Francisco, which we had walked a couple of times while vacationing there the end of May.

One day you had nectarine juice on your hands, which you then wiped on your pajama shirt. After you were done, you stood up and walked over and stood in front of the fan and said, “I’m drying my shirt.”

Goofing around with you and your father in the car while driving to get your hair cut, I swiped my hand through your father’s hair and made it stand on end. You hollered from the back seat, “You’re in trouble, mommy! You wiped his hair silly!”

While at dinner one night, you were playing with Slinky dog and the slinky disconnected from Slinky’s rear portion. You said, “Slinky doesn’t have his butt! Daddy, you need to fix it!”

In response to a challenge from the local library, your Grandma D. read a bunch of books with you. They gave you a bunch of certificates and gift cards to local restaurants. Red Robin was one of them, for a free kid’s meal. You told us, “I want to go to Red Robin so I could get a cheese sandwich and steamed broccoli and a shake because of the book reading.” Then in a sing-songy voice, you said, “You did a great job! Thanks! Thank you very much!”

Your Uncle Chris made a visit out here this past month. When we drove him to the airport to return home, you talked him into reading you a book. Then, for the next week, you would tell anyone who was reading stories to you, “Uncle Chris is a better reader.”

You have been listening to me when I dictate to Siri on my iPhone. Now, if you are talking to my phone, you say “period” “question mark” at the end of every sentence.

If you don’t finish your meal, you say, “Just put it in the fridge for later.”

You will grab my hand and say, “I’ll tell you a story. This is a story from the prospector. The prospector was in a box. And then he went out on the street, and he didn’t find any cars so he hopped up on the sidewalk. Then there was a swoosh in the sidewalk and Jessie and Buzz were there…”

One day this past month, you actually didn’t have anything to do that day with Grandma D.: no classes, no library. You smiled and said, “I’m so happy! I don’t have any classes.”

One night in the bath tub, we were playing Toy Story and you started lifting your hands in the air. I looked at you questioningly, you said, “Hey, hey, hey. When the movie is done, words go up.”

One night you were pretending you were an alligator. You said, “The alligator pooped! He ate too much food!”

I took my nail polish off my toes, and you told me, “Oh no your toes aren’t pretty anymore.”

You love to call people out if they pass gas and one night, you were on the toilet and you told your father, in a concerned voice, “Oh daddy, you better go to the other bathroom and go poopy, because I’m using this toilet!”

And, last, but not least, if something accidentally hurts you, like your seat belt rubs your neck or something, you will say with great vehemence, “Don’t do that ever again!”

SLEEP:
Sleep has been a real struggle this month. It has been extraordinarily hot and out-of-character humid, and we are conserving electricity. As a result, you’ve had trouble falling asleep this month.

We also traveled to a time zone that is 2 hours ahead of us and that threw your schedule wonky.

Around 2 AM you’ve been waking, terrified and shaking and tell us that you were watching a scary movie (your dreams?). You clutch me and shake, and I lay down with you until you go back to sleep, usually about 15 minutes.

While we traveled, though, and I co-slept with you, you were laughing in your sleep, and that was kind of neat to hear.

You also been waking early… around 5:30 AM. This has been a tough month for you (and us) in the sleep department.

One night, after we had returned home from vacation, i was nursing you to sleep and you unlatched and told me, “No, mommy, I don’t want to fall asleep and go in the boat and over the waves…”  and then you relatched and drifted off to sleep.  Another night, just before you fell asleep, you unlatched and said, “I’m just so very hungry!”  and then you went to sleep.

FOOD & NOURISHMENT:

You have been eating extraordinarily well this month; combined with your behavior and sleep patterns, it seems like another growth spurt.

You have a real love for fruits; plums, nectarines and apricots, in particular. Your Grandma D. told me of a sale that the local Sprouts was having for apricots and I told you we were going go and get some. On the way there, you told me, “I’m going to have an apricot party with Sonia and Dave. I’m going to buy lots and lots of apricots. Apricots are good, really, really good.”

You’ve really been into eating salads this month. One night I brought home a big salad that had been untouched at a meeting at work. You sat at the table and crammed handfuls of the stuff into your mouth. I told you we were getting ready to go out to dinner (it was Friday!!) and you said you wanted to go to Souplantation for more salad, and that you wanted to take some salad with you in the car to eat on the way. So i filled your Shamu bowl with salad and off we went, and when we got there, your Shamu bowl was empty and you were ready to eat more at the restaurant!

The next night, I reminded you that we were eating dinner, because you didn’t seem all that hungry. When it came time for your bath, you declared yourself “so very, very hungry!” And asked what you could eat. I told you salad. You asked, “May I have some dressing on my salad?” I told you that you could, and so you sat in the bath tub and ate a whole big salad. It was absurd and hilarious.

