Monday, April 18, 2011

Birthday Letter

Dear Little Dude,

Happy 4th Birthday, my sweet, little boy!!!!  You have been counting down birthdays until yours since after The Boy's.  First we celebrate Jesus' birthday, then Daddy's.  You knew that yours was coming up after Daddy's.  So then we started to count sleeps.

You woke up this morning and came to our room and knew that you didn't have any more sleeps left!!!  You knew that TODAY was THE day!!!

Then you thought about it.

Perhaps a little more deeply than most little boys your age.

You got that little whimper; crack in your voice as you tried to talk.

"I don't want to be four," you said.  "I want to be three"

You nestled your little head into my neck.  I think I might have even felt a couple of warm crocodile tears on my cheeks.

But then BuhBuh came to your rescue!!!  He said he had something for you....he put one of his toys and some of his guys on a shelf down low and told you that you could play with those toys anytime you liked and you didn't have to ask.

Thanks BuhBuh!!!

We celebrated YOU with some gifts and birthday cinnamon rolls just like we do with your big brothers.  You really enjoyed opening your gifts.  You got some new games, a pillow pet, a Leapster with some games and a soccer ball.

The cool thing about having your birthday fall on a Sunday is that your church family sings to you!!!  You were pretty excited about this and were giving some pretty enthusiastic fist pumps during the special serenade. 

We went out to lunch with some of our church family.  You asked if the restaurant was a good birthday place and were thrilled, as always that they had your favorite.  Chocolate milk!!!  Mommy and Daddy and The Boy had bible study then we came home and played your with your new games.

You are looking forward to your family dinner next Saturday when your aunties and uncles and cousins and grandmas and papa's will all be here.  Mommy is looking forward to it too.

What a fun year it has been to watch you grow and play and learn.

Naps are a thing of the past.  Once summer hit, it was just too hard to keep any kind of a nap schedule.  You do pretty good for the most part and go to bed well at night.  The car can still almost always lull you to sleep.  Which is not good when it's late afternoon.  We go back and forth between streaks of you climbing into our bed at night.  You've been really good about it lately, waiting until the sun comes up before you come in.  That I'm OK with! 

Although you were mostly potty trained prior to your 3rd birthday, there were a couple of more potty training hurdles that we had to conquer.  Which we did this past summer.   YIPPIE!!!

You started participating in the children's ministry programs at Church on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings.  I love that you are able to be independent from mom for short periods.  You also have loved going to preschool this past school year!  You run into your classroom everyday with so much anticipation and excitement and a couple of hours later run out of the classroom excited to see me.  It's been good for both of us I think.

You have a special friend that you met this year at preschool.  A cute little brunette girl who you hug at the beginning of the day at preschool and once more to say goodbye.  The two of you walk out to your mommy's vans holding hands every day.  It's only cute and allowed because you are this young.  We have discussed how she may not spend the night at your house because it's not appropriate for girls and boys to have sleep overs.  But we have enjoyed a couple of play dates after school with her.  You say she's your best friend; your favorite friend.  You tell me that you will miss her just about every day when we leave school.  I think it's precious that your first best friend is a little dark haired girl, just like both of your big brothers had first best friends who were little girls with dark hair as well.

You love the color yellow.  You have begun to enjoy watching Dora during your TV time in the afternoons.  You love to play games.  You play well with BuhBuh, The Boy, cousins, playgroup friends and church friends.  You love to snuggle with mommy in her bed and read books.  You love to wrestle with your Daddy.  You give me countless hugs and kisses all day long.  I love that.  You give a pretty terrific high five.  Recently you've mastered the "super spin"  and you can tell some pretty hilarious knock-knock jokes.  You like to rev your monster trucks through the house.  Your speech is improving, although we think we will need some speech services next school year.  You say such cute, funny things.  You tell me I'm beautiful then ask if that has melted my heart.  And yes, it does, every time. 

We've had lots of fun adventures this past year.  I've always said that 3 is one of my favorite years.  But, I have to tell ya my sweet boy, I'm REALLY excited for 4!!!  I can't wait to spend this last year home with you before you begin all of the adventures of school that lie ahead.  But not yet!!!  Let's just take it slow, one day at a time enjoying the moments that God gives us.

Happy Birthday my sweet little guy.  Mommy loves you so much!!!!


***editors note:  If I werent' trying to unpack boxes (yes, still!) and get ready for a birthday party on top of the normal things that we do day to day, maybe I could have found my camera cable to share some birthday pictures with you.  But NOOOOO, it wants to remain hidden.*** 

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Emery says Happy Birthday Tam-Yo!

Chervenka5 said...

Given that our four-year birthday is just a couple months away this post sounded very familiar and brought tears to my eyes! Happy birthday!