William 4.4

We bought a new car today and it was quite the adventure for all of us.  As it turns out, William is the most emotional purchaser ever (not too surprising for a 4 year old). The minute he spotted the car, he said, "Mom! I LOVE that car! Are we going to buy that car?" I promised him nothing as I set about inspecting the car. Once it was time for a test drive (with the salesman in the car with us, mind you), he must have told me at least 5 or 6 times how much he LOVED the car and that we NEEDED to get the car today! The salesman chuckled and I could feel my negotiating ground slipping out from under me. Again I responded with, "oh thats nice" and "we'll see!" After I couldn't get the price that I wanted initially, we decided to leave the dealership. Will LOST IT and cried about how he really wanted us to get that car and that we needed to drive it home today! Eventually we decided to get the car anyway, so we went back to the dealership and completed the purchase. Then again, as we were leaving, I had to explain to Will that we would have to leave it there until I could get someone to come down with me to drive it back. He begged me to bring it home and didn't seem to buy the explanation that I can only drive one car at a time.

The whole car buying process took so long (and the dealership was about an hour away from home to boot) that we ended up missing the kid's nap time. As we were nearing our home exit on the freeway, Will told me that he was ready to go home and take a nap. I explained to him that he was not going to be having a nap today. He was very concerned when I told him that and implored, "but mom, I NEED a nap because I don't want to get sick!" I assured him he would be ok skipping nap just this one time and that we could go home and watch a movie instead. This seemed to mollify him and they both tiredly watched a movie the rest of the afternoon. Car buying is exhausting! ;)

Will is getting better at time awareness and can accurately tell me not only the day of the week, but what events are scheduled to happen on what days (like what day he goes to school, or has swim lessons, or how many days until Michael will be home on the weekend). Also the same goes with time on the clock and what events will happen at different times throughout the day. He can also do some simple math in his head (like how many days until X, or the other day he told me that when he turns 5, Nora will be 3). The math thing is kind of funny to me because he absolutely does not understand math on paper and will look at you blankly if you use terms like 'plus' or 'minus', though it is clear he can do those things (on a small scale), in his head.

In the second week of December, it snowed about 3" here. This was pretty exciting as it didn't snow at all last year and Will had never really remembered seeing the snow, and Nora was just a baby then. We got Will up at 11pm (because I was afraid that it would melt over night and that this might be our last chance to see it), and we made snow angels and had a mini snowball fight before going back to bed. He LOVED it! Fortunately it continued snowing all night and by morning, we had a decent accumulation. Of couse the snow turned to rain at first light, but there was enough snow on the ground that even with a fair amount of rain, the snow stuck around for several days! Both kids were absolutely thrilled though and spent hours playing in it that first day. What a fun experience and a memorable one for Will!

We just had the best Christmas this year. The only damper was that I was sick with bronchitis during it, but we didn't let that stop us from having fun. Nora got look and find books (her favorite) and some Anna and Elsa dolls among other things, and Will got a new bike and scooter, and a remote controlled helicopter and police car (among other things). They have both been in toy heaven ever since and Will seems especially excited to try out his new scooter and bike at the skate park down the street. I let him watch a few BMX videos and now he wants to learn to do jumps and stunts, just like the kids in the video can do. He's pretty good too, for someone who just learned how to ride without training wheels a month ago! The new bike clearly fits him a lot better and he can go a lot fast on it, which he loves. Between that and Michael having a bunch of time off this time of year, Will has had a pretty excellent week thus far. :)