Sunday, June 12, 2011

40 Months

Bud,

I still keep on calling you my baby.  "He's coming to see the baby." "How's the baby?" "I have to take the baby to the doctor."  Its a habit that I just can't seem to give up.  You are absolutely not a baby anymore.  You are riding your bike, correcting me "Actually, Momma...", having and identifying complex emotions, showing empathy for others, having huge daily adgendas, reading books to me, giving me directions while I am driving.  It is just incredible. You are definitely NOT a baby.  In some respect, I am sure you will always be my baby.  You have begun correcting me.  "Mom, I am not a baby!  I'm a big boy!" And you are already so much smarter then me.  Its terrifing.  You out-logic me.  How am I going to survive through your teenage years?

Jen has made a big move down to Long Beach.  I was sad to see her move father away from us but it has turned out really awesome.  We make day trips down to "Jen's beach" and you are in love with the ocean there.  You are so not afraid of the sand.  Its weird.  You slid down the lifeguard stand on your butt, rolled down the sand hill, at the end of the day you have sand in place I have only imagined.  You are so content to run around, playing with your trucks, setting up your chair and having cocktail hour with us.  (For the record, I did not teach you about cocktail hour.  That was a Nana and Grandpa 2's revelation while we were in FL.  But you have remembered it.  You take your juice box put it in the cup holder and chat. Clearly, imitating Nana. Its hysterical if not a little terrifing.  All the other moms think I am an alcoholic.)  You make friends and dig for sand crabs.  I have such fond memories of Jones Beach trips as a child and now you will have yours.  You love walking in the water, holding my hand of course.  You are still a little timid of the big waves. But I would rather have you be a little timid then run into the undertow.  After about 5 hours at the beach, we head to Jen's apartment, shower, change then go out to dinner.  We hit up this BBQ place with extra spicy peanuts.  I told you that you probably wouldn't like them but sure enough you LOVED them.  Ate like it was going out of style.  I could barely eat two without having a sip of water.  I couldn't open them fast enough for you.  My adventurous eater.  The one that lives off of baked clams.

We've gone to a few more Met games.  You were so excited for them that I got you a hat so you could match Pa.  You told Auntie B that the actual game is "kinda boring."  But you absolutely love walking up and down the stadium stairs to get various things to eat.  Hot dogs, french fries, popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy.  As soon as we sit down, you think of something else that you would like to eat.  Of course, I usually wouldn't indulge you that much but you actually eat all of it.  You also get a real kick over doing the wave and all the cheers.  You have got "Let's go Mets" down.  Over all, I think you and I have a similar interest in baseball.  All of the social eating none of the baseball.

A tidbit of our life:
"Bud, so, I'm going to take you to this special ice cream place.  When you were in my tummy I used to get ice cream here all the time"
"What did you get?"
"Peanut butter ice cream with chocolate chips."
"And did I come out of your mouth to eat it?"

"I get so mad!"
"Get so mad about what, Wy?"
"That Momma has to pick up garbage at the beach."
"Yeah, its is important to pick up any garbage that you see and throw it out. Litter isn't good."
"We have to take care of Mother Errffh."

You finished your first year of pre-school this month.  I really don't even think I prepared you for it.  I was definitely not prepared for it.  I think it snuck up on both of us.  Literally.  I remembered teacher gifts 2 hours before I was picking you up on the last day.  You were very concerned about not seeing your friends for a while which I assured you would not happen. As I picked you up and you were hugging your teachers goodbye, I got teary eyed.  I got out of there as quickly as I could because I knew I was going to loose it.  I don't know how an entire year has past so quickly.  How you have grown from a somewhat timid boy to one that bounds into the classroom with an unscheduled show-n-tell.  You and Chase make independent plans during school and let us know our game plan during pick up.  I know that a 2 year-old program is kind of unnecessary.  But to say that you Thrived is an understatement.  You have grown so much.  Have learned so much.  Have made friends so well.  And I will never, ever get tired of hearing your teachers tell me how wonderful you are because it echos what I see everyday.

I love you everyday,
Momma