Jammie J's Quest

Dear William,

On February 8, 2016, you turned 50 months old.  You are 44 3/4 inches tall, 48 pounds and wearing the same sizes as last month.

Things we Did:

1/23 – Friend Joseph’s birthday party (Pump It Up!)

–Monday, aerial acrobatics class
–Various days, Library Story Time and Craft; Special Lego building day
–Thursday, Awanas
–Friday, Ice Skating Class

Ice Skating Class Highlights:

Overall, this class appears to be going well.  You have progressed from holding onto the sides for dear life to moving with great confidence across the ice and are able to get up easily, even when you’re nowhere near the sides.   This is something you achieved after the first class, by the way.  So it was particularly exasperating when you were in the practice skate portion of your class and you intentionally sat down on the ice and then lured a couple of little girls to come help you up.  There they were, attempting to pull you to your feet (both on ice skates) and both of them fell.  You looked around for another “victim” and determined it was all up to you, so you put your knee up and got up like it was nothing.

A couple weeks ago during class the teacher showed the kids how to make snow, the idea being an incentive to learn how to move their blades. What did you do? You plopped down on the ice until someone came over to help you up and then you begged them to show you how to make snow.  The couple people who you lured into doing it had a perplexed look on their face as they did your request, and then you smiled, thanked them and grabbed the “snow”, made a snowball, got up and skated off.

When we go to Taco Tuesday at the local bar, there are televisions all around us. Several of them have ice hockey games that are going on, and you watch those games transfixed.  You have told me that you want to be an ice hockey player when you grow up.

Aerial Arts Class Highlights:

You love to tell Ms. Robin about everything.  After our weekend in Big Bear, your father told you to tell Ms. Robin about what you did that weekend.  So when Ms. Robin asked you where you went that weekend, you told her you’d gone to Europe.  Guess that’s what happens when you work on geography in the morning between the weekend and class time.  Your imagination really takes you places!

One of your classes Ms. Robin canceled this past month because she was sick. You did a makeup in the beginning aerial arts class (instead of the Kinder class), there were 6 other students that Ms. Robin was working with, leaving you to your own devices much of the time… miraculously, you did your skills with confidence and a great attitude.  More confidence than either Grandma D. or Ms. Robin had seen before.  Yet, when you went back to your Kinder Arts class the following week, you were flopping on the floor and crying.  I’m not sure where to go from here; sometimes parenting is confounding and confusing.  But what I know is that you like Ms. Robin; you enjoy the class; you can do these skills; and I didn’t want you to give up.  You weren’t acting out, you were imploding within yourself and your self-talk was full of “I can’t.”  So I threatened and pushed and encouraged you to finish the class,  (1) because I want you to know that “hard” things are doable, (2) choices have consequences and life doesn’t wait for you, (3) you only have try to do your best, learning takes time, (4) tough days and classes happen,  (5) I wanted you to be able to say that, whatever else you did or didn’t do, you at least finished the class.  Because sometimes the only good thing about a bad day is the fact that it’s done.

Awanas Highlights:
The “new Hawanas” (as you call it) is going well.  You are thriving in the class and you don’t even miss me when we’re there. One of the nights this past month was Carnival night, and you were given “Awana Bucks” for learning your verses.  You were thrilled to pick out toys and spend your money, but mostly you were thrilled about the bouncy house that was there.  You also told the balloon artist that you wanted a sword, so he made you one… and as we walked away from him, you said, “That guy made me a sword, like a Philistine’s!”

You love snack time, even though the snacks are seriously ridiculously easy, like animal crackers and a cheese stick.  You don’t care, you’re just happy to get a snack.  Although, you get so involved in story time that you often miss the set up of the snacks and you’re the last one scrambling to find a seat.  It’s been good for you, because it’s teaching you to be flexible and to understand  that you don’t get the same seat every single time you go to the tables.  One night, I was across the room talking with the Leader, and after everyone had eaten their snacks, you said, “Uhh, excuse me, but my mommy needs a snack, too!”  Apparently you realized that everyone had eaten something but me, which was kind of funny because I really didn’t want a snack that evening.

