Letter to our 4 Year 1 Month Old

Dear William,

On January 8, 2016, you turned 49 months old. You are 44 3/4″ tall and weigh 48 pounds. You are wearing boys XS pants and shorts, and boys 6 in shirts. You are wearing size 7 in footed pajamas and size 13 Wide in shoes.

Things We Did:
Recurring things: KinderCirque; Library and Awanas

12/11 – Fashion Island
12/12 – Medieval Times Tournament & Show
12/19 – LegoLand Christmas
12/21 – Queen Mary Chill Event
12/24 – Christmas Eve with Grandparents, took pictures of the full moon
12/25 – Christmas Morning at Home
12/25 – 12/27 – Big Bear Weekend
01/01 – New Years Morning (watch Rose Parade on TV)
01/01 – New Years at Grandparent’s house
01/02 – undecorate from Christmas
01/07 – Awanas (1st class at new church, changed church)

Favorites this month:
Color: Blue and Red!
Song: Mack song from Cars
Movie: Aladdin
Food: Chicken strips
Snack: Popcorn
Dessert: Ohhh, peanut butter! I can’t do this, because this candle thing is all around… Oh!  Gingerbread!
Fruit: Grapes and apples! And oranges!
Vegetable: Carrots
Class: Ohhh, ice skating class and Miss Robin’s class
Teacher: Miss Robin
Store: Target!!
Restaurant: I can’t say it!  (pause) All of them!
Vacation spot: Big Bear and Nebraska
Toy: Big Buzz and Big Woody
Theme Park: Disneyland
Anything else? I like candle light and snowman and Frosty!  And snow angels and snow ball fights!  Magic carpet!

Sleeping:

The holidays and our long weekend in Big Bear have messed up your sleep this month.  You are kind of a night owl, I think, just like your father and I.  You like to stay up late and hang out with us.  With one of us being home with you for two weeks, your bedtime inched later every night and you were sleeping later in the morning and waking up on your own.  Which was glorious for us, however…

Since you were naturally ending your sleep, you were having dreams, and apparently NOT good ones.  The last two weeks, you have been scared to go to bed because you were afraid to have bad dreams.  At present, you haven’t had a bad dream since we’ve been back to work (when I wake you before your REM sleep), but every night you say in a wailing voice, “Oh no!  Tonight I’m going to have another bad dream!”

Food:
You have a good appetite and are adventurous in your culinary exploring.  I’m grateful that you are such a fun person to eat meals with.  The Silly sometimes takes control of you and we often have to remind you that we’re eating dinner and not having a race around the house, and that you can do most anything as long as your bottom is on your chair.  So, for those days when you don’t feel like eating much, I remind myself that tomorrow will be a new day.  Also, you have quite a sweet tooth and love anything that has sugar in it.  I predict, if you’re anything like me, that this will be a life long love.

In fact, you have recently discovered that if you take a lemon and rub sugar on it, that you quite like it. So now at restaurants, you take our discarded lemons from our iced teas and mix your own concoction.  I guess, not knowing you put sugar on it, it probably looks quite funny to see a kid sucking on a lemon.

One evening, you had eaten your dinner and were satisfied.  We had eaten leftovers and your father didn’t have any, so on his way back from running errands, he stopped at Weinerschnitzel and grabbed some food and came home to eat it.  He put it on the table and went to take care of something.  Nonchalantly, you walked over, looked at it, sat down and said, “I feel like eating a second dinner.”

Side note:  You do not like broken candy canes.  No way, no how.  They are an insult to you and you take it quite personally if they’re broken.

Things I want to remember:

This month you have really had extreme emotional reactions to things not working the way you want them.  I think you have a bit of a perfectionist gene in you.  I have NO IDEA where you got that from.  Neither your father nor I are perfectionists, nope.  Ahahahahaaaaaa!  For example, one evening, you flushed the toilet before the toilet paper was in there and you cried at yourself, “WHYYYY DID I FLUSH THE TOILET SO SOOOOOOOONN!!”  I had to remind you that it wasn’t a big deal, we would just leave the toilet paper in there (not wasting water).  The next person who used it could flush it down.    Or when you ask for something and the answer is no that you can always ask, “Are there any other options?”  Just because the one thing you asked for isn’t available doesn’t mean it’s a HUGE NO TO EVERYTHING YOU WANT, it just means it’s a tiny “no” to one thing and there are likely other options.   I realize this will probably backfire on me when you’re a teenager.

