Happy 4th Birthday, Man Cub!

Sep 25, 2016








Dear Sweet Man Cub,

Today you are 4. Yesterday I begged you to stay 3 forever, but you told me that you couldn't. You had to turn 4! You've been looking forward to your birthday for months. Literally, every time we would  go to the store, you would find something that you just had to have for your birthday. Your wish list got pretty long as the months went by. Luckily, you are one of the easiest to please children ever, so even though you didn't get everything on your wish list, you were happy as could be about all the sweet gifts and notes and birthday wishes you received today.

We had a birthday party for you yesterday. We kept it simple and just invited a bunch of your friends and their families over for popcorn, birthday cake and a movie, which we projected onto the side of the house and watched under the stars. It was so much fun. Because we weren't sure how many people would be attending, we bought a Costco sheet cake and you picked the dinosaur design. You were absolutely giddy with excitement when we picked it up. As I pulled it out of the big fridge at Costco, I looked over at you and you were covering your eyes saying "I won't peek! I won't peek! Tell me when it's ready." You opened your eyes to see it and squealed with delight. It was exactly what you wanted. Your excitement for life is not just limited to all things birthday related. I love that you get excited about almost everything you do, except for cleaning your room, of course.

You love your siblings so, so much. Almost every day when we drop the girls off at school, you shout "Bye Beebs! Bye YaYa!" as we drive away, then you quietly tell me "I'm going to miss my girls while they are at school." And you do miss them. You often count down the hours until they will be home. Luckily, you still have Shark Bait around to play with and boy oh boy do you adore him. You recently insisted that he needed to move into your bedroom with you. I was scared as could be about how the transition would go. You have a tendency to turn your light on and play at night, until you are ready to go to sleep. Shark Bait really values his sleep and likes to go to bed early so I was worried that your night owl ways would interfere with his good sleep habits. This has not been the case at all. You are so incredibly considerate of him. You lay quietly in bed with the lights off and let him go to sleep. Once, I heard you softly whispering my name. I went to your room to check on you and you whispered that you had to go potty. I helped you to the bathroom where you continued to whisper and remind me to be quiet, so Shark Bait wouldn't wake up. You didn't even want to flush the toilet! I was blown away with how considerate you were of your sweet little brother. He is so lucky to have you to be an example to him and to be his buddy.

You are doing great in preschool this year, even though your three best friends forever are in our class. I was a little worried about how it would go over, but for the most part, you are doing great. You are an eager learner and with a few small exceptions, you stay on task and participate in our lessons. You are learning so much and really blossoming in school. You are getting good at tracing your letters, so I know it will be just a matter of time before you are writing your own name. You've learned all your colours and can say the Pledge of Allegiance. You are great at counting and saying the days of the week. And books... oh how you love to read! It is not uncommon for me to go into your room during quiet time and find you reading a stack of books. Once, you were sent to your room to go to bed after a small tantrum and I turned off the light and told you to go to sleep. The light stayed off so I thought you had actually done just that. I went in to check on you and you were sitting by your bedroom window with the curtains pulled back, reading books by the little bit of light that was coming in. It melted my heart. I love that you love books! We have read Winnie the Witch so many times that you know most of the story by heart and will sit and read it to yourself. It's just about the cutest thing ever.

You are still all boy. You love all things dirt. You love cars and trains and anything that moves. You love dinosaurs and you love, love, love animals. Kevin the Bird is your best buddy and the two of you are your own little pack. You love to wrestle each other and snuggle on the couch and watch TV. Once, you told our friend Amy that you thought she needed "a little boy and his dog" so you were going to go live at her house. She'd take you in a heartbeat. You are her most favourite little boy ever!

You love going to Primary and you think your Primary teacher is the greatest guy in the world, next to your dad. And he is! You give him a run for his money but he is so patient and kind to you. You learn a lot from Brother Ban Wee, as you call him, and he is helping you continue to grow in the gospel. You look forward to Primary each week since it means you get to see Brother Ban Wee and two of your three best friends.

You tell me that you want to be a dad and a dog doctor when you grow up. It warms my heart that you know you want to be a dad. You'll be such a good one. You are strong and brave, but also kind and tender hearted. I hope you never lose those qualities. You often climb up in my lap and tell me "I forgot to hug you, mom!" You then give me a hug and a kiss and go along on your way. I have been teaching you to randomly tell me "You're the prettiest mom I've ever seen". I know it's totally self serving, but every time you do it, it makes my day. Just the little boost I need!

One thing is for sure, our lives were blessed when you were born 4 years ago. You are the baby I dreamed about the night before your dad and I were married and I am so grateful that you joined our family. You keep us on our toes and make life interesting. You give the best hugs and kisses and keep us laughing.

We love you so much, Man Cub. You are the best Dirt Boy a mom could ask for.
Love Always,

Mom & Dad


The Bike Rodeo

Sep 11, 2016

At the very end of January, we were able to attend a bike rodeo at our neighborhood park. We've attended bike rodeos in the past, but they've always been large scale events at one of the huge parks and the entire city was invited to attend at once. This year, the city held smaller bike rodeos at the various parks throughout the city and invited the surrounding neighborhoods to attend. 

We love the bike rodeos. Free food, live band and the local PD fitting the kiddos for helmets and teaching them bike safety. And at the end, they do a drawing for some free bikes. In the past, the events have been so large that we didn't really have a chance at winning a free bike. This time around, I felt like our chances were a little bit better with the smaller crowd, so we stuck around for the whole event, just in case one of our tickets was a lucky one. 

We enjoyed some free hot dogs, sodas, chips and ice cream for lunch. The kiddos each took a turn doing the bike course with the PD and the girls got new helmets. We walked through the sponsor tents and played on the blow up slide and bounce houses. Then it was time for the bike raffle. We gathered round, tickets in hand and the first number drawn was Man Cub's. He was so excited and ran right up and hopped on the brightest coloured bike up there. It was a little big for him, but I couldn't convince him to take the smaller one and the police officer running the raffle just shrugged and laughed. 

Ticket number two was drawn... and matched the numbers on Beebs' ticket. She picked a pink and purple bike. Sunshine mentioned how funny it would be if she won a bike, but as she had gotten her dream bike just a year ago, she knew she didn't need a new one. We stuck around for the end of the drawing so the kiddos could be in a group photo with the other winners, and wouldn't you know it, Sunshine's ticket number was the last one drawn. We won bikes 1, 2, and 6. Sunshine thanked the man drawing tickets, but told him she had a great bike and asked him to pick a new ticket so another child would have a chance at winning. That girl... she is one of the sweetest children I know. She was just excited that her ticket was drawn, even if she didn't go home with a new bike. 

The walk home was an adventure. We only live 3/4 miles from the park, but with the stroller and two bikes more than we walked there with, it was tricky! But we made it home and we were all grins for the rest of the day at having won three bikes. Unfortunately it was too late to buy a Powerball ticket... I was feeling pretty lucky! 





    Puddle Play

    Sep 6, 2016

    We had a nice rainy day in January that made for some good puddles under the play structure. It seemed a shame to waste the puddles, especially since they were sure to be dried up before the girls got home from school, so Man Cub and I headed outside. I took my camera, he took his dinosaurs and we played. Man Cub splashed and jumped and helped his dinos go for a swim. I snapped away, getting all kinds of fun photos of my boy in his element. I really should get out my big camera more often...






     
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