Happy 44 months!

Dear Connor,

This was a fun month. So fun, in fact, that when one of your daddy's high school buddies told him he was on the fence about whether to have a child, your daddy encouraged him to do so, saying that you and your sister had brought a lot of happiness into his life. Sweet, eh? I say stuff like that all the time. Your dad? Not so much. Not because he doesn't love you and Helen both very dearly, but because he's a guy, and it's usually cooler to talk about all.the.sleepless.nights (even if he slept through many of them).

You are definitely ready to hit the pool this summer. We've been going to an indoor pool weekly at the local high school and this month, you decided to teach yourself how to swim on your back, and you made it the width of the pool without interference from your dad or I. This pleased you greatly.

You have continued your rapid growth spurt and ask to be measured regularly - and you express a bit of disappointment when you haven't gained an inch over the last time you were measured. You often ask me if you are as big as me yet, I suspect because you think that a lot of great things are going to happen when you're as big as me. These include: sleeping in my room, staying up late, becoming a garbage collector where you are the person that jumps out of the truck and dumps the trash and I am the person who drives the truck, and many other things. These come up regularly when you say "when I'm as big as you can I..." and I say "yes". Because I'm hoping that I have a few years before we look eye-to-eye.

You love to scream. So much, that I got a note from your teacher at school about it. She thought you were having a mental breakdown, so she pretty much let you scream and scream as she took you out in the hallway. Enough so that other people later her asked her what was going on in the hallway. Once I explained to her that this was just you, she decided to actually tell you "no", and now you don't scream at school any more. But you still scream in the house, and in the car, and outside, and anywhere else you think you can get away with it. I've dedicated myself to convincing you that screaming is for outside, and it's working pretty well, except for recently in the car with Zoe. We were going to a local production of Mother Goose and you and Zoe got excited about riding in the same car (oh the thrill!), so you started shouting, and I actually pulled the car over, looked you in the eye, and told you to knock it off. You did, for at least a few minutes. But when we got out of the car, you ran, and ran, and ran and oh how I am glad you know to stop at street corners because I can let you enjoy that freedom without worrying. Of course, we've had a couple of incidents when I told you to "stop" and you did not, which resulted in you having to hold my hand when we were on the sidewalk and this was so.incredibly.torturous to you.

You lead your sister in constant play. You love to go into closets together, behind furniture, and into forts, declaring that the two of you are in your house. You ask Helen "should we let Mommy come into the house" and Helen says "yes" or "no" and if she says "no" you ask "when you said no did you mean yes?" and then Helen will say "yes" so you will shout "Helen says it's OK if you come into our house!". You are constantly trying to figure Helen out, so you tend to ask her fairly complex questions, and then often get offended at the "yes" or "no" answer she gives you. For example, if Helen is staring at something of yours, you might ask her "Helen, do you like my doggie when he is sitting underneath the pack-and-play" and Helen will answer "no", and you will come running to me and say in a voice that is filled with injustice "Helen won't let me play with my doggie under the pack-and-play because she doesn't like it". Uh, yeah. You will also use the same tactic to express your desires through Helen. For example, I might hear from the backseat "Helen, did you want mommy to stop at the bookstore and get us a new book?" and Helen will answer, and then you will say "Mommy, Helen wants you to stop at the bookstore and get her a new book". Mommy is not fooled.

You run, you skip, you laugh. You make others around you do the same.

Love,
Mommy