Connor James: 4 Years

Dear Connor::

It's hard to believe that you are actually four years old. I think I blinked and here we are. You have just grown so much and it's amazing to see what an awesome little boy you are. And boy it has been quite a year with you.

The biggest thing in the last year is that you started pre-k. I can't believe you are actually in school now. It was hard for me because I couldn't imagine not spending all day with you even though I would still get half a day with you. But you have been loving school. You matched right in and took it all in like a champ. At first you weren't sure if you wanted to go to school but as we got closer and started talking about it more, you got more excited. It really did make it so much easier to drop you off and leave you when you were happy about it and loving it so much. You are an awesome friend with everyone saying you are their best friend and I love how friendly and awesome you are to everyone.

I do wish you would do better with eating dinner. The same old struggle continues to get you to eat dinner each night but you aren't starving or not thriving so I guess you get enough. You are just testing the limits of my patience I think. I can often convince you to at least try a bite of each one thing on your plate but sometimes that's it. It's not a battle we fight with any of the other meals throughout the day, just dinner. I think you have just figured out that we can't make you eat it so you don't. However I think you have been growing lately because you have definitely been asking for food later than you get unhappy with us when your only option is your dinner which we saved. We are still working through the dinnertime battle.

We definitely have been fighting the quite time battle as well lately. I don't always press you to take a nap, even though you often need it. But you don't even want to go to your room to rest or play. You want to stay wherever I am. We are still working on it because you definitely need the downtime in the afternoon after a full morning of school.

This last year was definitely a battle of getting you potty trained. We had a lot of stumbling blocks and I really didn't expect it to be such the struggle that it was. There were several times that I felt like I was losing my mind trying to get your potty trained especially before you started school. But we got there. Potty training at night came shortly after and that was mostly just you, so that was at least easy going compared to the rest of potty training.

Although sometimes you struggle with your sisters, you really are a good brother. You are stuck in the middle of two girls but you hold your own. Every day when I pick you up from school you ask how Emma's day was. You don't like that she is more active and gets into everything now but you are working on that patience. As for your older sister, you two often butt heads when it comes to playing because you have more thoughts and opinions about how to play which often differs with Addison's vision. The two of you are still working on conflict resolution, but that's siblings for you.

 Your brain works in the most amazing ways. You love to build with anything and everything. You can build some of the most amazing train tracks. Lately however you have been big into building with Lego but also playing with your hot wheels. Really all the toys you have been interested in doing is all things very boy. You love superheros, cars, trains, building, blocks, Lego. But watching your mind work through it all as you build and play is really awesome.

You really are such an amazing boy.You are happy and friendly. You are excelling at school. You are an awesome brother. There are just so many amazing qualities about you. Everyday you make me laugh because you are hilarious to boot. I just can't believe I get to be your mom and watching you grow has been amazing. I am so lucky to be your mom. I love you so much, goon.

Love, Mama