Intensely Four

Hey, Mac-O. Today we are celebrating four fun years with you! You have grown up so much this year, and I don't mind telling you this has been my favorite year with you, so far. There are many words to describe you, Max. You are smart, funny, cute, silly, competitive, helpful, sweet, energetic, fast, athletic, muscular, sneaky, creative and charming. But I think the word that fits you best is intense. Whatever you are feeling or doing, you are all in. You are intensely passionate about everything, which is something I absolutely love about you--and also something that sort of drives me crazy at times. I believe that, in addition to getting you into some trouble, this intensity will serve you very well during the course of your life.

You became a big brother in May, and you take that job very seriously. You are always helping with Clay, and making sure we are taking good care of him. You play with him and love on him. You read to him and sing him songs. You love him SOOO much, and he is lucky to have you in his life!

You started preschool in the fall--three days a week. At first you weren't too sure about it, mostly because I think you thought you were missing out on something fun at home. But it wasn't long before you were telling me that "it would really be better if [you] could go out for two recesses, rather than just one," which meant you wanted to be able to stay at school longer on the days you were there. You don't give me many details about your days there when I ask, but if I pay attention, it is easy to pick up on all that you are learning there. You have learned all the letters and the sounds they make, many of the numbers, lots of fun songs and several Bible stories. You can also write your name with the letters in the correct order now. Your classmates are always very excited to see you, and your teachers brag on you all the time. One of your teachers even told me last semester that she often uses you a model of good behavior for your classmates to mimic.

You became obsessed with Tow Mater this past summer, when we saw the real truck they patterned the movie character off of on our Route 66 trip. You now have a plan to own the "real" Tow Mater when you grow up, along with a blue dump truck, a shredder and a cement truck.

We enrolled you in martial arts this week, after seeing that you had watched and memorized almost every move from Ruth's classes. You definitely have a need to be active, and we are hoping this will give you an outlet for some of that energy.

You are still our most finicky eater, sometimes gobbling down insane amounts of food, and sometimes not even taking one bite. You love almost all fruits and many veggies, grilled steak (your words, not mine), pizza, sausage, venison and pretty much anything sweet. You call every meal lunch and every meat chicken. And you may well be the thirstiest person I have ever known.

You love to play sports, climb trees, shoot (play) guns, build tracks for your trains and cars, draw pictures, squirrel things away, go adventuring and make up stories. You are a whiz on your grandparents' ipads, just naturally knowing how to get it to do what you want. You are still attached at the hip to Charlie Beetle, but when we opened up moving boxes, you found Popeye (a stuffed dog), and he has been tagging along with you and Charlie quite a lot since September. When you want to be extra-sweet to Clay, you bring him your special friends to play with.

It has been so much fun watching you learn and grow this year. You are really starting to seem more like a big boy to me. I am often very impressed with you, and I'm always so proud of you. You are such a neat person, and I'm thankful that I get to be your mom. I love you so very much! You are my very favorite four-year-old! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mom