Doing your craft at Awanas the week prior to Valentine’s day, there were a ton of cut out hearts you were supposed to affix to the paper with glue.  As usual, you were narrating your way through the craft and one of the things you said as you applied the twentieth heart was, “All these hearts remind me of Valentine’s Day.”

Then, later that night, instead of toy play time, one of the assistants came up with another craft.  Everyone sat down and you were gluing sparkly things to a paper.  You asked, confounded, “My goodness.  How many crafts do they have tonight, anyway?”

Morning Conversations:

“OK, I just want to talk. Ask me if I had a good dream…” “Yes, I dreamed of being a doctor and I fixed everyone. I dreamed of being Cubbie bear and growing and growing like a plant. I even dreamed of Spirit and I was riding him, and we JUMPED!!”

You told me the entire story about Jack and Jill and then ad libbed elaborate details into the story, about how they had friends to help them collect the bucket.

One morning after you woke up you said, “So I want a little cake.”… When I told you we didn’t have any little cakes, you replied, “Ok… so, how about some big cakes then?”

I told you one morning that my alarm clock had somehow been turned up really loud and it scared me when it went off that morning and that I was afraid it had awakened you.  You replied, “It was Tinkerbell.  She did it.  She turned up your alarm volume because she is *mis-cher-vous!”

*Phonetic mispronunciation.

William’s Prayers:

“Dear Lord, I do not thank you for this snot!”

“Dear Lord, please let there be more birthdays soon. Amen.”

“Dear Lord, please let me dream of Peter Pan and, Lord, let me be Tinkerbell in my dream. Thank you. Amen.”

“Dear Lord, I don’t thank you for this stuffy nose or for hail. Amen.”

“Dear Lord, please put a bubble around my bed and keep the bad dreams away. Amen.”

“Lord, please help tomorrow be a mommy & daddy day…. and if not, please put a bubble around my bed and keep the bad dreams away, and help me to dream of Tinkerbell or chalk drawing or mommy and daddy days tonight. Amen.”

Things I want to remember:

This past month I pulled out my Disney Story book that has 55 classic stories adapted from Disney movies. I read you one in the bath tub each night, as well as a mommy/son devotion. You love it and I love it. You ask for specific stories, and I always check the page count, some of them are quite long. But I’m thrilled that you love my Disney book.

Pretend play is a huge thing. You wait for Peter Pan in the mornings and say that you’re sure he’s hiding because I’m in your bedroom.  Any noise you hear is Peter Pan coming back to claim his shadow. When at the park, you run and put your arms out and say you’re flying to Neverland. You make up stories, and anyone who comes over gets to see a puppet show of an odd assortment of characters, while you stand in the hallway upstairs that looks over our living room.  Your current puppet choices are a Monster puppet, a pig and wolf.

You learned recently that I carry one of your flossing sticks in my purse.  Apparently, you’ve been getting stuff stuck in your teeth when you eat and then dealing with it.  But now that you made that discovery, you have no hesitation asking me to floss your teeth whenever or where ever we happen to be.

This month you have started running your fingers gently through my hair.  When I  look at you questioningly, you tell me, “I’m trying to brush your hair.”

I ordered a small, handheld, rechargeable vacuum cleaner to help keep the rogue cat fur tumbleweeds and the bird’s seed droppings under control.  When it got here, I told you it was your vacuum cleaner and that it is your job to clean up those things.  The $50 I spent on that vacuum cleaner has been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.  It has given you the freedom to clean when the mood strikes and even at the slightest mention of it, or if I claim the vacuum for a second, you come running to take over!

You take the health of Tug (our cat) VERY seriously and gives him regular check-ups with the doctor kit your father gave you for Christmas. From all appearances, Tug appears to be in good health.  You kindly informed your father that if any more of his cats die, that you’ll let him have one of your cats, either Tug or Bug.

