Letter to our 4 Year 3 Month Old

Dear William,

On March 8, 2016, you turned 51 months old.  You are 45″ tall and weigh 49 pounds (as of 3/14/16). You had a smidge of a growth spurt this past month at some point.

Things We Did This Month:

02/13 – Mountain Cabin
2/20 – bought you some rollerblades; turned a hand-me-down bicycle into a balance bike; let you clean my car

Recurring things: Aerial Arts Class; Awanas; Ice Skating Class; Various Library Story & Crafts

Monthly Interview of Favorite Things:
Color: Brown and red!
Song: Goliath fell down
Movie: Snow White
Food: Meat and red potatoes… and hot sauce. But pretend hot sauce. And what else?
Snack: Crackers, cheese, cheerios… umm, vitamins. Umm, stretchy candy.
Dessert: Mint & chip ice cream and chocolate chip cookies!
Fruit: Grapes!
Vegetable: Broccoli and carrots
Class: MyGym. Uh, no, swimming class. Uh, actually, nothing. No one. Nothing. (Said in Eeyore voice)
Me, OK, let’s take a break. A few minutes go by… OK, now, what’s your favorite class? William: Silks.
Teacher: Miss Robin
Store: Sprouts!!
Restaurant: Denny’s
Vacation spot: Big Bear
Toy: Fire truck!
Theme Park: Disneyland
Best Friend: Jesus!! (Has also said Ryan and Uncle Al are his best friends this month.)
Favorite thing to do with Mommy? Copying! Printing!
Favorite thing to do with Daddy? Go to Disneyland.
Favorite thing to do with Grandma? Go to stores.
Favorite Shirt: Catalina Islands shirt.
Favorite Story Book: Pinocchio
Anything else? Ummmm, What’s my favorite fruit and my vegetable… grapes and broccoli, carrots… hey, I see a fish in there. It’s not a real fish. It’s just a little fish. It’s a… see? See in there? There it is, there it is right there. Is that a picture? I hope so. His tail’s not moving. Now you don’t see anything. Ruh roh, we can’t get that fish away… let me drink it. (All this was about a Smart Water bottle sitting in front of him.)

Sleeping:

This past month there were a couple nights that you intentionally put yourself to sleep. You unlatched from nursing and asked to be put in bed.  You reached for the blanket, pulled it up over yourself and went to sleep. All by yourself.

Sometimes you do have trouble falling asleep, and you love to talk about what’s on your mind.  Usually, I’ll let you talk for 10 minutes or so before shushing you and telling you it’s time to turn off your brain.  Your thoughts are so sweet and so funny and I just love hearing what’s going on in your brain.  One night you were asking me what angels look like, what God looks like, and when you go to Heaven, will you get to meet Rachael and Noah and David, because they all seemed like nice people, you said.

Morning Conversations:

“What do you want to do today?” I asked. You replied, “I want to own a cow.  We can keep it in the living room.”  “What will you feed it?” I asked.  “Food.” You answered.  “I don’t think we can keep a cow in our living room.  It’s too big.”  You answered, “We can keep it in our back yard then.”  “Hmmm, well, cows like to eat grass.  We don’t have any grass in our back yard.”  You replied, “We can keep it at the park.”  You were pretty sad when I told you we would have to visit your cousin’s cows, that we couldn’t have our own cow.

Classes:

Aerial Arts:

All of a sudden you decided that you didn’t like this class and didn’t want to participate. You spent 3/4 of the class bawling and flopping down on the mat, saying “I can’t do this!” and then when the teacher moved to the next activity, you bawled some more because you missed your turn. At my wits end, after two or three classes of this behavior, I dropped the class and emailed your teacher to explain myself. Your teacher emailed me back and requested that I keep you in the class. She reworked her schedule and moved your class to Thursdays (instead of Mondays). She moved her other student to a different class, so you are her only student in that particular class for now. She said she would credit my account, which completely surprised me. She believes you are going through some sort of funk and that you will move through it within the next few weeks and will be back to your normal, happy self. I guess time will tell.

Ice Skating:

You LOVE your ice skating class. Your Grandma D. takes you and I arrive mid-class (due to my work schedule) and every time I arrive, you are happily participating in the activities of the class. You tell me anytime I ask you about it that you want to be an ice hockey player. You love watching the hockey players line up to get on the ice after your class, and you love to wave hello to them. But when they take the ice, you say you want to leave, because watching them on the ice makes you sad… because you wish you were out there.

