Dear Etrain,
I can't believe we're less than a month away from you becoming a FOUR YEAR OLD! Wow. Just the other day, this notification popped up reminding me of this moment two years ago. In this photo you were still one year old, a month away from your 2nd birthday. It feels like not that long ago and forever ago at the same time. Look at those sweet chubby cheeks. You were so little. I love the little boy you're growing up to be, but sometimes I wish I could freeze time, or even go back just to have you as my baby boy forever. I suppose you'll always be my baby boy, but the days of baby talk and chubby cheeks are long gone. Can't say I miss the diapers though. ;)
This month we actually did a lot, but I made separate blog posts about it. This month (well, I do these posts with the 14th being the beginning/end) began while we were in Hawaii. For details about our awesome vacation, you can check out this post.
When we got back we jumped right into Halloween festivities. You carved a pumpkin with Dada at school, we went to a Harvest festival at your school, you were the cutest lion in the Noah's Arc parade at your school, and you ended up loving your Batman costume Halloween night. For more on that, read this.
Now that you don't have soccer Tuesday mornings, we've been meeting your buddy, Isaiah for play dates. His mom and I were going to sign you two up for a class you could take together, but we decided to wait until after the holidays. For now, you kids have been enjoying several parks in our area.
Since I don't have a ton of non- Hawaii and Halloween photos this month, I'm including other random photos I took. This night we all went for a walk down by the Harbor. You weren't in the mood for photos, so I took one with dad.
We've been having some really gorgeous sunsets lately, so here's a few photos of that. The morning views of the ocean are pretty amazing too. We sure do live in a beautiful place.
Another exciting thing Dada and I did was go to a Lakers game...and had seats on the court! Check out the ticket - Row 1, Seat 1, Section Court. It was really cool to have such amazing seats. The opposing team came in/out of the locker room right next to us, and we sat next to their bench. Dada had me take photos of him with a bunch of celebrities (photos are on his phone, so I don't have them to put here, but I'm not sure who half of the guys were anyway). It was a great night, and meanwhile you got to spend the night with Nana and Papa. Sounds like you guys had a bunch of fun together too.
This is just you being playful. You love for us to build you forts or places to hide. Here you are asking me if I can see you. That sweet little face!
This marks the beginning of a tough time. One Thursday we were all set to go to your swim class, when you told me you didn't feel good. We skipped class and went home and threw up...about four times. My poor boy did NOT feel good, but slept through the night without waking up. The next day was a school day, and Dada and I also had a parent teacher conference scheduled. We decided to keep you home from school, but still met with your teacher with you there. It wasn't a problem having you there because you are basically dominating school.Here's a few things your teacher had to say about you:
- You quickly pick up anything she teaches you and you are one of the smartest, if not the smartest in the class. When asking the class something she has to start with "Can anyone other than Ethan tell me...". Then when they don't know the answer, she has you tell everyone. She is always having to challenge you, which I appreciate hearing that's she notices that is does it.
- One example of the above is, you already know how to spell your name and can identify the written names of the rest of your classmates. While the kids are working on writing their first names, she has you working on your last name.
- She calls you the class Mayor and the class Attorney. She says you're so observant and an excellent communicator. If one of your classmates is upset and she asks them whats wrong, sometimes they won't or don't know how to answer. You on the other hand, can tell her the whole series of events of what happened and therefore why your friend is upset.
- She says you are great with your emotional intelligence. This one makes me so happy because, I've actually heard speakers talk about how important it is for young kids (your age and older) to understand your emotions and know how to deal with them. Which I agree with. Your teachers says most kids in your class can't express how/what they're feeling, but you can. When you're having a rough moment, you'll put yourself in the quiet corner and come out when you're ready.
- While you are a smart kiddo overall, she sees you strong with science. She told us about a day when she asked you and your buddies why you were dropping your cars on the ground. Your answer was that you wanted to see which car would hit the ground first. Apparently this sparked a whole series about gravity in class. You guys went outside to find different objects in nature (leafs, sticks, rocks, etc.), then made hypothesis and and experiments on which objects would fall first. She said, you knew that the heaviest would fall first.
- The gravity lessons continued with the paper airplanes below. I guess you were bothered that yours didn't fly because it was too light, so you kids put paper clips on the front to make them heavier and fly farther.
- She gave us this artwork and said you were one of the only kids who lined up your objects instead of piling them up on the page. My boy likes structure.
- The artwork below is a self portrait. I guess the buttons were your eyes, and you asked her for more buttons. She noticed that the kids in her class that were good communicators put eyes on their self portraits, and the quiet kids did not put eyes on theirs. Interesting observation!
- I don't remember what this one was supposed to be, but I like the colors.
- Overall she said your strengths were: effective learner, personally and socially competent, fine and gross motor competency, self-aware, empathetic. Areas you are working on include: self-regulation, communicating effectively, patience. (Ha, and I thought you were just being three years old. But I agree while you can communicate, you do shut down under stress, you could definitely be more patient, and I'd love a few less tantrums when you don't get your way.)
A few quotes from you that she's heard in class:
- Considerate: "Bless you Eva"
- Encouraging: "Wow look at the tower you made. That's a great job Jacob!"
- Recognition: "We both brought sandwiches today Miss Jordan. That's a connection!"
- Manners: "Say excuse me. You have some major burp action going on today."
That last one makes me giggle. Pretty sure you learned "burp action" from us. Anyway, this whole report just makes me so happy. I can't say I'm surprised by anything your teacher said, but it makes me so excited to hear you are doing as well as I think you are. And the areas that could use improvement coincide with what we are working on at home too. I'm proud of you, baby.
By the way, any time we ask you what you did at school, you say "I played." This also makes me happy because your perception of school is that it's a place you go to play. Maybe because your school does play-based learning. Maybe it's your teacher. Maybe you're just a rock star. Or all of the above. Regardless, it sounds like you are learning a lot, being challenged, and having fun while doing it.
Now back to you being sick. You never threw up the next day, but you had this weird rash that looked like a heat rash. The doctor didn't seem worried about it, and said to give you Mortin for your on and off fever. You were fine until about Tuesday night when you started to get stuffy. Wednesday morning you were totally stuffy and miserable. The next day you couldn't turn your head and crying from the pain, so we went back to the doctor. She said she thought you have an infected lymph node hence the neck/ear pain. You HATE the taste of the antibiotic and cry every time we give it to you. This is going to be a long 10 days, but I hope you feel better soon.
As a selfish benefit to your illness, you have been sooooo affectionate. You LOVE to cuddle with me, and I can't even count how many hugs and kisses I've gotten, or how many times you've told me you love me. The last time you were on an antibiotic, it was the exact opposite. You were sooooo mean and even told me you didn't love me and hated me. I was really worried that would happen with this round of antibiotics, but so far so good. Now to just get you feeling better.
I hope you feel better soon, my sweet baby. Because of your yucky virus, we took your monthly photos really late. The good news is, I got a new phone and the photos look really good...when you're willing to sit still. Now if only I could get you to give me your real natural smile, not the fake one...or a silly face. Although I like that you love to be silly.
Love,
Mama
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