My little man

 My little man is growing up too fast.  I cannot believe he is almost 5!  He is very excited to turn 5 years old, and seems to feel that turning five means he is turning a corner into big boy land.  He keeps talking about how when he is five he can do this, that and the other.  

He has become quite the helper lately, he always wants to help dad out in the kitchen, and helped make pumpkin and pecan pie this year for Thanksgiving.  He also asks if he can help with the dishes.  The other day I told him he had to start doing chores around the house to earn his keep.  His response was, "Are you joking?"  He helped his dad clean the bathroom and helped me sweep.  During bathroom cleaning he said, "Mom, chores are fun!" I'm pretty sure I have a keeper here; hopefully he never loses his enthusiasm for cleaning the bathroom!

I am excited to see him help out with his baby sister; he is excited for her to be here and is already making her soup in his kitchen that he thinks she will like.  He told me he is practicing his baking so he can open his bake shop called "Baking-Soda" which I thought was pretty clever.

Berkeley has such a vivid imagination.  His absolute favorite thing to do is to tell or hear stories.  Anytime any event happens in life he can be found asking, "Tell me the story about that."  I have quickly found that I can make up the most stupid and unrealistic stories on earth, but he still loves them.  I am lucky enough to make up a story every morning on the way to preschool.  When at home Berkeley can often be found playing with random things (see picture below) and making up stories.  This carrot golf club and my bathrobe tie are two of his favorite toys right now. This kid is constantly cracking me up.

 Berkeley has struggled with sensory issues his entire life, but the last year and a half has made some huge strides to overcome these.  Getting his hands dirty and loud sounds are two of the hardest things for him.  He refuses to do any painting at preschool and has been terrified of finger painting since the first time he did it at 18 months old.  This weekend I talked him into doing some Christmas finger painting; he agreed after much persuasion and a guarantee that I would wash his hands as soon as we were done.  He reluctantly agreed; when the paint was put onto the plate he started freaking out, but eventually put his hands in it and laughed about how cold and squishy was.  He lasted for about 5 minutes with the finger paints before he was done and wanted to be cleaned up, but it was a HUGE deal!  I was so proud of him for trying, he did a fantastic job!

We didn't have the same luck trying to talk him into going to see 150 Tubas play a Christmas concert downtown.  He threw himself on the ground when we tried to talk to him about going. "It's too loud!" he cried and we decided it was not worth the effort.  At the end of the day he asked, "When are we doing to the tuba concert?" I told him we were not going to go because of how much he cried, to which he smugly said, with a smirk on his face, "Oh yeah, this was the perfect day!"

My sweet boy is a sensitive little soul.  Tonight we watched Home Alone together; he loved the entire movie, but in the end after the police took away the "bad guys" he started to cry and said, "What about his family mom?" Soon after in the movie his mom returned and then his entire family.  I look over to see Berkeley crying like a baby and sweetly trying to wipe the tears with his hands reaching under his glasses (quite possibly the cutest thing ever).  I reached out and held his hand and then we hugged while he cried some more.  He was so concerned that Kevin's family wouldn't return, how flipping cute is that for a 4 year old?  

I really love this sweet, sensitive and hilarious boy!  My life is so full because of him.