Awanas:

I am just astonished how smoothly this new Awanas goes every week.  You just love it there & you do so well. You literally race inside to the sanctuary each week, and dance and sing your verses. Even when the Leader says she’s flustered and thinks she did poorly, she is actually doing a thousand times better than your old Awanas. Your “homework” is to hear the accompanying story out of your workbook and learn your Bible verse. This isn’t a problem, as you beg to watch the Cubbie Bear videos online every night. Your new teachers have dubbed your Pastor William because anytime prayers are requested, you verbosely begin praying and thanking God for things; mostly cake or cookies, and I imagine God smiling about that.

One night, after Awanas, your father asked what you had learned. You summed it up by saying, “Tonight’s lesson was on truth. The difference between truth and not truth.”

Always Learning:

Your Grandma D. tells me that time just goes by so quickly, she hardly knows how it gets to the end of the day.  She shared one morning’s adventures, that you two “flew” to Jerusalem together. Wearing your pajamas and using imagination, you started out at “mommy’s airport” (by my work) and flew to New York.  During your “layover” she told you that you better go potty before the long portion of your flight started, because airplane bathrooms are very small. You agreed that was a good idea, so during your “layover,” you used the restroom and changed into your day clothes, and then continued your “flight” to Jerusalem.

You: “There was an earthquake on the newspaper last night. It was in Taiwan. But everybody was OK. There was a rainstorm also, there was hail. Hail, water, soil. Sunshine. Sun. Little donuts…fell down from heaven.”  Your father looked at me and I said, “Uhh, maybe he means manna from the Old Testament in the Bible? Not sure about the earthquake thing.”  Your father replied, “Well, there was an earthquake in Taiwan, maybe your mom read him the story?”  I replied, “I guess he’s mixing his studies at Awanas into modern calamities?”

While at the park, you were playing with some children the “mermaid game.”  You didn’t really know what mermaids or mermen were, so later we introduced you to the movie The Little Mermaid.  Turns out, you like the movie trailer better than the movie itself.

Text from Grandma D. “We’ve been talking about the planets & space. Big news: Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves have now been detected & may revolutionize astronomy!”

You like to attempt to spell things. One night you told us, “There’s dangerous raccoon out there. Very dangerous raccoons, lions and goats. That’s P-I-N, goats.”

Your father was suggesting that we watch a movie, and instead of saying it, he said, “Shall we W-A-T-C-H a M-O-V-I-E?” Without missing a beat, you asked, “Does that spell movie? Because I want to see Pinocchio.”

Things I Want to Remember:

 

“Webodejo whoop…” You paused, I looked at you weird.  You clarified for me, “That’s the Spanish Buzz Lightyear.”

“Mommy!” you called.  I went to find you and there you were on the toilet.  “Yes?”  I asked.  “Smell, mommy.”  So I sniffed and said, “You sprayed the toilet spray.”  You said, “Yes, I did it right.”  I said “Oh, OK.”  You said, “OK,” and dismissed me by saying, “Now you can go back to your job…”

“Oh no!! My water fell in the water!!!” (Your drinking cup fell in the bath water.)

Going up the mountain to Big Bear, I had forgotten the external Bluetooth speaker. You were using your father’s OneSpace to watch a movie and I said, “The computer is not very loud.”  You said, “That’s OK, I can put the butt phones on.”  Incredulous, I asked, “Butt phones??”  You replied, “Pants phones or is it head phones?  Actually, let’s don’t use phones, I’ll just listen.”  And I’m just staring out the windshield laughing.

Going down the mountain, you were watching a movie, and you looked up after you finished and asked for another. I told you we were almost home.  You looked around and said, “This was the short way home… ”  Then you said you wanted something from your snack bag.  I informed you that there was nothing left, you’d eaten it all.  Disbelieving, you asked, “Can I see?”  If there were ever proof needed that movies make a person brain dead, I think this would qualify.

Trying a new toothpaste, you said, “This is weird toothpaste, it doesn’t taste like the picture looks. Maybe I’ll give this to daddy. I think maybe it’s grown up toothpaste.”

Your Grandma D. shared a story about your mustache glasses that you acquired after your last dental visit.  You put them on and looked in the mirror and said it looks like the guy at Weinerschnitzel and, grandma laughed, because sure enough, with those glasses on, you did look like the manager at our local Weinerschnitzel.

I was using my camera stabilizer, which has five legs, and you were fascinated by it. You finally told me that it looks like Mr. Waternoose’s legs from Monsters inc. You were right about that, too!

You woke up on February 14th and I asked you what day it was. You enthusiastically responded, “Valentine’s Day!!” I asked you what valentines day is about. You responded even more enthusiastically, “Eating candy!!!”

