Dear Nate 4th Birthday

Dear Nathan

You turned 4 years old. You have definitely grown out of the toddler stage are a full blown preschooler. You understand jokes, you like to laugh and we have interesting conversations. You also get your feelings hurt easily and really want to get along with everyone.

Marisa is your best friend and your biggest fan. She will play any game that you want to and will do whatever you want her to. You are also good at helping her feel better when she is sad. You can always seem to make her laugh when she is crying with either a silly face or a funny song. She loves you so much and I know why.

You have become so very lovable. You are sweet to everyone, always offering your blankie when someone is sad and sharing your snacks or food. You give hugs and huge kisses. You have become very skilled at talking on the telephone and like to call your Nana, your Grandma and your Daddy. Every night when you go to sleep I sing “You are my sunshine” and then you always get up from your snuggled in position to give me a big hug and kiss.

This year we spent some time at Gull Lake and we went to Great Wolf Lodge (a water park) in the winter. You really loved the water park and we had a lot of fun there. You finally understand the importance of safety items such as life jackets, bicycle helmets, and seatbelts.

For Halloween you dressed up as an astronaut and we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas at Nana and Papas and Aunt Jenn and Papa Bob came over the day after Christmas to visit. Your favorite gift was what Santa brought you, a new airplane, Buzz Lightyear and Woody. In the winter we made Christmas cookies, decorated Gingerbread houses and went to see the lights. You sure loved decorating cookies! You continued to be a big helper with Mommy in the kitchen. Brownies are your favorite thing to make. We had a fun Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papas house and you and Drew hid in the closet and ate all your candy.

You and Marisa loved to play in the laundry baskets and we had a blast playing outside in the sandbox, with the water table and we even created our own water park in the backyard! Mommy and you took time away together to go to the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum, we had so much fun! Daddy taught you how to play hockey in the basement and wanted to take you ice skating but you didn’t want to go. You also really hate getting your haircut. It’s the worst thing that we could ever take you to do. You really don’t like it, screaming and throwing your body around.

We had to say goodbye to Jake our family dog this year, and we were all very sad. We read “Doggy Heaven” and you pretended to understand. We cuddled a lot with Max and talked about how much fun Jake was. We will miss him very much.

You enjoyed shows like Elmo (mostly because Marisa loved it) and Backyardigans. But your absolute favorite was Curious George and you would even ask for certain episodes by name. Your two favorite movies are The Incredibles and Toy Story.

Ms. Katie was your preschool teacher and Aadi is still your best friend. This year you started to write your name and became very good at the letter N. By the end of the year, you could write almost anything as long as I wrote it for you to copy.

At your Doctor appointment for your birthday you were in the 105% for height and 90% for weight. The Doctor said you were growing great, but you were a big boy!

Your birthday this year we celebrated by getting a giant bounce house for our back yard. We invited our neighbors over and a few close friends. You had a blast. I can’t believe how much fun it was to ring in your 4th birthday. You are gowning up so fast, I’m really proud of you.

I love you,
Your Mama.