Milo at 4 1/2

Milo you are 4 1/2 already. You’ve grown a lot in these last few months. You are starting to look less like a little kid and more like a big boy. You’re still shorter than other 4 1/2 year olds, but you look huge to me. You beautiful yellow hair and crystal blue eyes have not changed a bit though. You do have a lovely scattering of freckles across your cheeks and nose now. No matter where we go, people always tell you and I how handsome you are and they always comment on your eyes. You have gotten friendly to strangers lately. You will randomly wave at them and finally speak to them. Mostly you tell them about Lucas.

You are next to me almost all day long. With Keely in school for the whole day, I am your companion. We have a pretty good routine going now. I do some computer work while you play Playmobil, we clean up the house together, run our errands, you play with Lucas, we have lunch, maybe read some books or work on a project, each afternoon we take a nice long walk around the neighborhood, then you and Lucas have a snack together and play for a little bit, we tidy up all the played with toys and then its time for the other half of the family to come home.

You are such a good helper to me. You love to help me with my shop-finding boxes and wrapping them up. You carry stuff at the post office for me. You like to make the bed or clean up one of Lucas’s disasters to surprise me. It’s very sweet.You still give me lots of hugs and need lots of cuddles. You always will sit next to me or daddy instead of alone. You have gotten much more spastic and active recently. You have lots of energy and you run and flip and spin a lot. Jumping on furniture, running through the house, flipping on the floor….and talking.

So much talking from you. You do not stop talking all day. You follow me room to room talking and it takes you a long time to get through your stories and train of thought. Sometimes I just have to stop you because I really have to do something else and can’t listen 100 percent to the hour long explanation. I always feel bad though and try to give you some undivided attention afterwards.

You are still a sensitive boy and your feelings are easily hurt. You also get really upset when you get hurt.You want us to get rid of the offending wall, door, furniture or whatever it was that made you get hurt. If someone else knocks something over or hits anything (accidentally or on purpose) I hear you whisper and oh so quietly  apologize to the thing. “I’m sorry Keely pushed you gate.” You don’t want anyone to hear you though.  Lately, if I am not around when you get hurt (emotionally or physically) you will sulk and delay the crying until I see you and ask what is wrong. Then you fall to pieces in my arms. My sweet little boy.

Keely and you are almost always fighting now. We can’t leave you two alone for 5 minutes without some explosion of words. It is almost out of control. When she makes you made you go to hitting her or throwing things, both dangerous so we are always on guard. It seems like a mine field around here. I hope this passes soon or it’s going to be a very long painful summer.

Your favorite things to play right now are Playmobil and Legos. You still like little things and do that you can change, build, or make do something. You’ve lost interest in books for some reason and any schoolish activity I try with you you tell me, “Mommy, let’s just wait until I’m bigger for this stuff.” Fair enough. You do know the alphabet and letter sounds and can count pretty good. You just want to run with Lucas and build stuff. I get it.

You still love nature and spotting pretty things out in the world. You still bring me crystals (rocks) that you have found and pick me flowers. You love to chase butterflies and run to pet every dog and cat you see. You love babies and talk so sweetly to them. You adore Lucas and are so sad if you think he doesn’t like you for some reason. Lucas pets your head and says, “iiiii-ooooo” for Milo. It’s really cute, and your face lightens and you take it all in.

You say cute things still…if you want to go see a neighbor or a pet you say, “Let’s go meet such and such.” or when Lucas wakes up from a nap you say, “Can I go meet Lucas.” You call the universe, “noodle verse.” It’s bigger than the whole noodle verse. I love you more than the noodle verse. Awesome. You tell me that you are special to birds and dogs and cats. You still say “scare” when you mean “stare”.  Stop scaring at me. Don’t just scare at me.   You think that Madonna’s song, “I’m Going to Dress You Up in My Love.” is saying Milo instead of My Love.  They are same to me.

You ask a lot of questions about how things work and I try to explain them to you, but you often tell me I’m wrong if you don’t like my explanation. You insist that the clouds are part of outer space. They are not part of our earth. You always think of things that you think would be SOOO cool and then you tell your wonderous ideas to me with a far off look on your face and little thrilled smile on your face. Your world is full of great stuff.

You like music, but you don’t like things that are too noisy. You get really mad. We can’t listen to songs too loud or be somewhere very noisy. You mood will sour fast. You don’t really sing or dance, but you listen to the words of songs.

You are a watcher and a learner, a wonderer, a dreamer, and such a beautiful little boy Milo. We are so lucky that you are part of our lives. I love you Milo.