You asked if you could have candy for breakfast and I told you that you could have it later. A minute went by and you asked, “Is it later now??” I told you it wasn’t later, and you had to wait longer. You replied, “OK, well if you exist.” (Meaning insist.) I don’t know how you take anything I say seriously, because it is so hard not to laugh at all your responses.

One afternoon, you said, “I want apple, Mommy. Oh no, I forgot my manners didn’t I? Please, mommy, please may I have apples cut up in my cup?” And I pondered that perhaps the manners we are teaching you are getting through after all.

Every night, before your bath, you strip yourself down… lately you’ve taken to throwing your underwear on the floor and telling your father, “That’s a treat for you. You’re welcome!”

I sneezed pretty loudly one night in the bedroom while you were taking your bath. I heard you respond, “Dry Pee!”

You had something on your nose and you wouldn’t let me wipe it off. I shrugged, so you left and then came back and said, “I’m here to fight about my nose again!”

On our way to dinner, you wanted some snack food I told you not right now. You replied, “How could you do that to a little fellow like my body? The body is sad now.”

Overheard driving around, while you played with some toys in your car seat, “This is an actual phenomenon… The whale of the deep, the whale of the deep. Pinocchio movie…”

After our friend’s birthday party, I was consoling you about leaving, and told how you’re all full with good food and cake… and you said, “and joy?”  I said, “Sure, joy, too.”  You replied by singing, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, where?, down in my heart, where?” song.

While at the party, our friend brought a serving tray out of deviled eggs. You took one of them and took a bite, eating half of a half. You chewed and finished it. I offered the second half, you politely and calmly said “No, thank you, I thought they were cupcakes.”

After showing you the Mary Poppins movie, I dug out my vinyl record and I think Grandma D. plays it for you occasionally.  I know I do.  Somewhere you’re hearing it, because you walk around singing the Chim-Chimney, SuperCaliFragilisticExpiAlidocious and Love the Laugh songs.

You scribbled on the front of a library book with a crayon, Grandma D. told you that she was going to pay for it out of your piggy bank. You immediately ran over and grabbed your piggy bank and ran upstairs with it. Fortunately, Magic Eraser took the crayon markings off the book.

Your father bought you a traveling art packet, it has markers and paper in it for drawing, and we added a small packet of water paints.  You love this thing and one day driving around, you took a piece of paper out and drew a bunch of circles and squares on it.  You put it up to your ear and started talking, and told us, “I drew a cell phone.”

You asked to go to Disneyland. I told you it was too much money. You responded with your solution by telling me, “I will pay for us to go, we can use my piggy bank.”

You love the scent aisle in stores… I know I’ve shared that before.  My last foray into TJ Maxx, we visited the soap aisle first thing, and I told you I would buy you your favorite bar of soap and you could put it in one of your dresser drawers. You took your assignment very seriously and ended up choosing a pineapple bar of soap.  You then proceeded to sit in the shopping cart for the rest of my shopping time, unboxing your bar of soap, sniffing it, and reboxing it.  Repeat for 45 minutes.  We even walked through the toy section and you didn’t even notice.

One morning you were cuddling the cats. You told me, “Tug is my brother and Bug is my sister. Snuggy and Ripper are nothing to me.”

One afternoon we both got on our scooters and were heading down to the park in our neighborhood. It’s quite a ways and you switch which legs you use to push your scooter along. Halfway there, you stopped and turned around and looked back at our house and said, “Look at how many legs we’ve gone!”

There was some concern about a Green Dinner happening this year at your father’s church. This is an annual St. Patrick’s event that we have dubbed “Green Dinner.” When we told you that there might not be one this year, you immediately replied, “If there’s no green dinner, then I will be very sad and starve.” Fortunately, your Grandpa H. has the ear of the coordinators of the event, so one was eventually scheduled.

You love to play hide-n-seek and if your father has gone somewhere, you like to go hide for him to find us in the house.  All the while you are shushing me for snickering about it.  “Shush, mommy, daddy will hear you!” You take this VERY seriously.

You are so gregarious, silly and such a jokester, and can often pull off a joke with a totally serious face.  You will also exuberantly continue with a joke long after other people are done with it, so I find myself being conscious of this and reining you in.  Several people have commented to me over the last couple of months how happy, social and full of smiles you usually are, including your ice skating teachers. As is usually the case with people who have this type of personality, there is also a serious and sensitive side to you that isn’t always readily apparent.  Sometimes I find myself asking you if you’re joking or serious, because I don’t want to misinterpret something as a joke if you meant it seriously.   You have always been an exuberantly happy child, and I’m finding it fascinating to watch the depths of your personality refine itself.

Love, Mommy & Daddy

More pictures from this month can be found here:  LINK