We went to our mountain cabin this past month and it had snowed pretty heavily.  You told us on the way up that “I love Big Bear and I love sleeping!”  What went unsaid was that you love Big Bear because you get to sleep with mommy… and watch movies… and play in the snow.  We built a family of snow men  Even funnier, after our visit, we were halfway down the mountain, you said, “I’m going to tell you a really big joke.”  What’s that?, we asked.  You replied, “Let’s go back to Big Bear!!”  You saw a truck hauling a load of snow in the truck bed and you said, “Look!  That truck is carrying white!”  Whenever we ask you what you like best about Big Bear, you reply, “Fireworks!”  I guess last year’s 4th of July sojourn up there is stuck in your mind as a good memory.

Eating a snack in the car, “I need my water, please.”  I hand it to you, you drink, hand it back to me.  A few minutes later, “Water, please?”  I hand it to you saying, “Whaaaat?”  You reply, “I want some water. It’s healthy!”  Then again, you say, “I need my water, please?”  And then in a high-pitched, silly voice and a grin on your face, you answer yourself, “How many more times do you need to drink water anyway?”  There’s a slight pause and you answer yourself again, “Until I drink it all gone!”  And then you fake sneeze, “AIICCCHHHOOOOO” and it rains all over me and you burp, hugely, and add, “Say that’s not nice and you need to say excuse me!”  And I’m left wondering exactly how these manners we’re teaching you are being applied to your life.

You love birthday parties, and one of my friend’s son’s birthday was this past month.  You were excited for about a month beforehand, almost as if you thought it was your own party.  The day of the party, we went to the park and you were inviting every kid you were playing with at the park to the birthday party that was that evening.  As if they passed the fun factor, so they get to go to the party with you.  Then, at the party, you were so surprised that you were given a goody bag, and all the way home you were telling us, “Joseph gave me a goody bag because I was so good at the party!”

You have started the silly arguments of, I’ll say “You did, too!”  And you’ll reply, “Didn’t, didn’t, didn’t, didn’t!!”  Meanwhile, I’m interjecting, “Did, too… Did, too…Did, too!”

Mid-January a traveling horse show started setting up enormous white tents off the I-405 freeway.  They are huge and quite the vision.  One day I came home from work and was talking to Grandma D. about the show, and how ridiculous the ticket prices were.  You interjected into the conversation, “I could see the tents from the show from the awesome park today.”  The next time we were at the awesome park, I looked that direction and, sure enough, there were those tents.

At the awesome park, I sat myself down at the bottom of one of the slides.  You were running around and you took the time to come over and assure me, “Just call if you need me and I’ll come right over. OK, mommy?”

At the park there is a black chain obstacle course, and you like to climb on it and say, “I’m a happy spider!”

We are always pretending that we’re going to nibble you and one evening, your father told you, “I will sneak in your bedroom and nibble you because you ate pancakes for dinner.”  You replied, “And I’ll wake up and say. Dude! Go away!”

Always learning:

I asked you, “Do you know what Easter is about? It’s about Jesus rising again!”  You replied, “Nope! it’s about eggs. In the bushes, on the ground…”

Grandma put  4 items on a tray. She took  one away, two away, etc. Now you do it with other things, like when she puts food back in fridge.  Then I came home and we were talking about eating imaginary cookies. I asked, “So, you have four cookies, you give one to me and one to daddy and one to grandma.  How many do you have?”  “One!”  You replied, looked at me and said, “I guess I don’t want Grandma to have a cookie, because I want two.  But you and daddy can have yours.”

Drawing in the bathtub, I asked you to draw a person and you said, “OK” and then drew it like it was no big deal and as if you didn’t refuse to do it just 6 months ago. And everything had to have a dress on, and a hat. And the police man was also a daddy.

“I’m making bath crafts.” With your bath crayons, you drew people… and narrated, “That’s the son, the mommy and the police man.”  Turns out the police man is also the daddy and they wear dresses. “I like rainbows. God did something really special when they got out. He made a rainbow. Excuse me I need to draw the boat. Cuz the police man was in the ark right?”

Going on and on, you were giving details about toys that you wanted to go to Walmart and buy, “a bicycle with a bell and handlebars that go right and left.  A firetruck with a shiny ladder and a siren.”  I asked where you heard about all these toys, and you said, “From a book Grandma read me.”

