Four should be fun

Dear Jonah,

Four! You are four today! You've been counting down the days for a while. To you, that mostly means saying "tomorrow I'll be four!" and my reminding you that no, you have a X days left. For about two months now. But finally it was actually true.

Lucy saying "There's the birthday boy!"

You're such a simple kid. You didn't have grand plans for your birthday. You wanted homemade pizza with Pepperoni AND sausage. You wanted a dessert with dirt and gummi worms (but not cake, you don't like cake) and you wanted to go to the zoo as a family. And maybe some Legos. Because you are big now. But not too big. I love that you still want me to snuggle with you at night but I fear those days are numbered.

You love to be a boy. Obviously having a big sister has influenced you a bit but the boy is coming out and you are starting to exert yourself more and more. Just this morning Lucy managed to convince you to pretend to be Gaston so she could be Belle but then you decided that Gaston needed to eat Belle instead of want to marry her.  So then she tried Jafar so she could be Jasmine. You'll go along with her plans to spend the morning drawing but decide to draw trucks and cars and helicopters instead of the princess scene she suggests.

You and Lucy continue to be best friends. I love watching you talk to each other. You understand each other in a way no one else can. And you've got to keep up with her. You fill in answers when she takes her exams, you insist on doing math too - and your pretty good!  You are also amazing at puzzles and love to put together spatial type block challenges whether that's games or duplo buildings just based on a single picture. You've started writing your letters and love to sit with Lucy so she can make one for you to copy.

But you don't leave Norah behind. You are a great big brother. You love to sing, to the tune of Oh, Shenandoah, "Oh Norah Jane, I really LOVE you" and you are always watching out for her. Sometimes your help causes more problems that real help but your heart is in the right place. You can make her laugh so easily and you insist on rushing in to her as soon as you hear her wake up from a nap.

I love how I never really know what's gonna come out of your mouth. You show me a drawing of a spider and then proceed to tell me all about it and all the observations you've made and I'm amazed at the mature ideas you have. But then I read the line "wait for him to grow thin again" and you follow up with "and poop."


You're a man of opposites. You have two speeds -  whirling tornado fast or dawdling tortoise slow. Going on a hike with you is a pendulum of "Jonah, wait up for us!" and "Jonah, come on, let's go." One of the most common phrases out of your mouth is "That's not safe" and you rode the carousel three times at the zoo but never on one that went up and down because those were too scary. But I can't count the number of times I've found you about to do something that might kill you - like try to ride your tricycle or bike on our concrete wall or tying a jump-rope around yourself to catch you as you jump out of a tree.

You're skinny and fairly little but really strong and a good athlete - when you feel like it. Overall, you're a stinker. You are the reason we check out books like "No David" and "Harriet, you'll drive me wild" from the library. You probably only wear pants about half the time we are at home (but thankfully, 100% of the time we aren't!) and are often covered in dirt and bruises. But you can be super sweet too. The kind of kid who carefully reads the car his sister drew him before ripping into his presents. You insist on rescuing worms and ants that are caught in rain puddles.

 And when at home, you're volume is most decidedly loud but out and about, you are quiet and introverted. You often tell us you don't want to do something because you are shy. That's okay but I do think everyone else is missing out. Because loud or quiet, fast or slow, you are pretty awesome and I'm glad I have the privilege of being your mom!