Last week I was in the trunk of my car preparing to go inside a restaurant. You were standing beside me waiting, when all of a sudden you reached up and pushed me on the behind and yelled, “BUTT MASSAGE.”  I was so shocked, I’m not certain where you got THAT from.  Your Grandma D. tells me that you’ve been doing that to her, too, so now we’re working with you to not do that.  Seriously, where DO you come up with this stuff?

When in your aerial acrobatics class, there are other classes operating in the gymnasium concurrently.  One of them is a gymnastics class with your former dance instructor, Ms. Ofi.  I took you to one of your aerial classes and you ran over (with Ms. Robin’s instruction) to get your water.  On your return to Ms. Robin, Ms. Ofi walked in front of you.  You froze, your water in your mouth and locked eyes with her and then silently kept walking.  A few seconds passed, you got back to Ms. Robin and Ms. Ofi said loudly, “I saw you, William.  I saw you!”  It was such a funny social interaction.  I think there’s still a little bit of horror inside of you over your dance classes.

On the flip side, when you saw Ms. Robin at the first class after the holiday break, you politely asked her how Thailand had been for her (that’s where she went over Christmas), and she replied it had been awesome, and asked about your break.  You erupted giddily with a description of your new toys and Big Bear, that you went ice skating up there and fell down and it took your butt FOUR DAYS to heal, and ice skating at the Queen Mary, and you want to take an ice skating class but she has to hold your hand and teach you.  That you had a new Buzz and Woody doll and your favorite movie is Polar Express, and… on and on you went.  She was surprised and laughingly told you that she doesn’t ice skate very well and looked at me and said, “I guess he was saving it all up for me, huh?”  I told her that the timeline was a little mixed up, but she pretty much knew everything he had done over his Christmas break.  I’m not sure if she ever realized just how much you adore her, but if she didn’t, that should have told her.

Ms. Robin is so good with you. During one of your aerial classes you were her only student, and half way through you finished practicing something and you flopped on the ground. Instead of admonishing you or picking you up, she took note of your posture and said, “Oh, you need a break?  Good idea!”  And she casually chatted with you for a minute and then asked if you were ready to get back to work.  You were, and the class proceeded smoothly from there.

Our Awanas adventure continues… several of the meetings in December were canceled or didn’t occur because of the church’s Christmas activities.  The one that was supposed to occur, the leader texted me that they were repeating a lesson that had already been done.  Then we showed up for the meeting on 1/6 to find out it had been canceled that afternoon. You had worked hard on learning your verse, you were amped up to do your craft, and when the person said it was canceled without notice due to the commander not being able to make it because of traffic and rain, you dissolved into sobs.  I crouched down and held you, rubbing your back, telling you I was so sorry.  When you reached the end of your grief, I asked if you wanted to look at other options, maybe another church. You said you did.  So we drove to another church, not to attend that night, but to check it out.  The next night (Thursday, 1/7) we attended a different Awanas.  It was like night and day. The teachers were so prepared, so kind, so warm, so welcoming, so loving and all the kids were so engaged that they were very nearly telling the teacher the lesson instead of the leader teaching them.  After that experience, we will be changing Awanas.  I’m sad for the other church, I wish we could find a way to make it work with them, but I’m not willing to sacrifice your happiness for their growing pains.

Something endearing you have started doing is that you kiss my cheek in rapid succession and your voice gets higher and higher as you say, “Muwah, muwah, muwah, muwah!”  And then I’m supposed to say “POP!” as I explode because I’m so full of love. You love it when I do that back to you, and then sometimes you put your hand on the top of my head and tell me you’ve locked my popper and I have to whoosh it out of my mouth!

