For My Tobin Bear, As You Turn Four

My dearest Tobin,

Yesterday we celebrated your fourth birthday, and what a special day it was.  Not because we did anything extraordinary, but because you are extraordinary.  Would you like a peek into your day?

In the morning, you got to go down to Grandpa and Grandma's house, your normal Thursday morning activity.  Once a week, they keep you in the morning--and on another day, they keep Shav--so that you will each get special time with them and I will be able to focus more easily on Josiah and David's education.  It works out great for all of us, and you are always so excited to do this.

You often take a preschool book with you, and Grandpa helps you do a few pages in it.  You're starting to really enjoy the idea of school and are figuring out the mystery of what letters are and what sounds they make.  You've known "T" and "O" for a long time, but now you're branching out to other letters and are benefiting from some of the LeapPad resources that we have or that we've borrowed from the library.  I'm not rushing you into formal learning; but when I see your excitement, it makes me enthusiastic about teaching you.  Though I expect to do more "official" preschool stuff in the fall with you, even now I've gotten out the BrainQuest preschool set of cards; and you love going through those with me.  When we first started with them, the idea of words rhyming or figuring out similar initial sounds of words was intimidating to you; but as we go along in a very relaxed and fun pace, you're learning so much and gaining confidence.  You often surprise me with what you know!

When you go to Grandpa and Grandma's, you always ask for a marshmallow; and they always give you one. Sometimes you get to snack on banana chips and drink orange juice, too.  When Grandpa walked up the hill with you yesterday after your morning at their house, he said, "Tobin might not be very hungry for lunch; he ate a lot at our house today."  :)

You often get to watch a movie with Grandpa, too--usually something about tractors or farm animals or maybe trucks or, like yesterday, Winnie the Pooh.  And of course, there are toys to play with also!

Yesterday after lunch, you got to spend the first part of your afternoon quiet time helping me make your birthday cake.  David wanted to help, too; but I told him no because yesterday was YOUR special day.  On David's birthday, he'll get to be the one and only cake helper.  :)

When I'm cooking, you usually ask to see what's in the pan I'm stirring on the stove or what I've just put in the oven.  If I'm making a smoothie, you're the one who pulls a chair over to stand on so you can push the buttons on the blender and drop the ice cubes into it.

If I'm mixing something or putting ingredients into a bowl, you want to be a part and do as much of it as I will let you.  Yesterday as we made your cake, you actually did a super job of stirring the batter; and when I stirred it more to check on it, I realized that you had basically done my job for me.  Good for you, little chef!

You've come a long way from the infamous baking soda incident; and although I still don't leave you completely unattended when we're baking something together, I do have much more confidence in you now than I used to.  ;-)

Not surprisingly, you were eager to lick the spoon.  I had to remind you a time or two that you were only allowed to do that AFTER I was done with it and not while we were still making the cake.  :)

Weeks and months before your birthday, when you were "ordering" your cake from our very own "bakery," you announced that you wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

Recently you had added to your order and said that you wanted dinosaur candies on the top.  I didn't exactly know where to get dinosaur candies, and Walmart was no help; but the day before your birthday, Daddy found some gummy dinosaurs at Sharp Shopper, and I thought we were all set.  This was gonna be GREAT!

But then I heard you describing your desired cake again, and I realized that you were actually saying dinosaur CANDLES, not candies.  Oops!  Not having time to remedy that mistake (and not having the foggiest idea where to even get dinosaur candles), I opted to go with the dinosaur candies and the #4 candle that we've used for your two older brothers.  I hoped you wouldn't be too disappointed, and you weren't.  You loved the way your cake looked, did a terrific job blowing out the candle while we sang to you, but didn't eat a bite of it last night.  You did, however, want to eat a gummy dinosaur all by itself.  :)  Today you had some cake.  :)

Having a birthday in a large (I don't think of our family as large at all, but I know society considers us that way) family means being surrounded by excited siblings while you open your gifts.  You're so used to it that you didn't seem to mind.

As a matter of fact, it was useful to have big brothers nearby...so they could read you your cards, for example...

...and admire your gifts, like this new firetruck from Grandpa and Grandma...

...and even dance to the music as you opened the card from us.  It's become a well-loved tradition to give each of you boys a musical card on your birthdays; and much enjoyment is gleaned from that, not just on the birthday but in the days following.

And all of you boys take turns making the card play music.  :)

One of the gifts we gave you was the new Winnie the Pooh movie that came out last year.  You delightedly watched it twice today, and I didn't mind bending the one-movie-at-the-most-per-day rule for you because the day after your birthday is worthy of a celebration, too.  :)

We also gave you a set of glow-in-the-dark stars for the ceiling of your room...

...and a new preschool workbook.  I'm not sure what Josiah and David were thinking that gave them such funny faces in this picture...

