Three and a half years

Dear David,
You are now three and a half years old. It seems like just a few months ago that you were born. We are getting close to 4 years old, which is just so hard for me to believe. Right now you love riding outside in your 4-wheeler, or on your scooter or bike (with full protection on of course). You have the cutest Lightning McQueen bicycle helmet and elbow and knee pads that you will proudly wear. I don’t make you wear your gear on your 4-wheeler because that certainly wouldn’t be cool. You love to run around inside the house but you always ask us first if you can run, you’re so polite. You love to watch the birds outside on the bird feeders, maybe one day Garfield will stop catching them. You also enjoy watching the butterflies outside and the people walk by as we eat dinner in the dining room. Sometimes you’ll catch your reflection in the window and start acting like a fool….you are so funny! You love your furry family – Sammydog and Garfield. They are buddies and love to play with you, especially Garfield. You always complain that he’s in your way and the harder you push him away the closer he wants to get to you. I know you love him but he does tend to get in your face a lot – he’s such an attention getter. You like working in the yard with mama and are excited about the strawberries we are growing this spring. You look at them all the time to see if our first strawberry has come up yet. I’m afraid that you’ll be so excited about the veggies and strawberries that we are growing that you’ll pick them all before they are ripe. You love your friends at school and you have two little girl friends down the street. Your favorite thing to do is ride in the go-karts. We go to Springville or Chelsea and ride them on trails. You are a big boy riding with your helmet, gloves and dirt bike outfit on. You never complain of the bumps, but do say that mama is a bad driver, like Mr. Ray! You only say that because both Mr. Ray and me get stuck. You like to ride with daddy since he’s a better driver. You’ve fallen asleep quite a few times on our rides. You also love camping. We have good times roasting marshmallows and eating smores. You do well sleeping in the tent and think it’s fun to eat dinner on the tent floor. You like hiking, like mom and dad do and finding fire wood is a chore, but when there is a lake, river, puddle or any body of water nearby to throw some rocks in then you’re a happy camper (literally).
You love to be read to at night and always insist on 2 books, normally we read the Barney ABC, 123 flap book every night. While you don’t like to watch Barney on TV, you love this book. We always sing the “I love you, You love me” song at the end of the book. We always sign I love you before we leave your room. It’s definitely the same bedtime routine each night. Your favorite toys right now are anything to do with sports and trucks/motorcycles/dirt bikes. You always take several vehicles to bed with you and play with them before you fall asleep. You insist I leave the hallway light on so that you can see to keep playing in your bed. Your very favorite toy is the new dirt bike with rider that the Easter bunny brought you. If you can’t find it before you go to bed you often will get upset. We cover you up before we leave your room, but if you roll over before going to sleep you’ll call us back upstairs to cover you up again.
In the middle of the night you normally wake up to go potty and then you end up in our bed. I’m not really sure how you get in there, but daddy says that I let you crawl on top of me to get in between us. Sometimes I try to take you back to your room, but most of the time you just stay in our bed.
You’ve recently started a repertoire of dance moves that are very funny. This began in Florida when we went to the beach and I’ve seen you do it a couple times since then. I wish I had it on video.
Your daddy and I are so proud of you. I love picking you up from school and watching you run to me, it melts my heart. I also enjoy hearing about your day on the way home from school, what you did, who you played with, what you ate for lunch. Then I love hearing you retell daddy about your day….most of the time you get the story straight both times. We live for the weekends. Normally we’ll count day the weekdays and say “there’s only 2 more days of school and work before FUN STUFF”. You are good at counting down the days without me even reminding you how many more days are left in the week.
You are so smart and it amazes me. I can’t believe some of the funny and brilliant things that come out of your 3 and a half year old mouth. I think the structure of 3K next year at school will be very good for you and you’ll do well.
Just today you asked if we could go down to the river and throw rocks after school. Then you asked if there were sharks or alligators in the river. I said no, but you said ‘if there are will you throw them back in the water?’. I told you that I would do just that, I don’t want you to be scared of the water. Speaking of water, we are starting you in swimming lessons next month. You’ve finally outgrown your intense fear of getting your hair washed and I’m hoping that swimming lessons will help you not freak out whenever you get water in your face. We always want you to be safe around water and swimming lessons is the first step.
Even when we are apart, you are a part of everything me and daddy do and everything we are. We are a family and we belong together. We belong to each other. I can’t wait to see what the next 3 and a half year holds for our little boy who is growing up so fast.
I am so thankful to God for blessing our lives with you; I had no idea how wonderful it would be to be a mother and how much joy it would bring me and daddy.
We love you very much.
Love,
Mama