Shortly after I had decorated your room with Toy Story bedding and wall decorations, I asked you if you wanted me to decorate your bed with your Christmas bedding.  You politely declined, saying, “No, thank you.  I’m fine with Toy Story.”  I continued with, how about wall decorations? You replied with, “No, thank you. I’m fine with Toy Story.  But, uh, uh, you can put Christmas decorations above it!!”

After your birthday party and all your presents, you declared, “I ABSOLUTELY want to do this night again!”

Your Grandma D’s friend, Beth, came to visit her this month.  She hung around with you and Grandma D. and you really enjoyed her visit.  You made up a song about Beth being out in the rain and sang it to her.  You were very sad when she left, but you hope she comes back to visit.

A week after our friend, Sonia, let you into Disneyland for your birthday, saying your bedtime prayers you added Sonia to your prayers that night, “Dear Lord, I pray for Sonia that she would have a good day at work tomorrow because she’s a nice person.”  It was so sweet and so spontaneous.  I just love asking you if I missed anything in prayers, because I never know what you’re going to say.

On leftover dinner night, you asked for “the mac-n-cheese I got for my birthday from Flo’s Cafe, please?”

Some mornings, after we nurse, you fall back to sleep.  When you wake up an hour or so later, you’re always so sad that I’ve left.  Grandma D. reported that one morning you woke and she heard you say, “Oh dear, oh me.  Mommy’s gone.”  She said it was so sad and so cute.

One night for dinner, I pulled out a huge vegetable tray and a huge tray of shrimp to snack on before dinner was served. Your Grandma D. was staying for dinner and you danced your way over to the table saying excitedly, “Look grandma! We’re having vegetables! And shrimps!! Sit down!!  I need some potatoes, too!”  Grandma said she’s never seen anyone so excited about having vegetables.

One afternoon, you were trying to remember a word and you asked me, “What is sillytarry!?”  Confused, I clarified, You mean military?”  You frowned and said, “I don’t think so, where do you bury pets?”  I replied, “Oh, you mean the cemetery?”

When we went to the Medieval Times dinner tournament, you were adamant that you wanted iced tea instead of water.  I shrugged, because I’ve offered you sips before and you’ve never cared for it. The tea was pretty weak there, so we gave you a mug of iced tea.  You took a sip and declared, “This isn’t iced tea!  This isn’t good at all.”  Despite your father and I reassuring you that it was indeed iced tea, you were having none of it.  Hilariously, 4 weeks later, you asked your father if a drink at a restaurant was the same drink from the Medieval Times… when he said it was just water, you drank it.  I guess, given how much your father and I love iced tea, it apparently failed miserably to your expectations.  Sorry, dude.

With the opening of the new Star Wars film this past month, there has been a lot of Star Wars talk.  One evening your father decided to go to an evening showing of it.  Normally you are upset if your father leaves when you’re in your bath, or even if it’s after your bedtime.  That particular evening, however, you asked him, “Are you going to see the new Star Wars movie, daddy?”  He replied, “Yes.”  You said, “Oh, OK. That’s fine.”  Apparently the Star Wars movie, even though it’s a grown up movie, is an acceptable reason for your father to miss your bedtime.

The next week, you started closing the shutter and turning off the lights.  I asked you what was going on.  In response, instead of answering me with words, you went over to the side of the couch and pulled out your father’s light saber, turned it on and wielded it and said, “It’s time for a light saber battle!”

One afternoon I decided to let you in on a secret and I told you, “Did you know that there are mommies and daddies who go on vacation without their children?”  Your response was immediate and dramatic, as you inhaled sharply and said, “Huh??  That is TERRIBLE!  Vacations are for children, too!”

Over the break, I had a sinus infection that when it drained, I lost my voice.  I went to the doctor and was given antibiotics.  A couple days later, I told you I had my voice back.  You said, “Yay! Yay! Yay!  You can sing me to sleep again!”

