Althea, Bryan, Andrew, and Sylvia
Our summer has been so much fun. When I sit down to recap the last few week, I just lean my head back, sigh softly, and smile. Being a full time mom, the weather has a major impact on our days. I’ve been soaking in the warm weather, the hours spent hanging out in the yard, and the ease and fun that playing in the yard brings.
Here are some thoughts about our last weeks:
Not my cats. Bowser and Spooky are here and happy, curled up in the sunshine. No, what’s lost is Andrew’s things.
Although Bryan might disagree, I take a certain measure of pride in keeping tabs on my kids stuff. If I feel like it’s important, I don’t tend to misplace it…at least not for long. But in the last month, Andrew lost both his summer shoes and his orange jacket. Gone. At parks. sniff.
This For Better or For Worse comic strip made me laugh. Sylvia hasn’t learned “no” yet, but she does a lot of screeching when she in the mood.
I often have bittersweet feelings as you and Syliva have birthdays. How can Sylvia be 16 months old? How is it that you my sweet boy are only going to be three for fifteen more minutes? (It’s almost midnight as I write.)
I loved Three. Andrew, you were such a sweet and generous and imaginative and snugly Three. My dear boy, here are a few things I’ll remember from this year. You can read this list sometime when you’re older.
I’m sure there are dozens of other points I could put in this list, but my clock now says 12:02. You’re Four! And Andrew, the thing I hold dearest is the completeness of the bond you and I share. We’re connected, Andrew. You curl up in my lap or climb in bed in the morning. I love the smell of you. I love to nuzzle your curls and hold your little (but not so little) hand in mine. I love the way you reach for me, the way you want to be carried when you’re sleepy. When you get hurt, you want me to make it better. You bring me flowers (oh, and worms too) with such joy.
I know you’re going to grow up, and I’m so excited to see what you do and to experience four, five, six and on and on. But it does break my heart just a little to see my baby boy leave his babyhood behind. We’re leaving sweet memories in our wake, and I’m glad for that. I just want to bottle the size of you, the smell of you, the innocence and playfulness and sweetness of you.
If I live to be 90, I’ll want to pull out that bottle of three-year-old Andrew so I can recapture one of the purest experiences in my life — being your mommy.
OK, now I’ll dry my tears and go to bed so tomorrow morning I can celebrate with you. Baby, you’re Four!
Andrew’s fourth birthday is on Monday. He’s so excited. It took him almost an hour to fall asleep tonight. I’m not even sure exactly what he’s excited about. Well, I guess there are a bunch of things.
I just got a packet of information in the mail from Monona Grove Nursery School. Andrew is signed up for class on MTW in the mornings from 8:45-11:45. And his teachers…drum roll please…are Gail & Debbie. I met them both the other night, and they seem like really sweet people.
Sylvia is also signed up for a class at Monona Grove Nursery School this fall. They have something called Toddler Time, and she’s signed up for the Tuesday class. I attend along with her, and the sessions run two hours. Starting this summer, Sylvie is going to daycare at Donna’s house on Wednesday mornings. She’s loving it there, and it’s been a really nice thing in my life to have some separation during the week! Sylvie just loves groups, and she blooms when we’re in class. She loved Music Together, and I’m considering signing her up for another session this fall.
What fun these little kids are!
Andrew’s been camping in his room for the last several weeks. His preschool had a camping unit, and the tent they pitched in the classroom was a huge hit with the kids. I thought it would be fun for Andrew to get some practice camping at home, so we put up my tent in his room. He alternates between it and his bed. It’s cute to hear him unzip it at night when he gets up to use the bathroom!
Last night, we moved his tent out to our back yard. My suggestion was that he and I have a camp-out in the back yard together, but he decided that he wanted to camp on his own. So last night after his bath and story, Bryan walked him out to the back yard and tucked him in to the tent. We set up a baby monitor so we could keep an ear on him.
He did great! He slept straight through the night and crawled into bed with me at 5:30 (it’s pretty light and the birds are pretty chirpy abou then). What a cute kid! He’s got lots of plans for future camp-outs. If you want to join us, let me know!
As we were eating breakfast this morning, I asked Andrew what kind of theme he thought he’d like for his birthday party. His birthday is coming up on June 22 (party on the 27th)…as he tells anyone we meet.
Andrew thought that since his party is going to be at a beach that maybe he’d like a purple triangle cake and have sand toys, and “that would be good!”
I said that would be fine, but I’d been thinking of things he likes a lot, and maybe he would like a cake made like something he likes. “For example,” I said, “you really like animals. And you love dinosaurs. We could make you a cake shaped like a dinosaur. Or then there’s Godzilla…” “YES!” shouted Andrew. “Godzilla and Godzilla’s son Manilla and three-head and some trees that they eat on.”
(By the way, Andrew’s sitting on my lap as I type, and he was able to read most of that last sentence!)
I’m going to delegate, enlist, and in other ways ask Granny to make Andrew’s vision come to cake.
“Yup, that’ll be good!” said Andrew.
Andrew loves Terry’s iPhone.
Several months ago, Terry started sharing YouTube videos with Andrew. They watched (the somewhat questionable) Trunk Monkey. Terry has downloaded dozens of silly or crazy apps onto his iPhone for Andrew to play with. But their favorite. Their very favorite of all was the YouTube video of Godzilla. I’ve copied it below so you can have this wonderful movie in your life too.
I haven’t mentioned much about Andrew’s all-consuming obsession – Godzilla. Back in April, Terry brought over a boxed set of five monster DVDs. Since that time, my young son has been able to think of little else. He wakes up, crawls into bed, and sleepily says, “Good morning, Mommy Mothra.” As he falls alseep at night, it’s hard to get him to stop talking about, “What if the laavee sprayed Godzilla with webby stuff and then Godzilla went into the ocean?”
The names of these crazy monsters flow off his tongue as easily as the names of family members. Kumunga. Mothra. Manilla. Gamera. Rodan. Mechagodzilla. Manda. The “laavee” (Mothra larvae). Gorosaurus. He spends a lot of time considering who would be which monsters. “If I was Godzilla, Sylvie would be Rodan, you could be Mothra, Daddy would be Gamera…”
