Dear Etrain

We went back to that awesome park we fell in love with last month. We took your t-ball set and made some friends taking turns hitting the balls. 

That Sunday we went to Nana and Papa's house for an amazing enchilada dinner. My dad's (your Papa) enchiladas are the BEST and he knows I love them, so he made them for my birthday. Yum. 

You had your first school photos taken this month. We decided to purposely not comb your hair because you look so cute with a messy head. We'll see how the photos turn out. You sure did look handsome in that shirt. 

And then it was finally time for Monster Jam. We had bought tickets months ago and decided to not tell you...1. because we wanted it to be a surprise, but 2. we didn't want you to keep asking us when we were going day after day, week after week. Needless to say you LOVED it. You can read more on that here. 

Sadly, I have no idea how it happened, but I broke the glass that covers the camera on my phone. I was soooo sad, because any photo I took was awful...so I didn't take many photos this month. I couldn't help taking the one below though. You still love to play games. Nana and Papa introduced you to a new dice game that you just love. They came over one day and one of the first things you asked is if they had the dice game with them. You guys must have played 10 rounds of it. 

Our neighbor had knee surgery and Dada had a great idea for us to make him a get well card. Turned out to be more of a get well sign, but he liked it just the same. Our neighbor surfs, hence the waves. You wanted the sun to be heart shaped. Such a sweet boy. 

The photos below are just to go with two sleep stories. 

You have always been a great sleeper. 8pm-7am most every day, and 2pm-430pm nap every day. But you occasionally rebel on the nap. The photo below on the left is an example of a day like that...sort of. You actually had a really active morning, but we did go to nap a little later than usual. Regardless, when you're not sleepy, I ask you to rest quietly in bed. It's usually not quiet, but you hang out pretty well. I thought I heard you calling for me at some point after you'd been in there a while, but I was in the middle of eating my lunch (yes, late...that's normal for me), so I figured you could wait another 10 minutes. When I walked in to get you, you were out like a light. No noise could wake you up at this point, so I gave you 30 mins to snooze. When your ok-to-wake light went on (with noise), you didn't budge. I snapped this photo of you and texted your dad the story, telling him this is probably what it's going to be like when you're a teenager and we're trying to get you up. 

The animation photo on the right is just before bed. Dada usually puts you to bed, so before I close the door behind me to leave we have a tradition of waving and saying good night, I love you, and sweet dreams. One night months and months ago, Dada waved with his foot. All this time that has stuck so we now wave with our feet. You and dad like to compete with who can put their foot higher...or sometimes Dada will tease you and try to trap your foot. You two are just so cute together. 

 

We tried out a new breakfast place (which had amazing cinnamon rolls). This is just you being you before our meal came out. 

Since my camera was shot, and dad wouldn't be home until it was dark outside, I asked Nana if I could use her phone to take your monthly photos. You really wanted to just play instead, but Nana helped me get some silly poses out of you. 

I can't remember if I've mentioned that I belong to a group called MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers). We meet weekly (when you're in school) and usually have breakfast and a speaker. One day this month the speaker was talking about the importance of teaching emotions early on. The speaker said she believes its possibly even more important than learning your ABC's. Without ranking anything, I can agree it's an important thing to teach you. Especially learning how to deal with all the wild emotions you toddler's feel at this age. Anyway, I bought some flash card type things and I think because you're so into games, this fit right in. You will tell me that you want to play "motions". It's super cute. We'll group the cards by emotions that feel good, bad or in the middle. Or we'll just talk about a few of the emotions on the cards, if you've felt that way before, how you acted, and if you acted badly, what you could do different. It's pretty cool that I can already see a difference because you will tell us how you're feeling more easily. You had a pretty good start, but it's nice to have a "game" we can use to incorporate it too. 

Speaking of games. You still love them. Our usual games (other than "motions") is Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, and a Peppa themed memory card game (oh, and the dice game when Nana and Papa come over). We've obviously have had to work on winning and losing. At first you threw a fit when you lost. So much so that the games had to go in the closet for a while. But somewhere along the way you decided you'd rather be able to play, so you're going to have to not get upset when someone else wins (and maybe even be happy for the winner). You have your days, but for the most part are a good sport...and learning to play "fair and square." 

This is such a cool age, and you are such a cool kid. I love you my munchkin. 

Love, 

Mama