You were sick, too, over the holiday. You’d been struggling with a stuffy nose and sneezing for a couple weeks.  But one night around midnight, you woke up trying to cough but unable to get a breath.  After I calmed you down, you were able to breathe and cough, but you were kind of freaked out.  I was freaked out facing the holidays with you being sick and didn’t want a repeat of last year’s sick, so I so I took you in to see the pediatrician.  The doctor said that one of your lungs wasn’t clear, and that you had pneumonia and that she was really glad I had brought you in.  The next day, after one dose of antibiotics, you said, “My nose is not stuffy!”  Surprised I asked you, “Really?”  You coughed and sniffled and said, “No, I’m just kidding.”

One of your favorite things to say is, “I love you, but… ” and then finish with a request.  Like, “I love you, but can I have more apple?”

You really loved Christmas and having mommy or daddy home with you every day for two weeks.  Daily you were telling us, “Christmas is so fun!  I love holidays!”  I couldn’t agree more!

On Christmas, I was tutoring you to remember your gratitude and even if you weren’t thrilled with your present, to say to the person who gave it to you, “Thank you so much!”  I went down a list of examples, like what if you opened your present and it’s a piece of yarn, or what if it’s socks, or what if it’s a toothbrush, or what if it is a toy you already have?  And the correct answer was, “Thank you so much!”  Because it’s not about the gift, it’s about someone loving you enough to give you something.  So after all that, one of your Grandma D.’s presents was a pair of fluffy socks.  You immediately walked up to her and said, “Remember your gratitude, Grandma… say thank you so much!”

A conversation that was had while driving up to Big Beare, and there was a traffic jam (as usual) on the freeway.  We heard you in the back seat saying, “Excuse me, could you turn off the music! I’m trying to talk to you! I hope there’s not an accident! So, falling off your chair, bonking your head, peeing in your pants and car crash… those are all accidents. Accidents should only happen on summer days, not on Christmas.”

You said, “I want to be like daddy when I grow up!  Then I can eat daddy candy!”

Your interest in ice skating has continued since our jaunt at the Queen Mary.  So we went over to the local ice skating rink to get some information and scheduling, I told you in advance that we wouldn’t be skating that night.  You were so excited to go check it out.  There was an ice hockey game going on, and you were so excited to watch them.  Then you got more and more quiet and finally said, “Can we go?  This is making me so sad because I really, really wanted to do it. And I can’t right now.”

One day you were begging for a movie and I told you that you need to go play with your toys!  You were balking and I suggested that if you didn’t want to play with them, you could go through them and pick some toys to give to children who don’t have any.  You went over to your toy box and I heard you saying, “Oh, I forgot about this toy … This is fun!” No toys were chosen, but at least you weren’t watching a movie!

One day, you yawned a huge yawn.  I glanced askance at you and you said, “I’m not tired.  That’s just a gingerbread yawn.”

I love to ask you what you dreamed about, because despite your one night of bad dreams, you usually have some really interesting ones.  For example, one morning you told me you had dreamed about Halloween, and the pumpkin cooked your dinner and you were a baby bat.

On Christmas eve we went looking at people’s decorated homes.  One that we visit every year had a display on his driveway with moving laser lights (among other things).  There were probably 7 or 8 kids running around chasing the various colors of lights that were swirling around, and you enthusiastically joined in the running.  You were so excited and ran up to a girl who was probably 6 or 7 years old and breathlessly told her, “I stepped on the red light!  I got it!”  In a dismissive, irritated tone, she told you, “If you step on the red light, that means you’re out.  You’re NOT supposed to step on the red light.”  You stared at her for a second and then said, “So let’s play the you’re out game! Let’s step on the red lights!”  And you ran off to step on more red lights.  She stared after you, shook her head and went back to her method.  Child of ours, I hope you always continue to blaze your own path and create your own games.  Don’t ever let anyone quell your joy, take your breathless wonder, or steal your exuberance for life.   Always, always look for other options.

More pictures from this month can be found here — Link

We love you forever,

Momma (and Daddy)