Thumper Turns Four

My sweet little Thumper,

Today is your fourth birthday, and I must admit I am having a hard time with this.  You’re my baby.  I’ve adjusted to having you in preschool, but pretty soon there will be longer days at school and less time at home.  But you are Mama’s little boo, and when it’s part of your routine, you are off doing your own thing without me.

We have worked so very hard this past year, and it can be measured in so many ways.  Your vocabulary and expressive language has improved.  Your personal interactions have gotten better.  You know shapes, colors, letters, and numbers.  You can count up to twenty!  You are learning about turn-taking through multiple games a week of Cariboo.  You love puzzles.  You can kick a ball and now we’re working on throwing one (c’mon, lefty, Mama’s going to make a pitcher out of you yet).

And for every layer of mystery we manage to figure out, there is another maze waiting to be solved.  You won’t drink anything but water – not even juice – but you will eat popsicles.  If it’s a cookie, you will eat it.  If it’s chocolate, you will eat it.  You will eat alfredo sauce over linguine, but not marinara over spaghetti noodles.  You will eat teriyaki chicken (most of the time), but not any other chicken.  You will eat spinach tortellini with marinara, and rotini in a casserole, but penne is evil.  Macaroni and cheese was fine until 2 weeks ago.  Pizza is awesome, grilled cheese is good, peanut butter and jelly is life.  Yogurt and hard cheese are what you steal out of the fridge to eat.  And apples.  And bananas.  But you will eat a cut-up apple, yet scream if a banana is broken in half.  Have I mentioned that you HATE broken food?

Your love of music has only increased, and gets a little odder all the time.  You are obsessed with opening and closing credits (especially the closing credits of all Star Wars movies), and listening to you “sing” several pieces of Doctor Who music in the car is a highlight.  You are the only child I’ve ever known who would listen to the 20th Century Fox fanfare on repeat, while jumping on a trampoline.  You are the happiest with your music playlist off YouTube, and a trampoline.  That is your zen.

And Thumper, you are a freaking ninja.  You have the gift of being able to sneak off, sneak in, sneak up, sneak a snack – and never make a sound unless you want to be found.  We’ve had to start locking doors in the house to keep you out of bedrooms – especially your sister’s top bunk, or Mama and Daddy’s bed, where you hide under the sheets without making a peep, until we find you.  Then you giggle like mad.  Your receptive language skills and memory are better than you let on – which is why you are able to get into your sister’s laptop, click on Google Chrome, and get onto YouTube to watch videos when our backs are turned.  You are so observant that if you watch your siblings do something once, you’ve gleaned enough to try it yourself.  This speaks well of your intelligence, but is very dangerous for us, especially since you think you know how to use a microwave.

I have no idea what the future holds for you (though I am determined to keep you away from microwaves for a while), but you are working so hard to get there, and I’m going to make sure that I document it the entire journey as we go there together.  I love you so very much, Fluffy McLashes.  Happy 4th birthday, my snuggle sushi gigglebox boy.

Love,
Mama

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 21st, 2017 at 12:41 am and is filed under Announcements, Children, Mommyhood.
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