2021 Holiday Season!

  My Dearest Evan,

Continuing with the latest theme, you've had a very busy fall 2021! You were Captain America for Halloween and you got to be in your school's Halloween parade this year! In November, we took a trip to Kansas City to have Thanksgiving with my side of the family and meet Benjamin who was born earlier that month. You really enjoyed your time playing with William (once you both warmed up to each other). And then in December, Grandma Gail and Grandpa John came to visit, we had Santa over, then we went to the North Pole through the Flagstaff portal and finally for your FOURTH birthday we went to the Scottsdale Princess hotel for the festivities up there!

School has gotten better and better for you. You've got a friend, Franco, who you like to play dinosaurs with. And you've found a routine that doesn't cause you to break down into tears when dad picks you up. You're learning that school is a place where you get to learn and play without a parent nearby and you're accepting that. Later this month, you'll go from two mornings a week to three mornings a week (from Tues/Thurs to Mon/Wed/Fri). We're trying to slowly increase your engagement and learning so you're prepared when Kinder comes around.

At home, you love to play with your toys, pretend you're a superhero, build legos and play games. You love playing with Avery and look up to her. At soccer, you both still sit next to each other in the team huddles at the end of practice. You do emote on your teammates and get mad at them or tell them what to do but I suppose that is part of the point of learning a team sport. You've started engaging with the soccer ball more and you seem to like that part more and more. A funny story: you have been telling people you are 16 years old (no clue why) - and it recently changed to 6. At soccer one night, they had all the kids in a huddle together and were sending them to different fields based on age (like, 3 and 4 year olds on this field, 5 and 6 year olds on that field...) and when they had rattled off all the ages, you were still standing there waiting for your age to be called. One of our coaches ran up and said, "he says he's 16" and without batting an eye, the coach directing kids to different fields said "3, 4 and 16 year olds, over here!" and you went running that direction :) You're so silly but you've got the whole world adjusting around you!

The way you talk right now is so cute. Like most preschoolers, you're not yet fully saying every syllable and you don't always understand the words you hear. You say "A-vey" instead of Avery and told me about your fart liquid once (instead of your poop). You like dancing to Rockin Around the Christmas Tree and "Police Mommy Da" (which is my new favorite Christmas song)! You say "I wuv you" and "what's for yunch?" and you do get impatient if we don't understand what you're trying to say. You call you scooter a skateboard and you like to correct us to be more specific if we don't describe something right (if I say "get your pants on" you will correct me and say "you mean shorts?"). You also like to shake your naked butt at your family but I think this is a natural phase you'll grow out of - hard not to smile when you do it though :)

For Christmas and your birthday, most everything was transformers and super heroes. And we thought you'd love to celebrate at the lights and festivities at the Scottsdale Princess hotel (like last year) so we did that and took you to the Science Center and McCormick Train. I can't believe you're FOUR already! How did that happen?

Here's your life in pictures right now.....

You're hard to keep up with when you're on your scooter but sometimes you help me close my exercise rings!

Dropping Avery off at horseback riding!

School pics in the rain are a little different....

Soccer huddle with Avery!

Serious artist at work!

Oh my heart!

Fire pit dinner and s'mores!

Dave and Busters on Columbus Day!

Bonding?!

Corn pit at the Pumpkin Patch!

Mount Lemmon Cookie Cabin (you were hungry)

We grew caterpillars into butterflies!

My little Captain America!

Spiderman!

Christmas pics!

Dinosaur lesson through the Science Center!

This is Kevin, your pumpkin. He's still in our courtyard because you're having a hard time letting him go (luckily, he's managed to hang in there a long time)

The candy haul! You were getting tired of carrying such a heavy bucket!

Slumber party and Grandma and Pop's house with the cousins!

Fun with the shaving cream we donated to the school!

Meeting Benjamin! You adored him - loved gently caressing his head :)

All the dogs!

Nice weather in KC!

Lol, we met up with my friend Linsday and her kids while in KC and you played Spiderman!

Buddy the Elf at swim!

Cousins!

Making a menorah with Grandpa John!

Santa! He did the macarena with you!

New stuffies from Aunt Ash!

You pretended your blocks were transformers until you got some for your birthday! So cute! You learned about transformers this fall and have fallen hard for them!

It's not often I get double snuggles!

We visited the Grand Canyon while we were waiting to go through the portal to the North Pole!

Homework! Even in the hotel!

Worn out!

Winterhaven with Ms Laura and Mr Don!

New boots!

Ready to go through the portal!

Mrs Claus was sitting right next to you! We were so close!

Making toys with the elves!

You and Avery got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas!

Finally! Grimlock (a transformer)

Birthday fun!

Oops - a little smash of the cake but it still tasted good!

Your new Spiderman bike that Santa brought you! You're in love with it!

Fun at the Princess!

Science Center bubbles!

McCormick Park Train!

Hungry Evan waiting for lunch!

Merry-go-round at the Princess!

Evan, you are a firecracker who loves deeply and maddens deeply too! But you have also been learning techniques to help you control the temper so you can manage your reaction (like taking a deep breath) and you've been sharing that deep breath method with others! 

I love you so much and can't wait to see what 2022 has in store for you!

All My Love,

Mom