one, two, three, four, five, enormous

Hey there my little Tuckinator!

In spite of all my passionate requests to stop growing up so quickly, you turned six on Tuesday. Happy Birthday, my son! I am so proud of you. You are an energetic yet easy-going, funny, curious, smart, loving and kind hearted boy. You bring much delight, silliness, wonder and a steady stream of thought provoking dialogue to our home.

Lately it feels like every time I look at you another article of clothing is too tight, too short, too small or worn out (particularly in the knees since you have taken to sliding instead of walking…yeah hardwood!). You eat and eat and eat but I can still see every one of your ribs. A couple of months ago we were over at a friends house and for some reason I forget, you took your top off. Our friend exclaimed, “Oh, you are so skinny!”. You were VERY offended. Apparently you are not skinny. You are just very tall and that makes you seem skinny.

I took you for your annual check up the other day. The doctor was very impressed with your list of favourite foods. I think you said curry, apples, shrimp, danish blue cheese and asiago with a “sweet” cracker. That’s why we call you our intrepid pallet! We were also amazed by your growth. In less than 4 months you have grown an inch and a half! STOP GROWING ALREADY! Officially you are 118.5 cm tall and 45 pounds. I guess that is why you are the tallest kid in your class.

Speaking of school, wow do you ever love kindergarten! Although you will only admit to liking recess, you enjoy everything about it. I think the only thing that could make you like it more would be if you were able to build Lego at school instead of just bringing your creations for “show and share” every single Tuesday! You are rather man-like in the lack of details you provide about school but I have been able to figure out that you particularly enjoy patterning, music class, gym and that when you have carpet time, you usually choose to do puzzles and patterns. Probably the cutest thing you have said all year about school is that you have a very special job at lunch. Apparently you are are the self proclaimed “class opener”. Whenever someone has difficulty opening one of their packages, you will do it for them since you obviously excel at that skill! You have been blessed with a wonderful teacher who loves her “kindies” and makes learning fun. Recently she told me that you are a delight to have in class and a true joy to teach. That made me puff up my chest and strut around like a peacock!

Since we moved, you have had a number of ups and downs adjusting to life here. It has been really tough transitioning from a neighbourhood that was littered with children to one with very few. You were used to running outside into a circle of little people who rode bikes, invented games and made each other laugh and cry all day long. You would run outside at 9am, eat all of your meals on the porch (along with any number of other children) and then play until we literally dragged you inside bawling your eyes out at bedtime. I’m sorry that part of moving has been hard on you. Fortunately, one of the boys from your class lives 10 doors down from us. You guys have spent quite a bit of time together this winter. It always makes me happy when the phone rings and it’s your buddy calling to see if you can come over to toboggan (he has a sweet hill right behind his house). When your new school opens in the fall (at the end of our street, no less), I’m hopeful that we will discover more neighbourhood friends for both you and your sister.

Whenever I watch you “doing life”, I have to laugh at how much you are like your Dad. You are both easy going and likeable. You also have the same burning desire to know how things work. I’m counting the days until we find you in the backyard dismantling the lawn mower (not that your Dad would know anything about that!). The two of you have one-track minds and extremely selective hearing when you are focused on a task. It’s actually remarkable. Currently, you are obsessed with all things fishing, farting, bums, drumming continually and without ceasing on any surface you contact, Lego, Lego, farting and, uh, Lego. I’ve been impressed with how well you follow even very complicated Lego instructions (although I’d be even more impressed if you actually cleaned them all up when asked). In fact, when your buddy got a new Lego set for his birthday, his Mom called and asked you to come over and assemble it!

Recently your Dad and I noticed an attitude developing in you that, quite frankly, didn’t sit well with us. Once you have achieved a level of success in certain areas, you’ve decided that you know all there is to know and refuse to learn anything more. For example, once you began to recognize a number of words, you told me that you weren’t going to practice reading anymore since you already knew how to do it. Nothing could convince you that you, in fact, could barely read. Not even when Daddy spelled out “supercalafragalisticexpialdocious” and you were flabbergasted by the sheer length of the word. Unfortunately, you had the same attitude in your recent swimming lessons. This past summer you had huge success and made amazing strides in learning how to swim. This time around, you felt that your teacher had nothing useful to say so you pretty much ignored her the entire time and did your own thing (which included perpetual, frantic movements, a lot of bobbing and splashing and very little that resembled swimming). About the halfway mark, we had a serious chat with you and warned you that not passing your level because you were not trying was simply not acceptable (we could care less if you pass or fail as long as you do your best) and that you would not be re-enrolled until your attitude changed. We expressed our disappointment in your lack of effort and rather sucky attitude. Up until now we’ve always been proud of your efforts. As a baby and then toddler, we cheered wildly when you did something new just like we are doing for your baby brother these days. We took pictures and called our parents when you sat alone for the first time, threw a ball or walked all yours by self from my arms to Daddy’s. When you first scribbled on a page and proclaimed it a picture of our house, we smiled and said, why yes, that looks just like our house. Until recently, you have been working on really important, but basic skills that you were lavishly praised for accomplishing, whether you actually did them “well” or not. We were just so proud of all the new skills that you were trying out. Now that you are a bit older, you need to layer your skills and expand them in a purposeful way. Those are hard lessons because just making marks on a page isn’t worthy of praise when you are capable of printing your name. Once you can do so legibly, you are then expected to continue to do so. We can’t cheer and say “great job” for just splashing about in the water when you are more than capable of swimming the required ten meters unassisted. It has been tough for us to learn how to say that what you did wasn’t good enough (especially in a way that makes you understand you can do better and inspires you to do it rather than give up) and for you to hear it. I hope you understand why you won’t be taking swimming lessons for a while.

You know what, love? You aren’t perfect but you are perfect for us. We love you and we are so very proud of you. We thank God that we have the opportunity to love you and share our days with you. My life would be much less bright without your brilliant smile and infectious giggle. I adore your spontaneous hugs, the ways you try to help me out when you can tell I’m tired or frustrated (Mom, can I clean the whole house or something for you cause you look sorta tired today) and the sweet time we share making up Hippie Hop stories at night (we will write that book one day!). You should be proud of what a great big brother you are. You are so gentle and tender with your little brother and you have a great capacity for patience and grace with your little sister (who tries so hard to annoy you). It is my privilege to be your Mom and to watch you growing up into quite a handsome little man, if I do say so myself!

I love you, my precious boy.

Always,

Mom

test Filed under Kiddies |