Skip to main content

The Best Things About Carl (at 4 years)


1. When I ask him to do something, he says, "Of course!"
2. He is (almost) always friendly to (almost) all the kids in the neighborhood.  He really is a friendly kid.
3. He loves to listen to the same stories over and over again then recites them from memory.  I love to watch him "read" to himself by reciting back whole books.
4. He also loves rhymes.  Whenever we read poetry, he points out "That rhymes!" with delight.
5. His favorite book right now is D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths.  He asks me to read it for every naptime and bedtime story.  We have read it forwards and backwards at least half a dozen times this fall and I love it!
6. He speaks very dramatically, often accompanying his statements with dramatic poses.
7. Sometimes he spontaneously says sweet or grateful things.  That means a lot to me.
8. For example, every night before bed, he tells me how much he liked dinner.
9. In this mom's totally unbiased opinion, he was the star of last Sunday's primary program.  He stood right at the front, looking out at the audience, and singing every word.
10. He does have a lovely voice.  I also enjoy hearing him sing around the house.
11. I think it's pretty awesome that he can ride a bike.  Like a champ!
12. He also taught himself to write capital letters.  However, he does it backwards.  The letters are backwards and he writes them right to left instead of left to write.  I think it's sweet.
13. His artwork has become very detailed lately.  I love the elements that he copies from Soren; his drawings are peppered with speech bubbles filled with backwards gobble-di-gook.  But he also has his own, bold style.
14. This is a pretty selfish thing to love but here it is: He still naps!  Every day.
15. He likes to make pancakes with me on Saturday morning.
16. He will still hold my hand when we go for a walk.
17. He is a leader among the neighborhood kids.  He will invite them to play group games with him and makes sure that everyone follows the rules. (Sometimes a little over-zealously but we're working on that.)
18. He has learned to ask my permission before going to visit a neighbor's house and does so diligently.  After a few scary months this summer when he would just take off and be lost in one of the other apartments, this is a huge relief.
19. He loves his grandparents (on both sides) and talks about them frequently.
20. He shares other people's excitement with them.  He is excited about cars with Soren, motorcycles with Scott, the Bountiful Basket with me, trains with Ethan, games with Thomas, etc.  It makes him fun to be with.

Comments

Oozaroo said…
He really is a fun person to be with. Also? Rachel used to write backwards like that, too.

Popular posts from this blog

Surrounded by Love

One of my greatest worries about having four children was that I would not be able to welcome and love my new baby as well as I had the others.  Now that he is here, I feel that he is perhaps the most welcomed and best loved of all my sons.  More on that in a moment. I struggled to bond with Leif in utero, in part because pregnancy was old hat to me and in part because life was busy with too many other things.  The new miracle  growing inside of me was the most normal thing about my life.  There were a few good moments that helped me prepare mentally: doing guided meditations during Christmas vacation, my blessingway on January 6th, and a really good conversation I had with Scott about my hopes and worries.  But mostly, my mind was elsewhere. And then there was the birth.  I should have known that it would be a totally unique experience and that it would prepare me for this totally unique child. Needless to say, I'm crazy about the little guy. ...

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...

Just Enough is More

They say that later-born children have skinny photo albums.  While parents lavish attention on the firstborn (making certain to record every milestone and in both print and pixels), later children are forgotten and neglected.  So the common wisdom goes. Maybe its true.  There are certainly fewer posts on this blog about the younger boys than there were about the older ones.  And there's no doubt about it: fewer photos are taken now-a-days.  I don't even want to talk about videos.  Poor neglected Leif.  According to the records, he's hardly even a presence in this house. Except that's not true. The paucity of posts and pictures does not reflect an absence of affection.  It does not speak to my feelings about living with children at all.  I find them no less delightful and amazing than I did eight years ago when I first began my mothering journey.  If anything, the little ones delight me even more now.  I know better how to enjo...