William, my sweet badger,
Sometimes, if I didn’t know better I would think you are made of pure sugar. As Grammy likes to say, you are a ball of butter. You have the softest, most beautiful skin and you love to give hugs, snuggle and are very affectionate with people you know very well. When we pick you up, you curl your legs into a little ball and just snuggle into our arms. Daddy likes to say you ‘take your landing gears up’.
You also are very quiet and shy. You have always been much more mellow than Lexi and will quietly play by yourself or with Lexi, but Lexi is loud and doesn’t ever stop talking. Sometime, we don’t even know you’re there.
I didn’t realize how shy you were until we were at Nikki and Trevor’s this past fall and Mitch said, that is the first time I’ve ever heard William say something. I was a bit shocked to hear that but when I thought about it, you often just nod your head to questions or Daddy and I will jump in and answer for you so–we need to stop doing that.
Then at conferences this fall, the teachers informed us that you haven’t ever talked to them. They pulled you aside to have you show them how to count and you looked at them and shook your head no. HAHA! You definitely know how to count but I just hadn’t realized how quiet you were in front of others as you definitely talk at home.
The day you begin to loose teeth, I think I may go into mourning. You have the cutest, most perfect little teeth that compliment your sparkling green eyes. You have the sweetest happy little smile, that usually involves your tongue hanging out like a little puppy.
I wrote about your relationship with Lexi in her 6 year old post, but will mention it here too. She is your best friend. The two of you are Mickey and Pluto. You always want to be with each other, playing together and rarely do you fight or argue. You love to play with your ‘boy’ toys like transformers, dinosaurs and spiderman while she is playing with her Shopkins, LOLs or barbies. You intermingle your two types of toys into whatever scene you’re playing together. The two of your share a room and you find so much comfort in having Lexi be in your room with you. You regularly ask when she is coming home from school and are so excited to play with her when she gets back.
You fully embrace your big brother role with Kate. You love to play with her (when Lexi isn’t around) and take care of her. You’re teaching her how to play when Lexi is at school. Kate will regularly get into and break your lego or Magnatile creations and instead of getting angry and upset, you just shrug your shoulders and say, ‘It’s Oh-tay, we can just build it again’ Let me pause here while I pick up the pieces of my heart sweet boy.
One of my favorite things about you right now is when we ask you a question that people commonly respond with, ‘Good’, you respond with ‘Nice’. Me: William, how was school today? W: Nice. Me: Oats, How was your Chipotle? W: Nice with a sweet little grin.
At 4 years old, you are learning to write your name and can write ‘Will’ by yourself. You know the letter W but that is about it. You can almost count to 20 (you just miss 15), know all of your colors and shapes and are beginning to identify patterns. You are still working on consistently understanding the concepts of before, after and the difference between 5 minutes an 3 hours. You also replace your ‘c’ and ‘k’ sounds with ‘t’s’ and your ‘g’ sounds with ‘d’s’–so words are pronounced like ‘milt’ and ‘dood’–but you are capable of making the sounds when we ask you.
You experienced so many fun things this year, many which were firsts for you:
- First airplane ride to Florida (and first family vacation)
- First time seeing the ocean
- You started swimming lessons and are starting to swim short distances by yourself (10ft), can float on your back like a little seal, and flip over from back floats to front floats.
- Spent lots of time swimming in our new pool in the backyard
- Learned to ride a two-wheeler bike
- Went to the Bothwell cabin many times and spent time at a cabin with the Sampson’s
- Went camping to Storybook Land in South Dakota
- Spent several days boating on St. Croix and even went tubing
- In September, you started Preschool and go twice a week for 2.5 hours, which included your first time riding a bus, first field trip and your first Christmas program
- Your love for transform/rescue bots and dinosaurs surfaced. You continue to love spiderman and really any kind of superhero.
- You are obsessed with the color green.
- You love any kind of sweet there is
- You love riding bikes, swimming, playing Legos/going to LegoLand with Daddy, building MagnaTiles creations, playing in the sandbox, being Daddy’s helper with work projects and just his little shadow and helping mommy make dinner or bake things.
- Visiting Disneyland which can be read about here, here, here and here
- You’re the cuddliest little sleeper, but still are pretty wild
William, you are the perfect middle child. I love your calm and joyful demeanor. You brighten every one of my days. Please never stop reaching to hold my hand and asking me to ‘snuddle’ with you.
Love,
Mama
Peanut Smiles 