Neverland

First I was one and I was a baby.  
Then I was two and I was walking.  
Then I got bigger and I was three.   
Now I am four and that means I’m closer to five. 

As much as I know how lucky we are that he is growing up, there are moments I kind of wish he wouldn't.

Four is full of good ideas, though. Why not tailgate in March?

In planning the party, after Aunt Sally's tailgate van Tuck was most hopeful for cousins and candy corn.

He used to say mammets and chickmunks and wrench (for magnets and chipmunks and ranch dressing).  He still calls chapstick chopsticks.  Lately he's been saying much well, like "The batteries in my flashlight aren't working.  We should get some new ones that will work much weller."

He says thoughtful things, like "Mama, how was your nap?"  (He asks me this when he wakes up in the morning, meaning how did I sleep overnight.  I wish I got to take naps!)  He asks Andy about his time at work, and just a few days ago we were listening to a new song and he said, "I like the flute.  What do you like about this music?"

He's interested in writing and reading and has strong knowledge of letters and sounds.  Let’s write candy corn on the grocery list, he says, and let's write the ingredients for puppy chow.  Let’s write a new ball for Colby on there too.  We can take it to heaven's house with Celia's rocks.

He's also interested in coins and counting and measuring, and when he gets on the scale he no longer announces I weigh forty thirty months old!  He asked to look inside the piano recently, so we lifted the lid and he sat on Andy's shoulders to peer down at the strings and the sound board.  Next he wants to see the fire under the cylinder that makes our water hot.  

He took watermelon to preschool on his birthday, and a hatch and grow gator to watch with his friends.  He requested his favorite mexican restaurant for dinner, and enjoyed rice and beans with lots of his favorite people.  Another highlight of Tucker's birthday week was a date to see the Pleasure Guild's performance of Peter Pan.

Celia turned four in our arms, and Tucker is turning four in the world.  Right before our eyes, he's getting bigger.  I look at him now, and listen to him explain what he was like when he was one and two and three, and I feel, most acutely, the ache of the passage of time.  But I know all too well the alternative, and am grateful to watch him put his own good growing footprints on the planet.
JEB