You've really cemented the idea of "best friend" and have titled Jack your #1 best friend, Chase your #2 best friend, and Del as your #3 best friend. You love them all dearly and pine for them when they are not nearby. You obviously get the most time with Del and you work hard on compromises and creating games you'll both like. Generally it works well because Del wants to do and be and say whatever you are, do, or say. When she isn't interested in whatever task you'd like for her or giving up whatever toy you want you have the pout down. This takes less than a minute and Del gives up whatever it is you wanted. She's a little sad but your happiness makes up for it, as far as I can tell.
I discovered a slightly wet floor upstairs in an open area and the salt grinder was on the table up there.
"Why is the salt upstairs?" I asked two kids who were in theory getting ready for bed.
"It wasn't me!" was your sister's quick reply.
"I was making an ocean," you said a little uncertainly. There didn't seem to be any salt in the large but thin wet spot on the floor. I brought the salt downstairs and went back up to check on teeth brushing. I noticed the purple bin that I had just put balls in was missing and there the balls were all on the floor.
"What happened to the purple bin?" I asked.
"It's in here," you said from the bathroom, "I was using it for my ocean."
I checked on the purple bin that was in the shower.
There was a healthy collection of dark wet small stones around the bin on the shower floor. At this point you'd both wandered into your bedroom to wait for reading.
"Why are there stones in the shower?" I asked.
"For my ocean!" was the response called back.
"It wasn't me!" Del was sure to inform me.
"Where did you get them?" I asked.
"The driveway."
Interesting.
This was not a whim. This was a well thought out, gather my supplies, and create something, kind of situation.
We went camping for the first time this month. You spent several hours just looking at the water. More thinking time. You loved observing the ducks, boats floating (or zooming!) by, and just the water. It was a pretty magical two days but you would disagree. You don't believe in magic and you don't believe in fairies. Especially fairies. This is a frequently discussed topic. You even said you couldn't be friends with one of our friends because she believed in fairies. I then asked if you believed in ninjas. You said yes because they were real. I asked if you'd ever seen one. That made you pause.
We've started classes for fostering and you and Del are super excited. You talk about different gender and ages of foster siblings you'd like in our family. For several days you had a pile of blankets spread neatly on your floor. I finally suggested that we should put the blankets away. You said you wanted them there for sleepovers. I explained that it would probably be a couple of years still before you were ready for sleepovers. You explained that you meant children who would come and live with us. Very very sweet. I explained that while sleeping on the floor would be a lot of fun the rule is that every kid needs their own bed - and an actual bed, not a pile of blankets on the floor.
Your a sleep in kind of kid. Well, more accurately you wake up at a reasonable hour, says you, and then you have your valued "thinking time". You wander downstairs sometime after 9am. Then our friends came to visit for a week (last month) and since then you've been motivated to get out of bed more speedily. It started with wanting maximum time to hang out with your friend and the habit has continued. You recently added this twist: when you hear someone else in the house (as you walk down the stairs or when we come back in from chores you yell: "Who's awake and likes the cake?" We all laugh and it's a fun way to start our day with you.
You go back and forth on believing in God and are quite interested in Biblical stories. I'm cautious in sharing them, not sure how much of the harshness to share with you. At the same time I really want you to have the stories in your repertoire as they come out as part of our culture in various ways. We were recently discussing the merits of Storyland (an amusement park for kids in NH that we've never been to). Daddy explained that like Santa's Village and Santa's Workshop (both of which you've been to) Storyland has a theme. The theme of Storyland is different story characters. Daddy gave the example of 3Billy Goats Gruff and said that there was a bridge and three goats at Storyland. You asked if a troll lived under the bridge. You asked if there were three little pigs at Storyland. What about Goldilocks and the three bears? And maybe Humpty Dumpty, you know? That egg? And maybe ...
So I realized we're doing okay on giving you the stories that have been passed down for many generations.
You completed 3 solid weeks of swimming lessons at a nearby beach this month. You began with much trepidation. New things are hard and as much as you love swimming, you didn't want to be with people you didn't know - even if Mommy was right on the beach. I laid out a huge threat. If we didn't do swimming lessons there would be no swimming for the rest of the summer - not even in Grammy's pool. I explained that it was something we'd signed up for and needed to follow through with. It helped somewhat that a new friend was also in your group. As expected you were thrilled to pieces by the end of the lesson and couldn't wait for the next day. You are thinking about doing swimming lessons again soon - but you want to be challenged more next time.
A few days after the start of swimming lessons you were insisting you didn't want to go to Santa's Workshop - only Santa's Village or you weren't coming. We explained that Santa's Village was MUCH farther away and we just wanted to try Santa's Workshop. It took much frustrating convincing to get you in the car. At the end of the day the grownups were disappointed that there were only 4 rides you were small enough to go on and you were pronouncing it "The Best Day Ever!"
As usual we've had overnight guests throughout the month - your favorite being when Carter came, an 11 year old ball of fun! We went to the fair with him and you were able to go by yourselves on a few occasions to a nearby sandpit. I'm impressed with how high you and Carter and Del could climb and then there was much joy when sliding down the sand on your bums. How lucky we are to live in a place where there's acres of "yard" to roam, woods to explore, ponds to investigate, sandpits to slide in, animals to entertain us, love, laughter, and too often late nights!
A million times I love you,
Momma
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