Dear Hank --
Beautiful boy! You have just turned four, and I hope you had a really happy birthday. We surprised you by having a bouncy house delivered to our backyard for the day, getting you the big boy bike you were hoping for, and making a big cake that looked like a volcano -- the cake was lemon, your favorite these days, and I put some dinosaurs around it (because you are crazy about dinosaurs right now), and made a river out of blue frosting (because that was another part of your request). I put the whole cake together the night before your party, after you went to sleep, and when you saw it in the morning, the look on your face was priceless.
I've been feeling bad because I haven't been making much time to record memories for you to read in the future, so here are a few recent things that have been so nice for me to experience with you.
1 -- there's a playground in a neighborhood near us called Greenridge Park. We discovered it a few months ago. We have to drive up a huge, steep hill to get there, and at the top is this great playground with a view of the entire bay area. We realized that if we went late enough in the day, you could play and blow off some steam, and then we could watch the sun set. The first time we did this, you were totally blown away. You had no idea that the sun sinks below the horizon, because you had never seen it actually happen. It made for a really magical moment, and now about once a week, you will ask if we can go to Greenridge Park and watch the sun set. We did this again yesterday, and as soon as you noticed that the sun was about the slip away, you came to sit with me and Beckett on a bench and we all watched in silence while snuggling on the bench. It was lovely. This morning you asked if we could go and do it again today.
2 -- about two months ago (so when Beckett was just about five months old) you finally noticed that he was someone you could interact with, someone who could be fun for you, instead of just someone who was taking Daddy's and my attention away. Since then I've really enjoyed watching you do things like share toys with him, and make him laugh. In doing so, you've been able to share some of Beckett's first experiences, and by the look on your face when this happens, it looks like you re-experience these things for the first time again, too. You did this with a glowing light stick -- it was really dark and you were playing with this wonderful glowing thing, noticed that Beckett was interested, and shared it with him, and watched him play -- it was lovely. And just this week, you made Beckett laugh out loud for the very first time, and it cracked you up, too. You were running around the family room in your underpants, throwing your pants up in the air over and over again, and it just cracked Beckett up -- he laughed and laughed, laughed like he has never laughed before, and you laughed and laughed, too.
3 -- you say the craziest things these days -- I've been trying to jot my favorites down, but I know I'm not capturing them all. Here are three of your finest quotes, just from yesterday:
"my sleeves are inside out! Help me make them inside in!"
"that dog has a funny butt. It's butt is ROUND!!"
"mommy!!! The moooon is out! It's a banana!"
And pretty much everything that comes out of your mouth is preceded by a "Moooommmmmyyyyy!!!!!"
I'll wrap this birthday letter up, because it is starting to get a little long, but know that your daddy and I just love you so much. We love reading stories with you. We love how curious you are about how things work, watching you focus on taking things apart and put them back together. You love to have dance parties in the evenings. You bring a lot of joy to our lives, and we can't imagine what the last four years would have been like without you in them. Thank you for being our wonderful little guy.
Love,
Mommy
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