I read you a book about various types of stones and you asked, “If you can have granite counters, can you have pomegranate counters?”

One Liners:

In a narrator voice, channeling Toy Story, “Welcome to Pizza Planet, with the new monitor and the T-Rex!”

When your father did something you didn’t expect, you said, “You’re fired, daddy.”  Aghast, your father asked, “Where’d you pick that one up?”  Deadpan, you replied, “At Walmart.”

After your iPod time with your Bible stories and favorite games, you informed me, “Playing candy games makes me want a treat!”

When it’s time for clean-up in the bath tub, I tell you, “Give me your feet!”  Laughing hysterically, you give me your hands.”  I then instruct you to “Give me your hands!”  You turn over and stick your butt in the air.

At lunch it took an inordinate amount of time for our order to come and you informed me sadly, “I’m over here waiting and waiting and no cheeseburger comes.”

We went shopping at TJ Maxx one Sunday, and after an inordinate amount of time in the soap and lotion area where you were twisting off lids and sniffing everything and then carefully twisting it back on, your father asked you hopefully, “Do you want to go see toys??”  As if you were doing your father a favor, you replied in a dismissive tone, “Oh, sure, daddy.”  SNIFF  “Just as soon as I finish smelling all my good smells…”

You had some real issues with hiccups this month, I think we’ve figured out that it is due to you swallowing air?  Your Grandma was quite concerned about you….  I’m not sure, but burping seems to help you.  We will continue to monitor you.

Text from Grandma one afternoon:  “William moved his trampoline over between the table & the kitchen. While jumping on it he realized his head was bopping up in the mirror & he is totally laughing at himself…peek a boo.”

We drove past an enormous furniture store one afternoon.  They were holding a tent sale in the parking lot to clear out inventory and they had various “rooms” set up under the tent as a display.  You asked what it was, and I explained the situation.  You replied, “This looks like a big house.”

You found a Pez dispenser that had Sally (from Cars movie) on it.  You informed me, “This is a Cars elevator.”

We have two bottles of Kid’s vitamins that you get to choose from each night.  One is Cars and the other is Frozen themed.  You’ve been getting these for about a year now, and I finally figured out that you intentionally alternate which one you get each day.  One day you choose Cars, the next day you choose Frozen.  I was astounded when I realized that was the crux of your problem some days when you take extra long to figure out which one you want, you’re trying to remember which one you had the day prior.  I think we solved the issue, though, because I came to the realization that you get to have two vitamins now because you’re 4 years old, so now you get one of each.  Your understanding of the resolution, in your own words, despite what I told you is, “I get two vitamins because I’m 2.”  I guess in your mind you’re forever 2 years old.

When anyone asks you how old you are, you immediately hold up 2 fingers and say with a huge smile, “I’m two.”  I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion, you know very well how old you are.  Personally, I think you believe it’s a great, big joke, because you like very much to make people laugh and, given your size, telling people that assures you a laugh and a conversation.

Love, Mommy and Daddy

(More pictures from this past month can be found here:  LINK)

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)

Dear William,

On December 8, 2015, you turned 4 years old. You are a smidge below 45″ tall and weigh 48 pounds. You are wearing 5T pants and shorts, and boys 6 in shirts. You are wearing size 7 in footed pajamas and size 13 Wide in shoes.

I’ll give fair warning here that this has been a Very Big Month for you. So if you’re here for a quick read, you may want to either skip to the end for the picture link, or grab a bottle of water and settle in. This is a long letter. 🙂

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

11/14 – Day out With Thomas (Reminder for next year to me, BRING YOUR THOMAS USB THUMB DRIVE!!! The photographer gives a $10 discount on pictures & will load them on the drive!)
11/20-11/22 – Weekend in Big Bear
11/22 – swimming w/ Mommy
11/26 – Thanksgiving with family
11/28 – Sea World for Grandma D.’s Birthday
11/29 – Breakfast with Grandparents and a birthday party for family friend
12/05 – Your birthday party
12/06 – Your first performance as an aerialist
12/08 – Disneyland

