Dear John:
One of my many nicknames for you is "Joyful John" because that describes you so well. You light up the room when you enter and always seem to have a smile on your face. Your preschool teacher talks about how she loves having you in her class and I can see that you are friends with everyone there - girls and boys.
We decided to take your paci away and move you to a big boy bed on your 4th birthday (it was definitely time). But boy, you have really missed your paci. It has been 6 weeks and just the other day you said to Daddy, "I miss my paci." I've noticed that you chew on your fingers and bunny now when we read books together because you miss your paci. I wish we had not waited so long to take it away. It has been a hard habit to break.
Because of this, your sleep habits have changed a little bit. Before taking away your paci you never awoke before 7 am, but now we had to put a clock in your room that changes colors to let you know that you CANNOT come out of your room at 6:15, 6:30 or 6:45 like you were doing. Now you have to wait and play in your room until 7 am. After a few mornings of not watching the clock, you have gotten into a rhythm with this. But just this morning, I heard you rustling around at 6:15 am!
You still take a long nap every day - at least 2 hours or so and seem so ready to go down for nap when 1 pm arrives. I wish I could get you into bed a little bit earlier, but we always seem to have activities going on that prevent that.
I think I am going to have you and Matthew start sharing a room in the next few months - we will see how that goes.
You love anything that has to do with construction and can name any piece of equipment that you see. When we ask what you want to do when you grow up you say "I want to be a worker." Matt is hoping you will join him at Risinger Homes one day! Anytime we ask what sort of toy you want you say "a backhoe" or a "front-end loader." Your favorite songs to listen to in the car are from "20 Trucks" CD. I can sing everyone of those songs now, too.
God has gifted you with the gift of encouragement - just like your Daddy. Without training or teaching you, you know how to give sweet words of encouragement to everyone in the family. You will often come up to me after dinner and say, "Mommy, thanks for making dinner for me tonight." And the other day he said, "Mommy you look really pretty today." It is so sweet.
You still have some stuttering at times when you speak, but it has really improved over these last few weeks. Thankfully you never seem to notice it and it certainly does not bother you.
You still love for me to be the one that reads books to you every night. You get very upset and shed real tears when I go out with friends or with Daddy and will miss putting you to bed. It is definitely our sweet time together. You won't really let me snuggle with you much after we read books, but you do want me to lay in bed with you and sing some songs. But one of the stunts you pull lately is telling me that you have to go poo-poo after we have gotten you all settled in bed for the night. It drives me crazy! At that point I call Matt in to see you through all that and get you settled in again.
I love you so much. Your sweet smile, and precious voice. And some of the things you say just make my heart melt. You are going to make the best husband and father some day. It is a joy and privilege to be your Mommy!
Love,
Mommy
