3 1/2 years old!

Hey AB,

Well, I was scheduling this letter to appear on your 41 month mark, but the baby arrived before I finished it.  This was compiled in your last month as an only child.  It won't be the last time I record little details of your life (usually scribbled on stray envelopes and receipts in my purse) but there is double the detail to capture now.  You have exceeded our big brother expectations and I think it has exceeded yours too.... you love being a big brother because so far it means fun visitors that bring presents and extra daddy time.  Anytime KC is grunting, you are quick to say - "I think he needs big brother's [silly face]" - insert your latest funny something.  I can't wait until he starts giggling back at you.  So here goes the original letter: We've been soaking in as much mommy and me time as we've ever had, and I'm so grateful for the time we've been able to spend together during the last few months.  You are so much fun and I think that KC is one lucky kid to have you as a brother... probably even luckier than I am to be your mommy.

This month you've been all about changing the environment by not just getting out and about, but by playing in the slightly more organized basement (thanks to house showings) or taking more advantage of the space in your room.  We've been keeping pretty busy with the weekly storytimes and yoga mixed with some fun with friends. We visited my friend who is fostering baby squirrels before their return to the wild.  You were so quiet and observant while we watched her feed them through the cage.  We hosted brunch with a baby that was very interested in everything you did.  We went to a mom friend's house for a big play date.  You said on the way home, "I like those playdate deals where I get to play with all the cool new toys!"

Your class talked about April Fool's Day being a good day to tell jokes, and oh boy, did you like to make up your own jokes and laugh at them.  You also wanted to go to daddy's office to "April Fool surprise" him!  We snuck into his office building and caught him by surprise.  You were so smiley and quiet tip toeing in to find him.  You love a bad knock knock joke:

Knock knock, who's there?

- phone!  phone who?  phone with hair!  hahahah!

- messy!  messy who?  messy mirror!  bwaahhahah!

These are just two of hundreds that you made up that just didn't mean much, but your giggle fits were enough to make us laugh.  You also had a whole batch of other crazy nonsense jokes (you'd sometimes even give us a context): "If something is a color that is not supposed to be, then don't eat it!  You can't eat purple chicken!" "Trees don't have bones because they aren't animals!" "Stop signs don't have tongues because they don't need to taste - they just say stop!"  The best part is when you giggle at your own silliness.

Your dad tells you elaborate stories about sea dragons and tigers, which you love to hear over and over again.  I think you'd call them dad's "big fish tales" because I think you really think they are partly real. J even points out scratch scars on his arm and tells you the tiger did them (even though they were from Sophie kitty).  You get most excited by the sea dragon story where dad claims to as a kid ventured undersea riding on the dragon.  The story ends with the dragon saying that he will come back when J has his own kids to meet them and take them for a ride. Your eyes light up that YOU and maybe even your brother will get to ride the dragon.  You even leaned into my belly and said "Baby, are you brave to ride the dragon with me?" It was so sweet.

You had a real quick icky day with a fever one random Sunday this month and a few random tummy trouble episodes.  You haven't had any sort of illness for so long I can't think of the last time you were actually wanting to snuggle on the couch for that long.  You even took a nap.  You asked me sweetly, "Mom, when will my tummy and forehead stop hurting?"  I asked you later if your head still hurt, and you said, "No, it's just my forehead!"  We took your temp three different ways (ear, armpit, and mouth - which didn't work that well) and we think it was around 102 degrees.  Luckily Tylenol did its job for you so quickly, we should have signed you up for a Tylenol commercial ;)

You made one of my Mondays when Mrs. Healey invited me into your room at pick up time to check out your most recent work.  At first when she invited me in, I was worried that something icky had happened, like rock throwing or your frustration with Alyssa "stealing your work" had escalated. As we walked over she said that this makes her conference report "out of date" since this was something she'd mentioned that you'd start working on, but now you already completed it on your own.  You'd taken these little figures (cat, cow, man, dog, etc) and spelled them out with wooden letters.  You showed it to me and said "ta-da!" You even ran out of letters because you spelled so many words.  She let you do them all on your own, and you insisted that man was "mand with a silent d."  Mrs. Healey said that "it will come" and she will show you more when you start writing the words.  You were also rattling off all the fun things that know from your Gran Cat - "Cat told me all about the "bossy R" and I know how to find him!"  Our actual observation in your classroom showed us how serious you get about your work.  You were still your silly self though motioning to us with a 'ta-da' smile when you matched all the dinosaur skeletons with their bodies.  Your favorite work was the light table we were sitting next to...  You were challenged by the tracing with the real excitement being the opportunity to take your new traced drawing over to your cubby.  You would make even Mrs. Healey smile when you'd tell her as you wrote on your drawing, "I'm writing a special note for my mom." (which actually parallels the observation note she writes about you and you classmates.)

Your school did a great job of chasing away those winter blues this month.  Between the very anticipated 100 Day Party and Pajama Day you were so excited.   You were excited to pick ten things for the 100 day party and you settled on guitar picks.  Your class started learning about the body.  You started by telling me general things like "your bones even help you fall down and then muscles can help you get back up" and then started telling me really specific things like "these are all my phalanges!"  The head, shoulders, knees, and toes song became skull, clavicle, patella, phalanges instead.