Favorites this month:
Color: Red, blue, yellow and brown
Song: Siamese Cats
Movie: Frozen
Food: Chicken strips
Snack: Sea World snack (little crackers)
Dessert: Cake
Fruit: Cherry
Vegetable: Carrots
Class: Miss Robin’s class (KinderCirque)
Teacher: Miss Robin
Store: Target
Restaurant: The one with the planes at the hall (Ruby’s at the mall)
Vacation spot: San Francisco
Toy: Big Buzz and Big Woody and Big Jessie and their hats and Big Bullseye and the stand
Park: Awesome park
Theme Park: Zoo and Disneyland
Anything else? Rock, truck, car, restaurant, stop sign… trains, street.

Sleeping:

You have been sleeping with no issues this past month. Falling asleep easy, and despite how you tease me in the evenings (saying, “I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night and call and call for you and tell you that you forgot to do my nose spray and I have a stuffy nose!”), you are sleeping through the night until I wake you in the morning.

You are now of an age where, if we’re doing something exciting the next day, we can’t tell you because the anticipation gives fuel to your imagination and you can’t fall asleep, and then you wake up early and then you’re tired for the exciting thing!

Food:
You have a good appetite and a sense of culinary adventure. You have no issues eating. In fact, one night, you dipped your chicken nuggets into your chocolate pudding. Gross! Your grandma D. tells me that she serves you most of your leftovers cold, which kind of icks me out, but she says you eat it fine. So I shrug and say, “Whatever works!”

Things I want to remember:

How you love sticks and can entertain yourself happily for hours outside with just a stick. I never knew sticks could possibly have so many uses. From being a “digger” to an “ice poker” to being a “shooter” to who knows what tomorrow!

One morning you told me, “I’m going to go upstairs to wake up daddy.” I said, “You can, but you know he’s going to snuggle you.” You replied, “Oh, that’s OK because I like that. But I can’t right now because I’m finishing my hot chocolate.” A few minutes passed, you got up and said, “OK, I’m going upstairs now.” I say, “OK, have fun.” You said, “OK, but I better take my froggy because daddy’s going to try and snuggle me!”

Miss Mary, your Awana leader, has nicknamed you Pastor William because when asked if anyone knows their Bible verse, you blare it out as loud as you can. I admit that I role play with you for the entire 10 minute drive there, just because I think it’s funny to hear you say the verse so loudly.

I took you swimming the evening we got back from Big Bear. It was 5:45 PM when we got to the pool, the sky was already dark and the moon high and bright in the sky. You exclaimed over the wonder of it, and a couple of times you stopped swimming and were staring vacantly and I asked you what was wrong, you said, “Nothing’s wrong, but the moon is following me!” The moon has been coming up in the afternoon, we see it sometimes as early as 3 PM, and sometimes it’s still wandering the sky in the morning. You have determined that the moon is lost!

You told me the Monday morning before Thanksgiving that you weren’t going to enjoy Thanksgiving, that you’re not going to eat turkey or mashed potatoes or ANYTHING at Thanksgiving. Later that day at KinderCirque class you told Miss Robin that Thanksgiving is fun and turkey is your favorite thing to eat. I laughed and laughed when your grandma D. told me that!

You can be a little bit of a contrarian sometimes, One evening, I told you we were eating leftovers for dinner and asked you what you wanted from your leftovers. You replied, “I want broccoli, steamed broccoli. Also, some hot dog that daddy made. And some apple, cut up. Please.” So I go gather these things for you and you say, “I don’t want any of these things. What I really want is a cherry popsicle.” I would be very annoyed with you, except your outlandish requests are couched in such sweetness. As it is, I simply told you that I spent 15 minutes putting all these things together at your request and you need to tell me thank you and my appetite has changed. May I have one or two bites of these things and then have a cherry popsicle, please? See, the thing is, I’ve dealt with “food issues” and “appetite changes” every day of my own life. I understand that sometimes something that seemed appealing 15 minutes ago maybe isn’t anymore. But I’ve learned that showing gratitude before changing my request can make a world of difference to the recipient, so I hope to teach you the same thing. Also, the cherry popsicles are homemade, so they’re just as healthy as the rest of it. And sometimes, we all just want to eat dessert first, because often times I’ve found with you that if I serve your dessert with your meal, that you’ll eat it all at the same time with no issues.

