Dear Gabe,
You turned 4 a few weeks ago! In keeping with my apparent tradition, I am writing this letter late - much too late - but I am writing it nonetheless. As I've told you before, the letters on your birthday are hard for me to write. As much as I love seeing you get older, I hate it. I love you, I love being your mom, and I love caring for you on a daily basis. As you get older, you need me differently and you need me less. I'm learning to adjust and appreciate the way your growth affects our relationship.
This year has been particularly hard. I spent a lot of it depressed - very depressed. And anxious. If there's one thing to know about me, it's that I get anxious. A lot. I don't like it, but so far I haven't found a way to change it. Above anything, I know it has distracted me from you. I'm sorry for that. I want to say with absolute conviction that my anxiety isn't your fault, and it doesn't mean anything is wrong with you. I worry that you'll get that message.
This has been a hard year for you, too. You've had a lot - a LOT - of tantrums. A lot. And you've been hitting and kicking and spitting at us a lot. I wish we could figure out how to help you deal with your anger and anxiety. I know sleep has a big impact on your moods, but actually getting you to sleep is quite a feat! lol You are just like your mother in that you LOVE to stay awake and you hate to miss the action!
I'm excited to see your reactions this Christmas. I love giving you gifts, and I love seeing how you light up when you receive them. I can tell the whole gift experience is a love language of yours. It's one of mine, too. It's fun to have that in common with you.
One thing we want to try to teach you this year is about caring for others who are less fortunate. We want you to be a generous person, and although your dad and I are generous in many ways, I don't think you notice them because you're too young to have those things interest you. So we want to be more purposeful about helping you learn about generosity.
We also want to help you learn about picking up your own messes. You *love* to have your toys spread out all over the house. You can quickly turn it into a disaster! We know we need to be more purposeful in that regard.
I'm so excited to see what it's like to have a four-year-old boy! You amaze me regularly and I love you so much. That will never, ever change!
Love,
Mom
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
February 16, 2008
Dear Gabesy,
I love you! I came down with the flu yesterday, and this had you quite perplexed. Dad tried to explain it to you, so before you went to bed you came over to the couch to snuggle with me. It was so nice! Today, Grandma Robins took you to Walgreens, and while you were there you told her that I had eaten all of the M&Ms and I needed more to help me feel better. So you and Grandma picked up more M&Ms for me and brought them home! You are such a sweet boy!
I may regret telling you this... it's probably just as embarrassing for me as it is for you. But I still think it's cute, so I'll tell you. I was getting ready to hop in the shower this week. You were "tooling" around upstairs, and happened to pop in the bathroom just as I was ready to get in. You came right over to me and took a good look at my "private" area. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but you looked up to me and said, "Mommy, how do you pee?" You were quite perplexed at the fact that there was no penis. I told you that God made boys to have penises but girls peed through a urethra between their legs, and you said, "Oh! *That's* why you don't have a penis!" It was very funny!
Love,
Mom
I love you! I came down with the flu yesterday, and this had you quite perplexed. Dad tried to explain it to you, so before you went to bed you came over to the couch to snuggle with me. It was so nice! Today, Grandma Robins took you to Walgreens, and while you were there you told her that I had eaten all of the M&Ms and I needed more to help me feel better. So you and Grandma picked up more M&Ms for me and brought them home! You are such a sweet boy!
I may regret telling you this... it's probably just as embarrassing for me as it is for you. But I still think it's cute, so I'll tell you. I was getting ready to hop in the shower this week. You were "tooling" around upstairs, and happened to pop in the bathroom just as I was ready to get in. You came right over to me and took a good look at my "private" area. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but you looked up to me and said, "Mommy, how do you pee?" You were quite perplexed at the fact that there was no penis. I told you that God made boys to have penises but girls peed through a urethra between their legs, and you said, "Oh! *That's* why you don't have a penis!" It was very funny!
Love,
Mom
Friday, February 1, 2008
Fourteen Month Update
Dear Gabe,
I thought it was time I did a little summary update for you. You change so quickly and I like to keep track of what you're like at different stages!
* You sleep about 11-11.5 hours at night, going to bed at 7:30 and waking up sometime around 7:00. We don't get you out of bed until 7:00 even if you wake up before that as long as you're not upset.
* You take one nap - around 2-2.5 hours - at noon. I usually nurse you to sleep.