Tonight, I sauteed a plateful of asparagus and another plateful of brussel sprouts, your father had gone to Home Depot and offered to pick up some food while he was out. I accepted, and he was shocked to come home and find us devouring our asparagus and brussel sprouts. And then you ate some of what he brought you, too.

NURSING:

For the most part, you primarily nurse at wake up (morning) and before bed time. I’ve noticed that you rarely nurse to sleep entirely anymore. You usually unlatch and then fall asleep. Although, if I’m around, and you do want to sleep, you seek me out. For example, when we were traveling and were experiencing some flight delays, you sought me out and requested to nurse with the cover over us. We got all set and you passed out on my lap for about 15 minutes… a little boost to get you through the rest of a long, long day.

I switched your Froggy to the ones we sewed, using red thread. One night while you were nursing to sleep you started staring at it. I was concerned you would reject it. So, I asked you what you thought of it. You said, “Look at all those crabs on it. This is my favorite corner!” You like crabs, so I knew all would be well then.

One night, you had finished nursing and suddenly I felt you bumping your nose on my belly… one, two, three times. After the third time, I finally asked you if you wanted to nurse some more. You said you did. I laughed and asked you why you didn’t just ask and why you were kissing my belly instead. You replied, “I wasn’t kissing your belly I was giving zerberts to your belly.”

FAVORITES THIS MONTH:

Color: Red. Brown and white and black and blue.
Song: You’ve Got a Friend in Me
Movie: Toy Story
Food: Grilled cheese sandwich
Snack: Melon balls
Dessert: Cake
Fruit: Apricots
Vegetable: Asparagus and brussel sprouts
Class: MyGym
Teacher: Miss Talli
Store: $.99 Cent Store
Restaurant: Red Robin
Vacation spot: Nebraska
Toy: Big Dumptruck and Big Excavator.
Favorite theme park: LegoLand. We need to go to LegoLand, Mommy and Daddy.

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:

You loved sitting next to me on my Aunt Marjorie’s vanity stool and helping me with my makeup. Sometimes you would disappear and I’d find you sitting on that stool all by yourself looking through her makeup… just like I did at your age. It makes me smile to see the generational similarities.

How I cut up some watermelon one night after you’d gone to bed. I had a snack of it then and put some in a container for you to have the next day. The next night, as you were falling asleep, you told me, “Mommy, I didn’t eat all the watermelon in the bowl. I saved some for you.”

How you really don’t quite understand the concept of the game hide & seek. You understand the literal meaning of it… you go, you hide and people are supposed to “seek” you out. But if someone says, “Where are you?” You are the first to answer with, “I’m over here!”

How your father was working in the attic putting in an attic house fan. You wanted to help him so badly and were running out in the garage to see how he was doing. When he was upstairs, you would go peer up in the attic hole and say, “Daddy? Daddy? Are you up there?” He would say, “Yes, William.” And then you would tell him, “Daddy? I love you.”

How when we were at our family reunion in Nebraska, we played a family trivia Bingo game. I finally completed mine and let you pick the trinket prize. You chose a small vial of lotion and put it on your hands and stuck your face in your hands to smell it, and informed everyone that it smelled good! My cousin laughed and said to me in an undertone, “Your 3 year old smells like an 80 year old woman.” He was right and within 15 minutes, I started getting a headache from it. I told your father that it smelled awful and that you smelled like an old lady. You piped up and emphatically declared, “No, I don’t. I smell good!”

SWIMMING:
You’ve done well with the swim classes, but the classes are filing up because it’s summertime and I just don’t feel it’s a good value for the money at this time. So for the time being, I’ve discontinued your swim classes. Some of the teachers don’t give equal time to the students, and the newer students who are scared and crying get most of the class time, leaving the other students bored at the side of the pool, which usually results in some sort of mischief, whether it be splashing each other or (other students) taking their goggles off, which then results in MORE time for the teacher to help the student put them back on. Some classes have even had FIVE students to one teacher. It’s really exasperating for me to watch the videos of the class and see maybe 4 minutes of instruction and realize that’s it. That’s all you got, and I just paid $16 for that. It’s just not worth it at this time.

DANCING:
Your facility is offering “unlimited” dance classes at this time, so I’ve been putting you in as many as I can. You have expressed a desire to be the Mouse King (from Nutcracker Suite) and to help you work past your fear of Ms. Ofi’s teaching style, I’ve told you that the only teacher who can help you learn how to be the Mouse King is Ms. Ofi. I even made you a special dance shirt with the Mouse King’s picture on it and it says, “Mouse King In Training!” You get to wear that shirt to her class. Ms. Nicole has been wonderful in helping you overcome your general fear of dancing, but I think you’re ready now for a more structured class. In fact, in your dance class with Ms. Nicole on 8/6, you were incredibly rude to her, you weren’t listening and you even yelled “no” at her. She told you to step out of the class and take a little break. Your Grandma D. made the decision that class time was done and made you sit there and watch the remainder of the class. Ms. Ofi may just be the key to help you do better. At least I hope so. Time will tell.