Watching Toy Story 3 over the weekend, you exclaimed, “Andy’s hat is red, just like Jessie’s hat!” The timing of that observation by you is striking because I had just the week prior emailed your father a link to a theory about Jessie’s owner being Andy’s mom, and one of the primary pieces of evidence of that theory is the red hat!

How in the mornings, one of your favorite things to do is to lie in the middle of the walkway and say, “Oh no, there’s a speedbump in your way!” And then you laugh and laugh when we faux trip over you. And then the speedbump moves and we have to trip over it again, and more laughter. Sometimes the speedbump gets really tall as you bear walk, and other times the speed bump gets really long when you stretch out on the floor.

Saying prayers one night, I prayed for Miss Mary at Awanas. You interrupted to clarify, “Excuse me, mommy, we have TWO Miss Marys. One at Awanas and one at library.” I said, “Yes, we’ll pray for all the Miss Marys!”

One morning, you pulled all your toys out and they were strewn all over the living room. I told you I was going upstairs to get dressed and that I would love to be surprised when I came back down to find all your toys put away! About 3 minutes after I was upstairs, I heard you screaming and crying. When I came running down to check on you, you were kneeling on your knees and leaning on the lid of your toy chest. I gathered you up and asked what was wrong, you pointed at your toy chest and said, sobbing, “It won’t close!! They don’t all fit in there!” Oh, dear child. I told you if that ever happens, it is OK, to please just call me and we’ll figure it out together. And I showed you that, if it doesn’t fit, you could just pull something out and set it aside, as long as it’s not in the walkway.

Then when I was going upstairs, you stopped midway to pet the cats. I told you I was going on up and you could come up when you were ready. You acknowledged me and then again 3 minutes later, you were crying because I left you petting the cat. Goodness!

How you love to dance (but NOT in a class) and most of your dancing consists of walking with the crown, like you did in ballet class. Also your KinderCirque training is showing up when we dance, you love to jump up and circle me with your legs, then go upside down, and then legs together and to the floor. You call it “our trick.” In fact, we went to a birthday party for a family friend and there was a live band and lots of people were dancing. You, literally, dragged me out to the dance floor so you could do “our trick!”

At the birthday party, after a particularly rousing dance you went back to the table to take a break. You got up and went over and looked at all the mini birthday cakes that had been set out. After your inspection, you came back, sat down and declared, “I need a beer before I dance again.” I’m guessing you overheard someone say that.

You are also very into “saving food for later.” I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been out somewhere and you don’t finish your food and you tell us, “That’s OK, we’ll just put it in the fridge and save it for later.”

Your Grandma D. couldn’t find her camera for one of your aerial class practices. Unbeknownst to you, I lent her one of mine. You arrived at your class and you told your Grandma D., “You can’t find your camera, I don’t have to do well today!” Grandma D. pulled my camera out and said to you, “I have your mommy’s.” You stared and said, deflated, “Oh.”

At one point during that practice, you declared yourself “tired.” So instead of letting you flop on the floor, Miss Robin escorted you over to sit next to Grandma. She told you that when you were ready to work again to come back over. Your “rest” lasted about 30 seconds and you tore off after Miss Robin and listened a bit better after that.

Miss Robin challenges you to do the things in her class by yourself. You struggle, but you keep trying and I’m grateful to her for encouraging you and keeping you interested, even though it means that sometimes you flop on the floor. I encouraged you to do your TA DA!! when you land. For some reason, that has gone by the wayside in the last few months.

Every morning, after you’ve snuggled awake, you ask me< "Is this a mommy and daddy day?" I've learned that when it's a work day, I simply tell you that we have to go to work, and you cry. If I answer that it's a grandma day, then we go down a path about how you don't like Grandma (although you love her to pieces and you say that you're her sweetheart) and that you don't WANt a grandma day.

