Dear Michael,
You are such a joy to be around! From the moment you wake up (7:00am if you’re
left to your own devices—6:30am if your brother is being too loud), you are
talking 90-miles-an-hour until bedtime.
The things you say! Oh my
goodness! You can carry on an adult
conversation, and you amaze us with the information you have about pretty much
everything! You love to explain the
workings of certain video games. If you’re
telling me about your day and can’t remember something, you’re quick to make-up
what might have happened instead!
You occasionally sit through a whole movie at home. Mulan and Moana have been recent hits. I tried introducing you to Peter Pan, and you
might have watched 20 minutes total.
Mary Poppins was an utter failure in your book. Maybe the next time I try it, I’ll
fast-forward to where they jump into the chalk painting and go from there.
Your favorite TV show (that we let you watch) is “Phineas
and Ferb” and your dad likes it too, and I can stand it. Two shows that you get to watch at Grandma
Chips’ house but not at ours are “Yo-Kai Watch” and “Pokemon.” I’m not into anime and really can’t stand the
story lines, so we have nixed those from acceptable shows when you are home.
You like to play with playdough and build “play-dough towers”
with the containers. If you had your
choice, though, you’d play Wii-U 100% of the time.
For being so brave with your pod and CGM changes, and due to
a lack of prizes in your prize-bag, you were rewarded with Super Smash Brothers
for the Wii-U this week. You LOVE it,
and you’ve only had it one day! You kept
telling us non-stop from Sunday night until it arrived that you just COULDN’T
WAIT to play it and that you knew it was going to be SO AWESOME! I don’t think it disappointed.
We are working on your attitude on two major things: when you lose a game, and when it’s time to
put the games up for bedtime. These two
instances can throw you into such a heated fit, it’s not even funny. We are working on coaching you through how to
be a good loser, because we know that you might not win every game on the
playground at recess this fall and we want you to be prepared. We have changed around some tactics to be
able to provide you a warning time on how many minutes you have left before
bedtime, hoping that this eliminated the surprise factor that might be the
cause of the temper tantrums.
You like to play outside, but it’s not your favorite
thing. We ate outside on our deck one
night this week and both you and Noah thought that was the bomb. You’ll chase and ninja-chop bubbles when I
blow them outside, and you’re always quick to find a stick of some kind to make
believe it’s a wrench and you then proceed to “fix” everything in sight. I’m hoping this is the summer of swimming for
you! With two sets of grandparents
having pools, we should find ourselves in the water a lot this summer. I’m hoping you venture farther out than your
first step comfort zone. I’ll be here to
help you every step (or arm stroke and kick) of the way!
You’re so spirited and it’s just such a joy to be your mom!
I love you so so much!
Dear Noah Scott Own-wee (only),
You still refuse to accept your last name as part of your
identity. This just goes right along
with who you are—a spunky three-year-old who has his own ideas and ways of
doing things and remains stubborn to the core.
You are my child who can go to his room for bed at 7:00pm,
and sing until 9:00pm, and then wake up at 5:30am ready to begin the day! We’re really working with you on staying in
your room until 7:00am. This was
glorious over the weekend! And during
the weekdays, it allows me to get some work done before you pop your cheery (or
somedays, not so cheery) face into the dining room!
You LOVE to be outside and would stay out there all day if
you could. You are eager to try things
for yourself, so you’ve become intent on blowing your own bubbles and learning
how to rake from the very knowledgeable Michael. You immensely enjoyed eating dinner on the
deck this week and each night you ask if we can do it again. Hot dogs and hamburgers are easy to eat on
the deck. Grilled pork chops take a
little more finesse. We’ll get
there. Maybe we’ll even buy a real table
for the deck so you don’t have to use our outdoor coffee table as your
food-holder.
You make great impersonations of vacuums, hair dryers, leaf
blowers, carpet shampooers (“water vacuums”), hand-mixers and stand-mixers,
etc. You’re fascinated by fans and will
consider your day a success if you’re able to spot a fan in some location (the
store, someone’s garage, in a book, etc).
We wonder, sometimes, if you’ll be the voice-over for commercials or
movies when a vacuum is used and they need it to be just a bit more realistic—they’ll
call you in for the job.
Your favorite food is probably dry cereal. You like to snack on it all day, and will eat
it with milk occasionally. You also like
string cheese and smoked pepperoni sticks and crackers. However, you are not a fan of coming to eat
when it’s actually dinnertime. Once the
rest of us sit down, though, you’re not too far behind.
You are still a great self-entertainer and choose to play by
yourself lots of times. In Sunday School
this past week, you were joining in on a board game and then randomly decided
you’d rather play with the toy vacuum. I
love to have you play beside me when I’m doing something else like Bible study
homework. You’ll have your little toy
bus or toy car and I’ll smile as I hear you make up voices and situations for
your toys. I try not to let you notice
my smile because I don’t want you to stop playing!
You love to help around the house when you can. It’s your job to put your dirty clothes in
the washing machine. You eagerly jump in
to help me vacuum (and jump is not an exaggeration!). You want me to mop with both the Swiffer
Sweeper and Swiffer WetJet, and use the vacuum, and use the carpet shampooer,
and unload & load the dishwasher and turn on the washer & dryer every
single day. Since I can’t accomplish all
of that every single day (usually the dishes and the laundry are daily
occurrences) I save the vacuuming for “special treats,” ie, ‘If you’re well-behaved, we’ll vacuum
after we get home today’ etc. It works
well.
You’re a pretty good cuddler, but whether or not you wake up
in a good mood after naptime is always up in the air. Apparently, this is very similar to how your
daddy acted at this age and his mom debated whether to continue even giving
naps at all. Although you might be ready to give up your nap, I’m not ready to
give up mine! I look forward to “quiet
time” each weekend, and I’d rather you play in your room for an hour and a half
instead of dropping naptime all together.
You don’t quite understand the concept that a new baby is
coming in August, but you’ve stated that the Baby can be named Sally. Michael graciously input this into the middle
of the name he selected, which is now Sweet Butterfly Sally Cutie
Caterpillar. Neither that name, nor
Sally are on our list. We’ll find out if
this Baby will be your brother or your sister in two weeks, but I’m still not
sure you’ll grasp the concept until August actually arrives. Michael, however, isn’t shy about telling me
that my belly is getting bigger! I have
no doubt that you both will be great big brothers.
I love you, spunky Noah!
You’re the sassiness we need in life.
Love, Mommy