* You put yourself to sleep at night AND you stay asleep ALL NIGHT LONG!! That started just after Christmas when we turned up the night heat. I think you might have been waking up so much because you got cold! We felt very badly once we figured that out!
* You're between sizes - some of your clothes are 12-18 months and some of them are 18-24 months. You wear size 4 diapers.
* You love yogurt, cheese, Nutrigrain bars, and Life cereal. When you see butter on the table you think it's cheese and "yell" so we let you have it. You haven't yet figured out that butter looks similar to cheese.
* In the last week you've just started liking some of our table foods, especially foods with ground beef and tomatoes in them!
* You love to drink water. You hate to drink milk. We never give you juice, so I'm not sure about that!
* You absolutely love to read books. Some of your favorites are Baby Sign books, Goodnight Moon, Polar Bear Polar Bear, Listen Peter Rabbit, 10 Little Ladybugs... I can't think of others right now. You can entertain yourself for a long time with books, and you even pretend to read them to yourself.
* You like playing with forks and spoons.
* You can walk. In the last two weeks you've started walking more than you crawl.
* You're starting to learn how to feed yourself. Sometimes you will feed yourself foods but you'll refuse the same foods if we try to feed them to you.
* You just learned how to drink through a straw.
* We're not really sure if you say words yet. You make lots of sounds and you imitate us sometimes. You might say mama and dada, you've copied the word "gracious," you say "tick tock" when we change your diaper, and you've said "two" when we count. But we're not sure how many of your words are real and how many are just copies of sounds we're making. I am pretty sure you do know the word "bye," though. You say it when people leave, even if they just leave the room to go upstairs.
* You like to take baths in the "big boy" tub and you have figured out how to get out of your bath ring and stand up.
* You don't really know how to color or draw. You are more interested in tasting the crayons and markers.
* You know how to give hugs and kisses but you don't do it very much.
* You know some of your body parts. You know your head, teeth, and belly. We're trying to teach you chest and nose. You know where other people's noses are.
I thought it was time I did a little summary update for you. You change so quickly and I like to keep track of what you're like at different stages!
* You sleep about 11-11.5 hours at night, going to bed at 7:30 and waking up sometime around 7:00. We don't get you out of bed until 7:00 even if you wake up before that as long as you're not upset.
* You take one nap - around 2-2.5 hours - at noon. I usually nurse you to sleep.
* You put yourself to sleep at night AND you stay asleep ALL NIGHT LONG!! That started just after Christmas when we turned up the night heat. I think you might have been waking up so much because you got cold! We felt very badly once we figured that out!
* You're between sizes - some of your clothes are 12-18 months and some of them are 18-24 months. You wear size 4 diapers.
* You love yogurt, cheese, Nutrigrain bars, and Life cereal. When you see butter on the table you think it's cheese and "yell" so we let you have it. You haven't yet figured out that butter looks similar to cheese.
* In the last week you've just started liking some of our table foods, especially foods with ground beef and tomatoes in them!
* You love to drink water. You hate to drink milk. We never give you juice, so I'm not sure about that!
* You absolutely love to read books. Some of your favorites are Baby Sign books, Goodnight Moon, Polar Bear Polar Bear, Listen Peter Rabbit, 10 Little Ladybugs... I can't think of others right now. You can entertain yourself for a long time with books, and you even pretend to read them to yourself.
* You like playing with forks and spoons.
* You can walk. In the last two weeks you've started walking more than you crawl.
* You're starting to learn how to feed yourself. Sometimes you will feed yourself foods but you'll refuse the same foods if we try to feed them to you.
* You just learned how to drink through a straw.
* We're not really sure if you say words yet. You make lots of sounds and you imitate us sometimes. You might say mama and dada, you've copied the word "gracious," you say "tick tock" when we change your diaper, and you've said "two" when we count. But we're not sure how many of your words are real and how many are just copies of sounds we're making. I am pretty sure you do know the word "bye," though. You say it when people leave, even if they just leave the room to go upstairs.
* You like to take baths in the "big boy" tub and you have figured out how to get out of your bath ring and stand up.
* You don't really know how to color or draw. You are more interested in tasting the crayons and markers.
* You know how to give hugs and kisses but you don't do it very much.
* You know some of your body parts. You know your head, teeth, and belly. We're trying to teach you chest and nose. You know where other people's noses are.
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