At breakfast one morning, your father was talking to his dad and you were trying to talk to your Grandma H. who is a soft-talker. You politely interrupted your father and said, "Excuse me! You're talking to him and I'm talking to her, but I can't hear her when you're talking, so you need to be quiet while she is talking, please."

When we went to Big Bear, there was still some snow on the ground from the week’s prior storm. You had a grand time walking around in the back yard with a stick, digging holes in the snow. We left for the day and came back that evening and there were dog tracks in the yard. We examined them for a minute and you said, in the perfect intonation of a private investigator, “Someone’s been walking in our snow! Who was it?”

We have found that it's really important to pay attention to you and what you're saying. You are really good at entertaining yourself and you generally tell us what you're doing, whether we listen or not. For example, at breakfast one Sunday morning, you were bending over your chair facing your father's direction. He was busy talking to his dad, who was seated on the other side of him, and you were repeatedly saying, "Pbbb pleb pooh! That's disgusting!" You would finish your routine and take another bite of eggs from your plate, and then do the same thing. A lady at a table across from you gave us the side-eye. Curious, leaned around your backside to look at your face. I couldn't really see, I could just hear you, so I nudged your father and asked him what you were doing. He looked at you, not expecting anything, after all, you were playing peacefully. Turns out, you were creatively spraying egg bits all over the floor. "Pbbbb Pleb Pooh! That's DISGUSTING!"

The morning when we got up to go to Sea World, you exclaimed, "I'm William the whale speed bump!" You then told us that you were going to bring your small bucket and you were going to take Shamu home in a bucket. When we told you Shamu was too big to bring home in a bucket, you told us, "Then I'll bring baby Shamu home in my bucket." I had to tell you that even baby Shamu was too big to bring home in a bucket.

Your grandpa tried to tease you by placing your underwear on your head after you went to the restroom. You emphatically told your grandpa, "My underwear goes on my butt, not on my head!"

Driving around, your father was listening to his music. You said, "Excuse me, I want William songs, like Lightning Lost or something, please?"

Talking about Thanksgiving, you explained to us, "So my birthday is way far away, all these other things have to happen first."

One evening you found my Bible sitting on a chair. You made off with it and I asked you where you were taking my Bible. You corrected me and told me it was GOD'S Bible and you needed to read God's word.

You stood on a chair, reached into the bag to pull out dry erase markers and proceeded to write on the white board. You told me, "Mr. William is the teacher today, you are Miss Mary. I am drawing words right now."

Listening to tractor tipping song, you exclaimed, "Frank ate the old William and now you have a new William!" Surprised, we asked, “We have a new William??" You replied, "Yes! Absolutely!"

In Big Bear, you discovered the play kitchen (that your Grandpa made probably 40 years ago) in the storage room under the bunk beds. You spent at least two hours playing with that thing and were sad that we had discovered it the last day there.

You put a pair of sunglasses on and then over it some party glasses. You informed us that you were wearing some "Watch where I'm going glasses and sunglasses."

One evening I was reading a book and you told me, "You're concentrating away from me, I need you to concentrate on ME!"

In Big Bear, you were sitting on the toilet and you exclaimed, "This toilet seat is not very loud." I realized you were banging the lid against the tank and because it's a padded seat and lid, it wasn't making any noise. I then also realized that you bang the toilet seat against the tank a lot at home. I never noticed that before.

At the bar for Taco Tuesday, they have many TV screens. You were watching them and all of a sudden you exclaimed, "That's the Nutcracker!" Sure enough, an advertisement had come on for an upcoming showing of the Nutcracker Suite

After Taco Tuesday, there is a sidewalk that you like to run down. The week prior, your father had freaked out because the sidewalk ends and it's the street. I knew you would stop, as you and I have discussed it many times, but your father did not. So this time, you took off running running and turned back and reassured your father, "I will stop at the end, daddy!"

Going to the bathroom, you intentionally locked the door. I unlocked it to check on you and you ushered me out of the bathroom and told me, "I don't need you in here." Then you locked it behind me. This has it's benefits, because when I'm going to the restroom, you will ask if I need privacy and if I say yes, you turn and leave.

