Otto, you keep getting taller (although the morning of your Birthday you did seem a little disappointed, even a bit worried, as you looked over your body, looked at me, and said "But I'm not any bigger.") You continue to be quite lean and slim. Your teeth are as crooked as ever, which is so great because your two front teeth are damn cute when you smile. And smirk. And roar. And gnash. And talk. And sing. I think of your teeth and silly faces as your trademark. Here are my two favorite pictures that daycare captured over the past 6 months: Silly and Sweet!
Otto being silly. I love his "growling" face, which, when Otto does it, is a great term of endearment. Really, it's how he and his best friends affectionately greet each other - by growling and roaring at each other and then collapsing into giggling heaps.
Otto being sweet. Then there's this picture, which happens to be the ONE photo his teachers said they caught without Otto making a silly face. One of his teachers is a photographer and they had to work in tandem to have Otto make silly faces and then quickly capture a "serious" face in a non-silly moment.
Otto, you have so much to say. While your enunciation is improving vastly, many times I still need to ask you to slow down that little staccato voice of yours so I can decipher what it is you're so excited to tell me about. Actually, your speech is in need of enough help, that this Fall you started speech class through the Minneapolis schools. You have two of the most wonderful, caring teachers helping you learn how to pronounce your words. And when you practice at home, I can visibly see you working so hard, exerting so much effort, to say your words correctly. I can see that you really have to think about how to say your words - where to place your lips or tongue and how to listen for the correct sounds coming out of your mouth. Otto, I hope you know how proud I am of your hard work and how impressed I am with your bravery as you head into class alone to improve on one of your biggest weaknesses. Your teachers say you are a model student and that your confidence is soaring. They also say you're sweet.
Everyone says you're sweet:)
And everyone is right.
For me, one of the ways I describe you is that you are incredibly genuine. When you say something or do something, you mean it. You will notice something on the ground, and then look to me while pointing to what you see, saying "Isn't this very ("berry" - still working on your "v's") beautiful Mom? It's so pretty."
I say "I love you so much," and you say "I love you too so so so so sooooo much! I love you this much!" with your arms as wide as you can reach them.
All day long you're making silly faces. Just because you like to make silly faces. I think it's genuinely how you feel and you're always getting a little of your sillies out.
You have a lot of self-control. I may be way off with this one, but I kind of envision you as a surgeon some day. You're often lost (focused) entirely in what you're doing. You definitely like music and I envision you having a sound track to the "work" you're doing all day. And you use precision in your writing. On your 2nd Birthday you dotted with the marker dotters and dabbed the dots neatly in the spots where they belonged on the coloring sheet. Now you draw pictures or "write" notes with a pen and they're in perfect rows of small squiggles and dots.
You love to do "work" on the computer. You've got your own Excel spreadsheet and you'll declare "I have to do my work," and pull up your spreadsheet and start typing in it. This can keep you busy for quite a while. The other day you asked if you could do your work, so while you worked I prepped lunches and dinners. Later that day I noticed that somehow you had sent a note of gibberish to your daycare teachers (you got our daycare Daily Notes website open and sent your teachers an email you had typed). We all got a good laugh at this one.
Your 4th Birthday party was such a great party. Turning four years old is the age Joe and I decided we'd begin hosting true "friends" party (where we invite your class rather than our close friends, neighbors and family) for each of you kids. When we asked who you wanted to invite, you said "I want all'a my friends. My whole class!" Which leads me to this...
Otto, you and your school friends are perhaps the cutest group of 16 kids ever. You each have such unique personalities, and each individual shines, even when you're all together. You get along well (for the most part) and notice when someone's missing. Three friends couldn't make it to your party and within moments of everyone arriving you asked me why the two Sofie's and Reese weren't there. I look ahead a year and a half to kindergarden and I'm already sad because I think there's only one friend in your entire class who will be at our elementary school.
So, your party! You wanted it at the Nature Center, which worked out beautifully because we just needed to edit Wren's party invitation from last fall, given the woodland animals on it. Without discussion, you told me you wanted three things on your cake, (1) a rainbow, (2) a mountain, and (3) a tree. This was s.m.o.o.t.h. You, knowingly or unknowingly, were playing along with the nature theme.
When it came time to get paper ware for the party, I was in full clean-out-my-cupboards mode post Holidays. I decided we'd use up a mish-mosh of paper plates, bowls, cups, napkins, etc. Again, kind-of naturey in a reduce/reuse way. And the kids LOVED drinking apple juice out of plastic champagne glasses. And didn't notice the rest of the mismatched items.
At your party we started inside the Nature Center where everyone had the opportunity to hold a baby snake. You ended up deciding not to hold it, as well as a few other friends. But most gave it a try.
Then we went outside for a nature walk, looking for owls and other nature things. The timing was perfect to get outside. For the entire week leading up to your party it had been below zero temps here. But the day of your party it was nearly 40 degrees. It made for really happy parents and kids getting outside and enjoying the heat wave.
Holding the baby snake
Nature Walk
Max holding the snake
Otto & Max holding worms, to be fed to the turtle
On your actual Birthday it was a home day for me, you and Wren, so we headed to the Children's Museum (which remains one of your favorite places to go) to play for a couple hours while Max was at school.
That afternoon I surprised you with the cake I made you and then that night the five of us enjoyed eating it after we sang Happy Birthday to you.
Wren had received a Barbie doll for Christmas, and Otto asked why he didn't get one because he really wanted one. I jumped at the opportunity to surprise him with a home-made Barbie cake.
Otto's 4 Years Old!
As usual, I write my annual post before going back and re-reading past posts. There are definite themes that continue for Otto now, that I also wrote about in year's past... Here are some links if you want to take a stroll down Otto's memory lane.
