Elliot at Four!!

My sweet, crazy, imaginative, dramatic and hilarious Elliot, this is the post all about you as you turn four.

This last year has been such a big year for you filled with all sorts of firsts and new skills. You've learned how to swim and catch a ball and name most of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds! You can now hop on one foot, and scoot, and get yourself dressed, and ride a big boy bike, and climb anything it seems!

And I can't believe that you're already in school, eating your packed lunches, and meeting new friends and having a whole new life that your Daddy and I aren't even a part of.

But, I think the thing that makes me most proud of you is the way that you are working so hard to learn how to manage your emotions and communicate to us even when you're so frustrated you can't get the words out. But the crying and shouting and tantrums are getting more and more rare, and we're amazed how you've learned to just take yourself to your room to have some time to calm down.

We've had some real struggles this year as you try to show your independence and make us understand your point of view, but somehow we're making our way over these hurdles, and I'm finding that I know you and love you even more because of them.

It is such an amazing experience watching you grow and getting to know you more and more as you develop into the one and only Elliot Diego Thomas (or Dingo Diego as you prefer to be called at the moment). And here are just a few of things that are just so cool about you:

You are game for anything! You try new foods, go down big kid water slides all on your own, and aren't afraid to pick up any bug you find or pat any animal that you can get your hands on. And you love our adventures, whether we go on a bush walk or visit the aquarium or take the train into the city or go to the science museum, you love it all!! In fact, one of your regular questions at the breakfast table is, "where are we going today?"

There are no limits to the depths of your imagination, and the stories you tell us about your adventures (like all the times you've gone and done amazing things with Nana and Grandad like going fishing and catching sharks or visiting London or how a hippopotamus rescued from some scary monsters by putting you in her tummy and how you hid in her fur looking out of her pouch) and the tales about your other lives and families (for instance, how you're not really a boy but a tiger in a boy's costume and how you are only visiting us for a little while and then you have to go back and be with your real Mommy in the jungle) and the plain old random things that come out of your mouth (like how you want to be made out of chocolate so that your friends can come over and eat you and then how you'd use your magic to make yourself whole again) amaze and entertain us to no end, my little knucklehead.

And you have such an amazing thirst for knowledge. Sure the endless questions can be relentless, but now that you are beginning to learn the difference between good ones and annoying ones, I just love your questions and your attempts to come up with your own answers. And y'know what? Explaining how things work (when I actually know) or looking them up with you on the internet (when I don't have a clue) is turning out to be such a fun and rewarding part of being your mom. Just today when we saw all these empty snail shells stuck to the fence posts and were wondering why they were there, you instantly came up with such a perfectly sensible answer: that the snails took off their shells to go into their homes at night and that they slid down the poles like slugs to go to bed and that they'd come back for their shells in the morning.

You just love watching your movies (especially any of the Madagascar and Ice Age ones), and reading your books (I don't know how many times we've read Growl and The Places You'll Go and We're Going on a Bear Hunt and the Gruffalo or anything else by Julia Donaldson this year!), and playing games like the Ladybug Game or Loteria or the Marble Race Track with your Daddy or I or Nana or anyone else who'll play (as long as Ollie isn't around). And although you've begun to lose interest in my iPhone and your Cool School computer, you're totally sucked into Reading Eggs and want to play any chance you can get your dad or I to sit with you!

And I just love the way that you are becoming more and more interested in spending time with your brother. Whether it be digging in the dirt or playing chasey or climbing in the cubby house or splashing in the pool, I just love watching you laugh and play with Oliver. Sure, you still get fed up with him from time to time and refuse to share your big boy toys, but you are getting more and more patient with him. And nothing warms my heart like when I overhear you teaching him how to put together a puzzle or identify the letters in the alphabet or name different animals in a book.

But best of all, I just love how you still bounce like Tigger when you are excited, and when you are happy, your whole face radiates pure joy. You're our special little monkey, and I can't wait to see all the things you'll learn and all the ways you'll grow in the year that you are four!!