My dearest Nate,
Yesterday was your birthday, and in my annual tradition, here is a glimpse into the life of the freshly minted Nate 4.0!:
We celebrated with a special day at the Monterey Bay “Akarium.” But first, we had an adventure trying to drop my car back off at Oller Brothers due to faulty breaks. You and Jake and Daddy were following me in Lufthansa. And every turn I took was a dead end into some kind of Rose Garden marathon. When Daddy pulled the car up next to mine and rolled down the window you yelled authoritatively, “Take Bascom Mom, Bascom!”
We had a perfect outing in Monterey on the most crystal clear day in recent memory. Nonna and Papa and Grandma and Granddad all came to celebrate. You ordered grilled cheese with multiple servings of ketchup. After lunch you sat quietly and watched the boats. Grandma and I reminisced about when you were little and too scared to go into the dark rooms of the aquarium. You would cry, “I too ‘cary, I too ‘cary!”
You’ve traded in Superman for Transformers. You’ve had one Transformers t-shirt hand-me-down that replaced the Superman “black and blue one.” After wanting to wear it every day, Daddy somehow talked you into preserving it so it “doesn’t get dirty.” Now you just like to look at it in your drawer. When you opened a new Transformer t-shirt for your birthday, you were so excited but didn’t want it to get dirty. Eat on the fine china, son. You glowed like “Octimus Prime.”
You ordered macaroni and cheese and chocolate cake for your birthday dinner. You also ordered a Bumble Bee Twansfowmer wit a wemote contwol. You were so excited when you opened it.
In recent news, you’ve completely turned around your reputation at swimming. You readily join Miss Jenn and have even warmed up to her male assistant. You are working to roll over from your back to your front to get the next ribbon. You tell me you’re ready for soccer.
You still say things like blueblerries and Neckflix and “Mommy, clock it. Clock it” as you hand me your Nerf gun. Sometimes you call the microwave a microphone. This weekend while watching Pocahontas, you asked me why they were singing “Samiches… Samiches.” It was a song about savages.
You call yourself Natesy and lately, you’ve been experimenting with angry eyebrows. When you’re mad, you glare at us with piercing eyes and angry eyebrows to emphasize your point. You are convinced “the polices” will come at your beck and call to enforce your perspective.
Around October of last year you started speaking up and standing up for yourself. You’ve got opinions. You are no longer content to just do what your brother plans for you. This has introduced fighting into our lives, but I’m sure it’s just part of an important developmental grand plan.
You know lots of letters, including all the letters in NATE. You like doing Jacob’s Spanish flash cards better than he does. Your best friend is Lucas (you pronounce it Lou-kahs) and you’ve both outgrown your class and are ready to move up to bigger and better things.
You love impromptu dance parties and turning the back of the bathtub into a forbidden water slide. You still sleep with five puppies but you no longer have to bring them to school. Your propensity for potty talk has not waned.
And you are still edible. Our dentist, Dr. Wehle, even noticed. I could see her looking at you and noticing what an edible little buttered biscuit you are. Even Miss Chethi called you precious in our last parent teacher conference. You sure know how to charm with your cleaning-up and your good listening and that boyish grin.
I love you kiddo. You are everything that is important to me and I can’t wait to see the adventures this year will bring.
xoxo,
Mommy