You woke up a bit late the other day, and your mind was already whirring away.  You said, "Mommy, do you know what adopt means?"  I said, "Yes, what do you think it means?"  "Well, it means that you can keep something with you, and Mrs. Healey says it to me at the door when I leave school because she wants to adopt me."  Now it's not quite in Mrs. Healey's personality to tell you that she wants to adopt you, so I'm thinking she was talking about adopting a fish or a dog.  So I explain to you that you can go to an animal shelter to adopt an animal and that some families even adopt a child if they can't have their own.  You responded with "Oh, that's nice Mommy" and it was a sweet moment - followed by frustration when you then tried to make up another meaning for the word and I calmly told you that it doesn't also mean that.  You like to make up meanings and try to convince me that they are true sometimes getting frustrated when I won't agree with you.  I suppose you are just test driving some persuasion skills that may come in handy later in life.

Your new adopted baby Blinky (named because of his open/close eyes) was more of a hit than your dad and I expected.  You love repeating all the baby guidelines you've learned from your books and hospital class.  The exo-buggy set that you picked out (think tinker toy with bug pieces) at the store was also a pretty big hit.  When you first got it you were so excited to show it to your dad.  Unfortunately he had a dinner meeting and wasn't sure he'd be home before your bedtime, so I told you he had a special meeting and you could show him in the morning.  You said, "Call daddy and tell him Aiden can be the adult and go to the meeting for him, so that he can come home and see my cool new toy."

You would occasionally get into a few dot to dots on menus at restaurants, but this month you were much more excited about them.  You got a book from your grandparents with tons of them with numbers and letters (which is awesome!) and you became obsessed.  You've also expanded your love of the war card game with a new addition version that the leprechaun delivered in your basket.  I have to say that playing card games with you can be pretty relaxing.  You love playing Shrek Junior Monopoly.  Your dad made the mistake of saying, "You owe me a buck!"  You replied inquisitively "A buck?  What's that? I don't have one of those."  Your dad taught you a new slang for a dollar and you may never want to say dollar again.  When we were at the store playing your name the price game, you wanted to say one buck.

Other funny phrases:

"That hug was too medium!  Gimme a bigger one!"

"Daddy, you don't hear tears, you see them."
"On rainy days I love mud puddles - In real life, walking through mud doesn't slow us down, just in our songs!"
"Sigh is a worry word, use it only when you're bored"

You loved watching daddy jump off the diving board at the pool on our Sunday family swims.  The jumps continued at home off the couch into the "black hole" bean bag chair. You played games about jumping into pools of silly things - crunchy peanuts and then sticky peanut butter!  You'd say silly thing, "It's going to spray us up this time, jump on the board!"  While playing "walk on rocks" with the big pillows from the couch you'd tell me, "This is a job for kids - to put all the pillows on the floor -

another important rule is to see who can get to the rocks first!"

We are lucky to have great library programs around.  Your highlight was definitely visiting the Cat in the Hat and being Thing 1.  You love library storytime especially during the shake your sillies out song and when the puppet Picabo the monkey introduces the stories and asks you to guess the theme of the day.  He gave a clue that all the stories were about something that floats - and you guessed boats!  You leave singing the songs of the day - "...down by the bay where the watermelon grow...My mother will say, Have you ever seen a bear combing his hair?..."

When we were celebrating Pi Day, you got so excited by your pi symbol mustache that I was worried that you actually thought pi was used to put under your lip to make people giggle.  Then your dad started telling you about a google 10 to the 100th power and how it was named by a famous mathematician's little kid.  You said, "Wow, Dad, I didn't need to know that" which I thought was pretty funny.  There have been many new questions lately.  You asked me what all people need - which must be one of those class questions Mrs. Healey talked about - You answered you own question explaining that we all need food, water, and homes.  Then just in time for international water day, you asked where does water come from?  thanks to these great animated charts online you now explain evaporation and precipitation, those "silly gigantic words."

More questions:
AB: "Mom what does 'either one' mean?"
Mom: It means you can make a choice between this one or that one - you can choose 'either one'
AB: "I always like both!"
Your song about picking as many as possible:

"There once was a little boy that decided to be a monster

but that didn't work

He tried to be a dragon

but that didn't work

He tried to be prickly turtle

but that didn't work

So he tried to be all three!"

AB: Why are all those statues in that field mom? [pointing at a cemetery we drive past on the way to yoga]
Mom: Those are called tombstones and that is a cemetery.
AB: Is that where we plant things?
Mom: There are a lot of plants.  But it is where dead people are buried.
AB: Did they die and not have any more extra lives? (thanks super mario brothers)

You devoured more food this month than I've ever seen you eat - I think you are going through a growth spurt because all your shirt arms and pant legs are slowly getting shorter.  You loved eating peanut butter sandwiches especially with an extra smear on the crust.  You will gobble the crusts up first with a little extra pb goodness.  You are always telling your dad to try, try, try and maybe he will like the peanut butter after all!

I love it when you ask to do something again or wait patiently to do it until after school. You'll say, "Remember mommy you said we could try this right after we got back from school!"  You were most excited to drip food coloring into a big bowl of water and mix it around to create new colors.  The close second was chasing that tricky leprechaun from door to door and pretending that you saw him "skitter scattering" across the ceiling.

(Here is a tidbit I wrote while technically in labor) I'm excited to show you the storybook I recorded for you when you get up this morning.  You will probably want to read the Snuggle Puppy book with me and that will be a treat that I know will continue as soon as I get back from the hospital.  I can't wait to introduce you to your brother...

I'm proud of you big brother.  Love, Mommy