Letter to our 3 Year 11 Month Old

Dear William,

On November 8, 2015 you turned 47 months old. You are 44 1/2″ tall and weigh 47 pounds 12 ounces. You are wearing boys 6/7 in shirts. You are in Boys size 7 pajamas and 8 footed pajamas. You are in 5T pants and shorts. Your shoes are size 12/13 Wide.

FIRSTS:

THINGS WE DID/HIGHLIGHTS:
Weekly occurrences: KinderCirque class and Library

10/10 – Zoomars Halloween
10/20 – Dentist appointment (2nd)
10/24 – Dr. Werlin’s annual miracle baby reunion
10/24 – Spaghetti Dinner at Daddy’s church
10/25 – Great OC Park Spooktacular event
10/25 – CalElite Silks show (observing)
10/31 – Halloween
11/01 – Catalina Island
11/07 – Decorate for Thanksgiving

LANGUAGE/THINGS YOU SAY:

One night this past month, you had an attitude about something. I took a deep breath, walked away for a few seconds, came back and told you, “You can say, ‘thank you mommy for this, or mommy I’m sorry I hit you, or even mommy I need some space right now. Those are all acceptable things to tell me. What you did was wrong.” You got quiet for a minute, I waited, you looked down at your Froggy that you were weaving the corners of its hanky through your fingers, a long-time soothing behavior of yours. You looked up, with tears in your eyes, and quietly said, “Mommy, would you like a corner?” I sniffled, too, and said, “That will work, too, dude.”

One of your favorite things to tell me if I snap at you for waking up too early is, “Mommy, do you need an attitude adjustment?”

Another night, you were in your bath and you asked for cake, a small cupcake your father had made. I brought it. I pulled a bite of it up on a fork and you started crying. I asked you what was wrong… you said, “I don’t want cake!” I asked if you meant you wanted frosting, not cake. You continued crying. I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking how I could help you understand that I just wanted to help you. So, I intentionally showed on my face how sad I was, empathizing with you. I said, “Why don’t we wash you off and get you out of here so I can hold you?” You replied, “OK… I think I’m just getting tired.” I said, “Yeah, I think you’re definitely getting tired.” I admit that I’m very cautious of telling you you’re tired, because I remember as a child people telling me I was tired and, while it was certainly true, I remember it being infuriating because I felt like it minimized my feelings. Being tired amplifies feelings and small things seem bigger and bigger things seem even bigger, and someone minimizing big feelings makes the bigger things even more big!

Your Grandma D. texted me one day and said, “I told him that vitamin C helps fight a cold etc. He said he would just take medicine for that. So funny.”

One night, holding you on my lap before I flossed your teeth, you stuck your finger up one of your nostrils. I asked if you needed a tissue. You replied, “No. I’m feeling my voice in my nose while I’m singing.” And then you started singing, with your finger up your nose.

Your father and I were talking a about a ladder at my work. You spoke up and said, “We should watch a ladder.” Puzzled, I asked you, “Do you mean Aladdin?” You replied, “Yes, Aladdin.”

A text from Grandma D., “I asked William if he wanted to go on an adventure. He said, let’s go to Nebraska! I said that’s too far. so he says “Asia”?”

You like to get my hand weights from under the bed and lift them. They are 5 pounds each. So, you lift them and then exclaim, “Oh, this is heavy! I need to rest now, because this is hard work!”

When you have your iPod app time, you like to pull up the Thomas app and look at the paid ones. The first time you did it, you got upset that they didn’t work until I explained to you that they cost money. Now you pull them up and say, “I’m just looking at it!!”

We ordered a new automated, programmable feeder for the cats. It sat in the box for a couple days while your father read the manual. It really bothered you that it was still in the box, and anytime Tug (the cat) got near it, you told us, “Tug really wants to set up our new feeder!”

Your father texted me one Sunday morning, “William knelt in church at the candles and thanked God for grandma D. and parks and a whole list of things.”

Watching Frozen movie and your father and I were talking. You watched quietly, no complaints until the Let It Go song came on. Then you interrupted and said, “Excuse me, this is why I wanted to watch Frozen.”

One of the Halloween decorations we set up is an ugly grim reaper thing. It sits by our front door and your father calls it “Grandma’s Boyfriend” just to irritate her. Well, you mixed it up and called it Grandma’s “friend boy” the entire month of October.