...but it makes me chuckle to see them that way.  Here's a better picture of the three of you looking through your new book.

We also gave you a "treasure box" to put on a shelf in the hallway and use to organize your miscellaneous papers and other special items that you love to collect.  And then your last gift from us:  a Tote and Go Laptop.  With your interest in learning letters and numbers and other foundational things, it seemed like the perfect gift.

And, not surprisingly, your brothers thought so, too.

You got to have the first turn with it, but all of them (even Shav, who loves pushing random buttons on it and making sounds with it) have enjoyed it, too.

Last night, for example, after your birthday supper was over (when I had asked you what you wanted for dinner, you said, "salad"...OK then, we'll have salad), David played with the new "laptop" while you got busy with your new preschool workbook.

Daddy read the directions for you, and you finished something like 22 pages!  :)

Both the older boys were entertained by the laptop...

...and Josiah even thought it looked great when he was hanging upside down from the couch.  :)

I have a feeling that many hours of fun will come from that gift.

The other thing we gave you yesterday was sort of a Christmas gift and sort of a birthday gift.  For Christmas, Grandma Fisher had kindly given us a gift card to Walmart; and after talking it over with Daddy, I decided to use a portion of the money to buy matching quilts for the bunk beds in your room.  Before your baby sister is born, we'll move Shav from the nursery into your room, and you'll get to have a roommate.  :)  In the two years that you've been sleeping in your big boy bed in this room, you've never had a quilt or bedspread.  That hasn't particularly bothered you or been a problem since we have plenty of blankets that have kept you snuggly warm at night; but the home decorator/nester in me wanted to eventually get a set of matching quilts for your bunk beds, and Grandma Fisher's generous gift made this seem like an ideal time.   The search for a quilt was "interesting."  :)  I knew that yellow is your favorite color, and Shav always says that red is his favorite (although since he sometimes picks up a blue car and says "red" or points to a green shirt and says "red," I don't trust his knowledge of colors yet!).  I also knew that for the beds in your room, we had a set of light blue sheets and a set of dark blue, and it would be nice to have a quilt that coordinated with them.  In addition, I did not want something with a childish theme that you would likely outgrow in a few years, so no Thomas the Tank Engine or Cars or anything like that (not that there's anything wrong with those, but I was going for a more classic look that would last longer).  We'd like to paint the walls in your room yellow; and again, we're thinking ahead to the future.  If your current room ever becomes your sister's room, it would be great to have a wall color that accommodates a feminine decorating style, too.  (Can you tell that painting rooms is not something we like to do very often??)  :)  So, what to get?  When I saw these quilts on Walmart's website, I knew I had found the answer.

I love how they've got an old-fashioned, classic look to them...they include yellow, red, light blue, and dark blue...and they're not themed according to any particular popular character.

I'm sure you didn't think through all those reasons like I did, but I'm happy to say that you love the quilts, too. You were so excited to sleep under your new quilt last night!  :)

And of course, you cuddled Molly as you went to sleep.  She's your favorite stuffed animal, by far--given to you by Jenny Sacra, named for our real dog Molly, she is the one you always have with you at night and often carry downstairs with you in the morning.  You'll instruct me to set her on the counter where she can watch you eat breakfast, for example, and you like to tie things around her neck to use as a leash (like Christmas ribbon from our tree).  "Where's Molly?" is a common question around here, although since your pronunciation of "l" is not well-developed, it comes out more like "Where's Mah-wee?"  ;-)

Besides Molly, you also love to have other stuffed animals in bed with you (actually, you just like to have a lot of STUFF in bed with you! toys, books, etc.).  Jasper is another favorite of yours which tells me you certainly have not forgotten our dog that was killed in the road.  The interesting thing is that sometimes you'll use the name Jasper for a big stuffed colorful caterpillar, and sometimes you'll use it for a brown monkey!  Other current favorites of yours, when it comes to stuffed animals, are three Beanie Babies: one is a light blue bear with white snowflakes that you call _____ (the boys' name we had chosen in case we had a son), one is a white bear with holly on it that you call ______ (the name of our Baby Girl), and one is a white bear with a halo that you call Pizza Angel (named after a Veggie Tales song that I find incredibly annoying).  When you start talking about your Pizza Angel, Josiah, who shares my distaste for that song, practically screeches, "Don't say that!"  "It's OK," I tell him somewhat wearily, "Tobin can call the bear that if he wants to."  *sigh*  ;-)

There is so much more that I want to say to you, Tobin--things about you that I've noticed and that I want to remember.  Maybe tomorrow I can write some more about these things.  But for tonight, I'll simply say that I loved celebrating this birthday with you, just as I've loved celebrating all the four years of your life since birth.  You are a treasure.

Just like Josiah wrote on the envelope for your birthday card...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOBIN!!!

I love you with all my heart,
Mommy