Four

Bohdan,

Today you turned four years old!

This has been an incredibly fun year!  We were so busy this spring and early summer with trips to California and Missoula to visit family.  Traveling with you is a total breeze now.  You're at the age where we can pretty much just jump in the car and go!  We will put a movie on when we're on a long drive and you're set.  You even do your part to keep your sister entertained, which makes the trip a bit easier for all of us.  The only thing that's more difficult is that we're at the "Are we there yet?" stage.

Not only are you a piece of cake to travel with, you're also easy going on the normal day-to-day basis.  You listen pretty well, you eat well, you keep yourself entertained for the most part.  You say things that make us laugh!  Taking care of you is a breeze!

You are an incredibly social person.  So much so that you hate to be alone.  You won't go down in the basement to play by yourself.  You always want Meri down there playing with you.  Sometimes though, she has zero interest in being down there, which is extremely upsetting to you.  You're fine if we bring the dogs in and have them go down there with you.  The problem with them is that they also have no desire to stay down there either!  They want to come forage the kitchen floor for goodies.  In order to keep you (and in turn, us) happy, we have to put up a baby gate so they can't come upstairs.

You also don't want to be alone when you're sleeping at night.  I think a big part of this is that you're still terrified of monsters.  Shadows, noises, - whatever - is enough to make you think there's a monster under your bed.  We get you to go to sleep in your bed each and every night and invariably, you end up in ours before morning.  I'm not exactly sure what time it is you usually come to our bed.  Sometimes, it's before midnight.  Others, it's 4:00 a.m.  If I were to guess, I think 2 a.m. is the average.  I don't know because this is something I'm completely oblivious to.  I don't even wake up 90% of the time.  And the other 10% of the time I'm pretty much out of it and still in a dream state.  So, I guess this is the battle I'm not willing (or able) to fight as a parent.  This is why Meri is still in a crib.

The only other thing that has been a struggle (besides trying to get you to pick up your toys when you're done playing with them) is the total and complete potty training.  In essence, you have been potty trained since you were about 2 1/2 years old.  You picked it up within one three day weekend.  Sure, you've had some accidents since then, but they are few and far between.  Staying dry overnight has been difficult for you though.  And this certainly isn't unusual.  What is unusual to me is what other parents tell each other when asked the question, "How old was s/he when s/he was potty trained?"  Oddly enough, most people will give you the answer of "2".  Which is true I suppose.  But definitions of "potty training" (or potty learning as they call it now) vary dramatically.  I always thought potty training meant no wetting.  Not even at night.  Apparently, this is innaccurate.  Because if I start to get into the specifics of our experiences with you, parents often tell me their kids wet the bed for quite sometime.  Age 6 isn't unusual.  So I guess what I'm saying is you're right on track.  You're doing perfectly fine!  In fact, you're doing great!  Because the last month or so you have been dry overnight the majority of the time.

While you are incredibly social and dependent on others in that respect, you are also incredibly independent.  You want to do everything by yourself and you want to try everything out.  You love to help out around the house.  You'll help me put dishes away and last weekend, you made pancakes for all of us.  I measured out all the ingredients, but you were the one who mixed them all up just right!  Anytime daddy is doing work around the house, you can bet that you will be right there helping him out.

You love cutting stuff up.  Any chance you get to handle a knife, you can bet that your dinner is going to be mutilated beyond all recognition.  You love to handle scissors as well.  You opened a present from your great Aunt Peggy and when you saw that wonderful wrapping paper sitting there, your eyes got big and you looked at me and asked if you could have your scissors.  Then you spent the next hour chopping the paper into bits.  You loved it so much that you took the paper and scissors to school for show and tell the next day!

Your other current love is chewing gum.  Grandma & grandpa introduced you to it quite sometime ago and the newness of it still hasn't worn off.  In fact, one of the presents they got you for your birthday was your very own pack of gum.  I wish I had a picture of your face when you saw that's what you got.  You could barely contain yourself.  You love gum so much, in fact, that awhile ago when you & Meri were singing "Old McDonald Had A Farm" you were being silly and said "He had a gum!"  Then the two of you were running around singing that.  I was worried though that you would end up in trouble at the daycare because it sounds like you're saying "gun" instead of "gum" and oddly enough, the sound effects we were using are remarkably similar.  So instead of saying "snap pop" I started just obnoxiously chewing with my mouth.  Good thing we weren't having to worry about going through airport security anytime soon.

You don't care for cake.  How funny is that?!  You'll eat the frosting and leave the cake completely untouched.  Want to know what you love?  BROWNIES!  So for your birthday this year, that's what we had.  We got a cake as well - more for us adults to indulge in - but brownies were the birthday cake this year.

You are hilarious!  There isn't a day that goes by that you don't have us laughing about something you've done or said.  The kick you've been on lately that always gets me giggling is you will say, "Wanna know what?  I have a good(er) idea.  Let's (do whatever).  Isn't that a great idea?  Aren't you glad I thought of that?"  And you're so serious when you say it.  It puts a smile on my face every time.

You are also incredibly competitive.  You always want to win.  Whether it's running up and down the hall with Meri or racing your bike and her car outside, you are always in it for the win.  Thankfully, she doesn't understand it just yet.  You'll yell, "I won!" and she comes trudging along behind you yelling "I won!" too.  That makes you mad though and you are always trying to tell her, "No, I won, Meri."  I try to make a point to beat you sometimes and you just really don't care for it.  Ah, the joys of teaching you how to lose.  I simply cannot wait until Meri gets what it means to win...

It's hard to believe that four years ago, our lives were irrevocably changed.  Four years ago we thought we were just having a baby.  What we didn't know is that we were starting a new life.  Not just a new life as in your new life, but a new life as a family.  A new life where thoughts that are selfish and short sighted are virtually non-existant.  And if they do exist, they are fleeting.  As in "I hope I can go poop in private this time!"

Thank you for that.  Not for the lack of privacy per se, but for showing us how to live life.  How to value simple things.  How to find joy when going through a construction zone.  How to watch in amazement as a building is erected.  How to be silly and stupid and have you and your sister belly laughing at us!

Happy Birthday Bohdan!

love, momma