Your Grandma D. texted me, “Kids at the park had buckets. Another had little tractors to play in the sand. All William had was a stick he picked up. He wanted sympathy. I said “Thank God he made the tree so you could have a stick.” He said, “No! say ‘Poor William.'” ha

We stopped and got a hot dog at Costco. I took a bite of a hot dog, You made an assumption and said, “Are you making them small for me so they’re just bite sizes now? Thank you!”

When we attended Dr. Werlin’s annual Halloween party reunion, you called it a street party. It is kind of a street party, but more of a parking lot party.

We got to your father’s church for an event one Saturday night and all the Catholic school kids were in the playground. You looked at them, confused, and said, “Why are they all in the park?” I think what you were really asking was, why are they in the park and I can’t be?

Your grandma D. texted, “William is looking at his ink stamp kit and Tug came over and wrapped himself around William. He really does enjoy William.”

You like to sing variations of songs, one of your variations goes, “You got a friend in me, when you get in trouble, you got a friend in me.”

One of stories you learned at library was a “scary” story about clothes in the closet and every part, the boots, pants, arms, go wiggle wiggle and turns out a cat was hiding in the clothes. It was hilarious to hear you retell it! After library storytime, you wore your costume and walked through the library in a “parade” and told people Happy Halloween. It was cute.

You told me one day when I was blocking your view of something, “Your dress is pretty, but it’s in my way.”

Some sage advice from you while driving around, “So there’s traffic… you have to honk your horn!”

Following the advice from our GPS, you reminded us, “Remember to turn left!”

When I drive you to Awanas, every week I cut through a portion of a parking lot to avoid a dangerous turn. And every single week when I do it, you holler, “Oh no! Are we lost??” Apparently your Grandma D. gets lost a lot!

For Halloween, Grandma worked with you on a cowboy song you learned at the cowboy craft. It was perfect with your Woody costume. Instead of saying trick-or-treat to people, you sang to the tune of “I’m a little teapot” … I’m a little cowboy here’s my hat, here are my boots, here are my chaps. When I get up I work all day, get on my horse and ride away. You made out like a bandit with the Halloween candy.

Watching a video clip, it stopped midway and you said, “Oh no, it’s not listening!”

You say “barry” for the word “borrow.” Example, “You may Barry my toy.”

When you go a little silly trying to get you into your pajamas sometimes, you’ll exclaim, “He’s a wild one tonight!”

You went on a community landscape walk with me and our landscaper found a caterpillar in the bark on a tree. He let you hold it. The next day I got a text from Grandma D., “William did the caterpillar to butterfly routine a hundred times this morn. So funny.”

I bought you some Child’s mint toothpaste as you had been using my baking soda mint toothpaste. After a couple days of using your new toothpaste, you told me, “I like my own candy cane toothpaste!”

One morning, you were out in the hallway and I could hear you talking. I asked you what you were doing and you whispered, “I don’t want to tell you!” Surprised, I told you that wouldn’t get in trouble for telling me. You perked up and said, “Oh, I’m messing with the bird…” I asked you to show me what you were doing to her and you happily demonstrated how you were swinging her cage. I helped you come up with an alternative “messing with the bird” that wouldn’t endanger her cage. But I had to laugh at your “secret keeping” skills.

Banging on the table one night, you admonished us, “Get up and march, because I’m playing the drums!”

STORIES YOU TOLD:
William whispers, “Sssshhhh, shhhh! Crawl in my mouth. It’s safe in here.”
In a hushed whisper I respond, “OK, but who are you?”
“I’m a lion. A toothless lion.” He replies.
“Who am I?” I ask curiously.
“You are an ant. So crawl in my mouth and be safe now.”

SLEEP:
You tell me, I don’t want to sleep, I’m afraid of bad dreams. I told you to tell the bad dreams to go away. In the name of Jesus, go away bad dreams. You said, because God is strong.

FOOD & NOURISHMENT:
Your Grandma’s report on your eating habits, “He wants honey sandwich for breakfast and peanut butter sandwich for lunch. i try to talk him into fruit or yogurt. We talk about protein to make his muscles strong and vitamins and how they help. He said today he doesn’t care about vitamins. So funny.”

Your grandma reported this month that now every time she takes you somewhere, even your KinderCirque class that you ask about a snack. She says, “I don’t know that he realizes it’s a class. The cowboy craft has him confused now.” I replied, “Between that and Awanas, now he thinks everything should have a snack… I kind of agree. Plus he has been very hungry lately.” Grandma replied, “I asked him what he liked best after the cowboy craft. “The snack!” was his answer.” It was quite the day… I tried to hide the 2nd marshmallow. Didn’t work. I hid some of the chocolate in the grandma cookies bag and it melted. I tried to pour some of the juice on the plants. He asked, “What are U doing grandma?” He had his eye on me!

