Finn at Four
A Few I Love About You

1) I love your wacky words. Our dining room? That's the new room to you. The word hails from when the dining room was more a storage area filled with a bunch crap. When we finally set it up as a place people might actually eat a meal in, you coined it the new room, and it stuck.

An underdiaper? That's what you wear under your pants, silly. In fact, that's what all we Leites wear under our pants now. "Don't forget your underdiaper, Mommy," you remind me loudly at the pool.

How about a tribicycle? Rosie rides one, but not you on your fancy bicycle with training wheels.

And a triangon? Well, that's some kind of crazy shape that, according to you, is a little blobular but holds equal billing with all the other shapes.

I love every one of your neologisms, fascinating and all a part of our family vocabulary now.

2) I love it when you crawl into bed with me in the morning, snuggle close, and whisper in my ear, "You're my best friend, Mommy." With kindergarten looming, I'm enjoying my BF status for as long as it lasts.

3) I love how you just instinctively know how to be a big brother. "Hey, should I fart on Rosie, Mommy?" you ask as you climb on top of her and plant a big, loud one on her tummy. Could it be this behaviour is genetically encoded into the male DNA? Hilarious in any case.

4) I love your world: anything possible, no limits, lots of comfy beds. Chatting about the Easter Bunny, you are sure he has a nice Easter Bunny home to live in with a comfy Easter Bunny bed to nap in.

We sit on a bench together, and you notice the clouds sailing by. "Why are they going so fast? Are the clouds going to their cloud houses? I think the clouds have cloud beds." I think they do too.

5) Right now, at four years old, Finn, you are full of trains, trucks, computers, swimming, bike riding, long walks, and even a few friends. While last year was all about what you were learning to do, this one is filled with what you can do.

You still need hugs regularly, though. You always want to hold my hand. We can never cuddle enough. And at night, we could lie snuggled close in your bed reading Curious George stories and eating chips together well into the night.

Thanks, Finn, for being you.