Four

Really? You're four? Zachary, slow down buddy boy. You're getting too big too fast! You are officially a big boy in my mind now.



It's been a great year. You're really growing into your own person, your own personality and you are such joy to be around. I love how you are still a snuggler. Every time I sit down, you immediately fold yourself in to the curve of my side. And today when you did that, you had a bowl of goldfish snacks, so you sat there and fed me goldfish as we snuggled and a watched a little TV. You do that quite a bit. You're very generous with most things when given the chance. However, you do NOT like to have things taken away from you, so it's always better for us to ask first.

This year, you've learned lots of new things. When we started school, I geared most of our activities toward Stephen, but you are keeping up wonderfully and you insist on having your turn at the school table. You know all your letters and numbers now and are beginning to sound out words.

You still talk with a precious little lisp, and when you talk there is such excitement in your voice. You are still a lot like your mama because I've noticed quite a bit lately that when you feel a certain way about something, you feel it intensely. You are either very excited, very happy, very mad or very sad. You are never "just a little" anything.

Yesterday, we started an experiment. You see, you carry your lovey around with you everywhere. Not only does the lovey get filthy, but you constantly have your fingers in your mouth because of it. So starting yesterday, I told you that lovey could not come out of your bed. You could have it at naps and nighttime, but for the rest of the day, you would be lovey-free. You whined quite a bit about it, and at one point, I couldn't find you anywhere in the house. I went in to your room (that was almost completely dark), flipped on the light and found you cuddled in your bed with your lovey. You spent quite a bit of time in your room by yourself yesterday. Today was much better, and you missed lovey a lot less, although, I did notice that lovey somehow snuck out of your room a couple of times.

You are still apprehensive about trying new things in general, but I noticed this year, that you are getting better about it and you are more easily convinced than you used to be. You've also shown that you can be quite the chatty child. Especially when you are by yourself without your brothers around, you are just full of thought and question and conversation. Never a dull a moment. :)

Zachary, you are still my sweet little boy. So laid back and easy-going (most of the time). You march to the beat of your own drum, but once in a while, it seems like it sounds a lot like mine. I'm relieved for you that we have a new baby coming, because you'll no longer be the middle child. I'm not sure what that means for you down the road, but I hope it's a good thing.

I'm so glad God gave us you. And I can't wait to see what we can do together in your 5th year!

Love,
Mama