When you came to my work for trick-or-treating, one of my co-workers didn’t have any candy for you, and after you finished singing your cowboy song, she felt bad. She tried to slip one of your candies out of your trick-or-treat bag and you watched her and said, “Uhhh, OK, well, I wanted new candy, not candy already in my hat.” After you visited another co-worker for a few minutes you said, “OK, now let’s go get some more candy somewhere else.” I gotta love your honesty!

NURSING:
You told me one day, “I like nah-nahs?” Surprised, I asked, “You do?” “Yes. They taste like cake. Strawberry and coffee.” Interestingly, since the time you could talk, you’ve told me that one side tastes like strawberry and the other side alternates between chocolate or coffee. One morning, we nursed as usual, except after a few seconds, you yelled… curious, I asked, “What’s wrong??” You replied, terribly upset, “I don’t want the coffee side, I want the strawberry side!” Also, the right side is always the strawberry side. Huh.

You were helping me put away laundry over the weekend. You got to the socks area in the basket. One by one you put them in the sock drawer with a commentary. “Black socks, cat socks, whale socks, flower socks…” A small pause as you lifted my bra, and a little smirk as you continued, “Nah-nah socks…”

FAVORITES THIS MONTH:

Color: “Red”
Song: “I love you so much, I love you so much!” I asked, “Is that your own song?” You replied, “Yeah, I like that song.”
Movie: “Frozen… Toy Story…”
Food: “Bacon”
Snack: “Melon Balls.”
Dessert: “Ice cream, with sundae on it.”
Fruit: “Apples”
Vegetable: “Carrots”
Class: “MyGym! The play MyGym now.”
Teacher: Grandma
Store: “Toys R Us”
Restaurant: “Chick Fil A
Vacation spot: “Nebraska” (pronounced Mabraska)
Toy: “Buzz Light”
Favorite theme park: “Disneyland”
Anything else? “Do you want to go to the palace and see the world? Do you trust me?”

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:
How one night, we were watching a movie and I had told you that when it was done it was time to go upstairs for your bath. You acknowledged me and when the movie was done, you proclaimed as you usually do, “It’s done!!” Anticipating you freaking out, I said, “I’m going upstairs now to run your bath.” You replied, suddenly calm, “Oh, I’m listening to music right now.” As you watched the credits roll.

How I separated your Halloween candy and put the items I was OK with you having into a bag that is accessible to you to look at on the counter. One of the items is a bag of pretzels shaped like bats. You excitedly told me one day, “OK, so I want the bag of bats today for my treat.” I told you that was fine and told you it was pretzels. Aghast, you said, “That’s not candy!” I said, “No, it isn’t. Do you want to pick something else?” You chose a marshmallow with chocolate filling. Good choice!

SWIMMING:
The weather has cooled off, so I was only able to take you swimming once this past month. Of course you loved it and spent most of your time jumping off the side into the pool. You also were adamant about bringing along some mini squirt guns. You spent a lot of time underwater watching the bubbles go upwards as they refilled.

KINDERCIRQUE:
You are doing so well in this class. You are cooperative and listen! You are getting braver and stronger and you listen to Miss Robin. The last class you did particularly well and rode the trapeze swing up above Miss Robin! Miss Robin was SO impressed and she told you that you did an awesome job. High praise indeed! I ask you after every class if you want to continue in it and you emphatically say, “YES!”

GYMNASTICS:
You are still in a break from gymnastics. I had them put our account on hold until mid-November. We participated in their Open House event this past month and you were THRILLED to be back there, but still resistant to the red circle time.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:
I have recently found a place that offers basketball lessons to children your age, I will call them to find out if they offer a trial class.

BATH TIME PLAY:
You have been into your Toy Story bath toys this month.

~~~
You talk in your sleep now, you say things that I can’t catch. You curl up into yourself like a kitten in a warm bed and sleep. And I remember wishing that when you cried as a baby you would tell me things instead of crying… And now you do but I find myself missing the smaller you. I wondered when you would switch over the using language instead of crying out of sleep and whether I would notice. I didn’t notice when it happened, because for awhile it would switch back and forth… but now it’s consistent. You use your words most of the time now.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

More pictures from this month can be found here: LINK