William 4.9-4.11

The last 3 months have flown by and with all the things that needed to be done to prepare for the baby, combined with the exhaustion at the end of the 3rd trimester, I have slacked on keeping up with Will's monthly posts. We have been doing a lot though! We go to parks and playgrounds every day, he still has preschool once a week, we schedule plenty of play dates, and we have been doing swimming lessons every week.

Swimming lessons have been going on since September, and are going pretty well. I can't say that after a year, he can now swim (he has zero body fat and tends to just sink, and hasn't quite figured out how to paddle effectively to keep his body afloat), but he is now very comfortable and confidant in the water, and I see his technique improving weekly, so that is good! He is a bit of a show-boat and loves to jump into the pool, and eagerly performs the tasks the instructor gives him, even if he struggles with doing them correctly.

Physically he has made leaps and bounds in the last few months. He has always been a fast runner, but suddenly his climbing skills and upper body strength in general has really grown. He can master most monkey bars with ease, can climb, swing and dangle from most trees and branches, and things like rope ladders and climbing poles are no match for him. Just when I think I've seen it all, he will do something that will completely surprise me in terms of his abilities.

Legos have been a huge hit this last year, but the last few months in particular he has shown a growing ability to put complex kits together by himself (which shows comprehension, the ability to follow directions, be detail orientated and be able to solve problems), as well as create and build his own contraptions. I am regularly impressed by what he comes up with. His favorite thing to build is vehicles, and most mornings he will wake up early and build different vehicles of his own invention. So most mornings, when I go to wake him up, he often has some new car, truck or flying machine to show me. Legos have been such a great outlet for his creativity!

School seems to be going well. He has made a few new friends this year, and I have seen such vast improvements in his social skills - in things like sharing, conflict resolution, taking turns, interacting in general, and learning how to make and be a good friend. He still has a lot of room for improvement, but he is only 4.5 and I have no doubt that he will get there in time. Certainly in time for kindergarten next fall! Summer break for both school and swimming lessons, began at the end of June and so now we have been enjoying all of the extra unstructured time during the week to do whatever we want without an agenda.

He is still such a funny guy and cracks me up all the time with his funny little sayings and some of the conversations he has with Nora. Recently we have allowed him to discover the Nintendo Wii. I was apprehensive about starting the obsession too early, and didn't know if he could handle the frustration of losing. I gave him a pep talk before he played for the first time, about how getting good at the games might take a while, and that might mean he will lose a lot in the beginning. He took that conversation to heart and not only was a good sport about the learning process, but by the time two months had passed, he had improved to the point that he was winning races more than I was! It actually earned him some street cred with the neighborhood kids, and when he invited them over to play video games, they were suitably impressed with his skills. After that they all played together with a bit more respect (before I think they had looked down on Will a bit since he was the youngest and also not quite on par socially). Now Will has become something of a Wii guru and relishes his new status.

Will's baby brother Daniel arrived this month, and he could not be more excited to be around the baby. He was excited throughout my pregnancy, and now that the baby is here, he cannot get enough of looking at, talking to and being near the baby. He loves to hold him and keeps telling me that he loves that the baby likes him and looks at him and that he is going to teach the baby all kinds of things. Its very sweet. He is having a hard time with our change in routine though while I am recovering, and we are trying to keep things the same as we can, when at all possible. While I will be sad when Michael goes back to work, I think Will is going to feel more comfortable since that is what he is used to. Hopefully as I continue to heal and feel more up to getting out of the house, we can resume at least a semblance of our formerly busy, out of the house schedule.