We took you to see the new Peanuts movie. The previews and advertisement were endless. After about 20 minutes, you got up and went to the opposite side of the theater and said, "That's it, I'm going away from you advertisements!"

One of the previews was for the upcoming movie called, The Secret Lives of Pets. You thought that preview was hysterically funny and now you ask to watch it over and over again. You always get my attention before the weiner dog massages himself with the kitchen mixer because you know that’s my favorite part of it.

Speaking of previews, one of the things that you love is to watch the shorts that come on the DVDs of your movies. Recently, after watching Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron, you asked to watch one of the behind-the-scenes shorts. Your father suggested that maybe you wouldn’t enjoy it, but you insisted. So, we sat there and watched how they drew Spirit, and the artist gave a tutorial on how to draw the horses. Halfway through it, you stood up, went to the table, asked for your school supplies and you sat down and started drawing circles on the paper. You then asked for help to draw a horse from the circles, just like you had seen in the “short.”

Driving along in a train, you pretended to stick your hand out the window. You said, "I won't fall out, I'm not like Mr. Potato Head or something."

One morning you went out in the hallway. I could hear you talking to someone and giggling. When I asked you what you were doing, you told me, "I don't want to tell you!" I assured you that if you told me, you wouldn't get in trouble. You looked at me, taking my measure, and then replied, "I'm messing with the bird."

Sitting on the landing of our stairs, where all the cats congregate and our bird cage is hung, you exclaimed in your best narrator voice, "Welcome to Pet Land!"

About a month ago, I bought a Keurig on clearance at Walmart. Now whenever you hear it, you come running and ask for hot chocolate, in your whale mug, with two ice cubes, a lid and a straw. You gather everything that you can reach and group it on the counter so that it's all organized and convenient. How can I turn that down??

From Halloween, you still have tons of candy. You get a piece every day and you get to pick it. You saw the lollipops when they were given to you and I think they're horrible, so I threw them away. I'm silly for doing that, I know, but I can't help it. You still ask for them every day and the way you say "lollipop" is just the cutest thing ever. I'm glad I tossed them, because I would give them to you if I had them anymore.

You say some pretty deep things sometimes without provocation, and I'm always shocked when stuff like that comes out of your mouth. This month, the one that took me aback was when we were Watching the opening scene of Lady & the Tramp, you exclaimed over the cuteness of Lady as a puppy. The scene changed to the night time and Lady being put to bed all alone and the commentary by Jim Dear about being a master and training the puppy from the beginning, and then he locks Lady in the room. Watching all this, you exclaimed, "He locked her in there!!" Then you said, "The thing about being a master is… it's not about locking someone away, it's about loving them." I'm guessing that it's because in Awanas one of their core teachings is that Jesus our master loves us… Plus, you have been very much into loving our pets. Apparently, the way the movie's script is worded triggered this in your mind.

On the eve of your birthday, I put 3 year old to bed. I feel immensely blessed to be able to hold you in my arms as you fall asleep each night. There is some sort of magic that happens when your eyelashes flutter against your cheeks in trust as you fall asleep. On the cusp of sleep, your eyes close slowly, open, close slowly, open, I hold my breath… and your eyes drift closed, your hand twitches, your leg moves, your breathing deepens, your body relaxes. One thousand four hundred and sixty times you have fallen asleep in my arms at night. You say it makes you feel loved and safe and that you like that. I will hold you and let you fall asleep in my arms for as long as you let me. Just as you obsessed yourself into rolling over, crawling, pulling up and eventually walking, I know it is inevitable that, when you are ready, you will pull away and fall asleep on your own, too. However, for as long as we waited for you, dreamed of you, longed for you, and all those nights I would lay in bed and wish that I had a child to hold in my arms. Now you are here. Now I can hold you in my arms. My very own child. Sometimes I still don't believe it. And it seems that time with you goes much faster than the time did without you. So, I hold you for these fleeting moments, and you gently cross into dreamland in my arms, for I know the day is coming all too soon when you will fly far and wide on your own wings, and I will remember with gratitude these times, with no regrets. No regrets ever.

More pictures from this month can be found here — Link

We love you forever,

Momma (and Daddy)