GYMNASTICS:
We have had a bit of a continuing issue with your gymnastics class. Ever since Mr. Steve left, you’ve just not been the same. Mr. Kevin is wonderful, but in the transitional phase between Mr. Steve and Mr. Kevin when things were not organized there , it’s like you whetted your appetite for mischief and you just can’t get your groove back. You do fantastic when you put your mind to it and pay attention, but more often than not, you get busy trying to make friends and get over-excited and you don’t pay attention to what the teachers are telling you, or what the other students are demonstrating and then when you are asked to perform, you have no clue what you’re supposed to do, so you wing it and cover your confusion with silliness. It’s exasperating.

The other thing about you is that, even though your body awareness has improved, you still seem to lack awareness about your size in comparison to other kids your age. Older kids have the coordination and strength to stand their ground with you, kids your size and younger do not. This “body awareness” thing is actually the primary reason I enrolled you in gymnastics. This is likely going to be a continuous thing for you throughout your life, because you aren’t getting any smaller or weaker, and that is why I’m reluctant to pull you out of gymnastics.

This awareness thing really became an issue around three months ago when you were playing at Chick-Fil-A with two older boys. They were pushing each other, and engaged you in the game in the play area, and you started imitating their behavior and thought it was hilarious. When I told you to stop pushing them, they told me it was OK with them, that they had started the game. I regret a thousand times over that I didn’t put my grown up pants on and insist that the behavior stop and to suggest finding another game. Because of that error in my judgment, ever since then, we have had problems with you hugging kids and then pushing them away from you. We are desperately trying to teach you to be gentle with others and it is not OK to push anyone… grown-ups, kids or pets.

So, I’ve spoken with Mr. Kevin and we agreed that going forward, taking it a month at a time, instead of allowing you to get disruptive and then pull you off to the side to sit with Grandma D. in time-outs during class time, I’ve asked Grandma D. to be proactive and go in and sit with you, like she did when you were younger. Hopefully, this will help you focus and learn in a more positive environment, instead of constantly being corrected.

BATH TIME PLAY:

At my Aunt Marjorie’s house the last day we were there, I ran your bath, but didn’t get a very good seal on the bath plug, and it started draining slowly. You have always freaked out when the water drains out of the tub and look around desperately to make sure that your toys are safe. When the water drained and you were in the tub, I guess you thought you were going down the drain. You were terrified, crying frantically, reaching out, and wanted out immediately. Now, two weeks later, you are still scared and request a short bath and don’t want me to leave the bathroom. One of the first nights back home, you saw a dark spot on the bottom of your plastic bath tub where a sticker had gotten stuck under it, and you freaked out about it thinking it was the drain.

ROUTINES:
One of the routines I’ve forgotten to mention, but has been a long-time routine for us is that Sunday mornings, you go to church with your father. Rare occasions I’ll go along, but most often I choose to go swimming and listen to my church’s service online later. Later, I’ll meet up with everyone (you, your father, Grandma and Grandpa H., and whatever friends they bring along) for breakfast (usually at Denny’s).

We have the best conversations when you wake up in the mornings. Some mornings you have lots and lots of questions like, what happens if there’s no clouds? What happens if there is no sun? What happens if there is no bed? What happens if there’s no pillow? What happens if there’s no toys?

Other things you like to talk about when you wake are word association games. You will usually start is by asking, “If I say cloud, you say…?” And I’m supposed to say the first word that comes to mind. So, I say, “Rain… if I say rain, you say…?” And you reply, “H2O. If I say H2O, you say…?” And on and on the game goes. Sometimes I say something that isn’t OK with you and you emphatically correct me and then I explain why it was that I said what I did.

I love our morning routine of waking up and nursing, and on vacation since we co-slept, I got to experience mornings with you every morning. One morning, you told me that you’d been watching movies all night. When I asked you what movie you had watched, you replied, “The Bear Caught a Frog movie.”

I told my mom (your Grandma D.) one evening about how sometimes I miss you at night when you’re sleeping and I’m so tempted to just go crawl in your bed with you for part of the night. She paused, and I wasn’t sure what she was going to say in response, her voice was soft and I could tell she was smiling when she said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t hesitate. He’ll only be small like this once in his life.” I know that’s kind of cliche and is on memes all over the Internet, but I could hear in her voice that the only thing she was thinking about were the two babies that she raised, and how one of them she hasn’t even seen, let alone hugged, in two years and the other one (me), she has hugged more often, but despite that, we both definitely have our own separate lives.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

More pictures from this month can be found here: LINK

P.S. Your father bought a box of Star Wars graham crackers. You are now able to look at the pictures on the box and name all but one of the characters. The “lost” character is one that you hadn’t been educated on, not a result of your memory. Your father is so proud.