We are somehow surviving winter this year; it is most likely due to my four year olds imagination and desire to be constantly entertained. I think I am finally understanding why people have kids so close together; so that on days when you just need a few minutes you have someone else for them to play with! Brilliant!
Four is a new and exciting age; it has come with its challenges of constant attitude, screaming when in trouble and defiance of time outs, it has also brought out a lot of personality. I want to record some or my recent favorite things about Berkeley before they leave my mind forever.
Berke now hates bed time, it finally happened, I knew it would. The other night this was our conversation:
Me: It's time for bed
B: No Mom! You're ruining our family!
Me: Ok....how am I doing that?
B: You are ruining my life by putting me to bed!
Just tonight he told me that I lost my privilege to go to bed (can you see what parenting technique we use a lot at our house?), that we would have to stay awake all night. (see what I mean by attitude?)
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Berke loves the weekends because it is family time. Every morning he wakes up he is told if it is a daddy day, a mommy day a preschool day or a family day. He loves family days! We have a new Saturday tradition that when he wakes up he gets to come snuggle with mom and dad in our bed and watch Netflix on the IPad. This my friends, is the new Saturday morning cartoon. This situation equals Berkeley paradise. I love when he says, "Is this family time?" When I say yes, he giggles and smiles and gives me a big hug.
Just this morning I got Berke his breakfast, as I sat down his cheerios he said, "Thanks for being a nice mom." This stuff just melts my heart.
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Berkeley and his imaginary friends, yes there is more than one now, are non stop fun. So far we have John, which I previously blogged about. Then there is Jail and Tom who are his skateboarding friends; keep in mind that Tom lives in prison (I credit his knowledge for jail and prison to Auntie G who works in a woman's prison, thus B hears these words). Then there is Hawkeye, no brainer here, he is an Avenger and plays with B on a regular basis. This week we got a new friend named Bingo. Berkeley not only has these guys as friends, but at times he also turns into them. Our conversations often go like this:
Me: Berke
B: Berkeley went to work with his skateboarding friends
Me: so who are you?
B: call me Bingo
Me : Ok Bingo, so what does Berkeley do for work?
B: He works with his skateboarding friends
Me: I know, but what does he do.
B: Pause.....finger to chin......"I don't know!"
Berke also uses his friends as excuses to do things he shouldn't be doing or as people who tell him to do the opposite thing his parents tell him to do.
B: Can I watch Transformers?
Me: No, its for big kids
B: John says I can watch Transformers
Me: Please tell John that I'm in charge
B: Yeah, but John likes Transformers and he says they are really good guys!
Me: That's nice, but you still cannot watch that show.
B: John, my mom said no.
Yes, this does provide endless amount of fun at our house.
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Berkeley is not what I like to call "naturally brave." He gets nervous or afraid of things very easily. He also struggles with some sensory problems, which doesn't help him in many situations. Lately, he has really overcome some serious fears and become what we call SUPER HERO BRAVE, like Hawkeye! The first area is ice skating; Berke always gives up if something is too hard. B had his third ice skating lesson last weekend; it had been 3 weeks since the last lesson due to weather and the holiday. I was nervous he would be back at square one, but he got on the ice, no tears, and was even able to stand on his own, touch his knees and skate a foot or two on his own. A lady came up to me and asked if he was my son, I replied that he was. She said, "He was the boy who was on his back crying the entire first day?" I replied, "Yes, that is him." She said, "Wow, good for him."
I really am so ridiculously proud of him. There are kids his age doing far better with the lessons than he is, but the fact that he is doing something that terrified him in the first place makes me the proudest mom!
Secondly, my son HATES getting his hair cut. It is a traumatic event every time it happens. This past weekend, we talked about it, I really worked to mentally prepare him for it and we went to the barber. We talked about being super hero brave and I didn't even offer a bribe this time. He got in the chair, was brave and didn't cry at all. It was a first and it was awesome!!!
He really is coming leaps and bounds in the courage department. Such a big four year old I have.
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Berkeley has been more interested in helping me in the kitchen lately. The last few weeks we made pizza, Valentine's chocolate suckers and brownies together. He loves to stir and help in ways that he can keeps his hands clean. It is fun to finally have him help out with some of the food he eats.
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Berkeley is currently OBSESSED with story telling. He likes to tell stories, but he LOVES for us to tell him stories. Any time he watches a movie with either Christian or I, the next meal the parent has to recap the entire story of the movie. The amount of joy this brings to my boy is sort of ridiculous, but he loves it so we do it. Cause if we don't we have a melt down, seriously, mass hysteria, you would think there was a major injury or something. If there is no new movie or show to talk about one parent has to make up stories. This usually falls on Christian, because he is a much funnier and entertaining story teller. We have found this as a very useful tool in getting Berkeley to eat; Christian will start a story, pause, and not continue until Berke takes a bite of his food. This works like a charm, genius really! There is nothing this kid wants more than to hear the story, so it speeds up the eating process greatly. We are full of stories around here, and at times, I have to admit, it is a bit exhausting to always be telling or hearing stories. I find myself racking my head for silly ideas. As soon as I finish one story he is begging for another. I know there are worse things that constantly being begged to tell non stop stories, so I will try to enjoy the endless storytelling we are doing around here.
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Berke's imagination is fierce! As you can tell he loves his imaginary friends, stories and playing games with his mom and his dad. Some recent favorites are house, where I play a "real" mom, he is the dad and Christian is the kid. Basically he enacts what Christian and I do and has Christian being babysat by the Autobots. He also loves to "sight see Boston." We have a book about Boston and we pretend to be tourists and go around seeing the different sights; we use his book as our map.
I am really enjoying playing with him in this very imaginative stage; he is constantly making me giggle and roll my eyes with the things he comes up with and says.
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Berke is also quite thoughtful and sweet at this age. He is always asking for kisses and hugs. He has gotten quite good at saying Thank you if anyone does something for him or gives him something, even if its a stranger. The other day B had 3 dum dums which are his favorite thing right now. He grabbed all three out of his treat bowl and gave one to me and one to his dad and kept one for himself, it was adorable! He is constantly asking to snuggle on the couch and always wants to be with us. He still loves to hold our hands (most of the time) and is just a sweet, sensitive love bug (he takes after his father).
Four years old is a whole new fun world; it is the toughest stage thus far, but it is also the most entertaining and rewarding.
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