Eliot Thomas at Four Years Old

Every six months of so, I try to write up how Eliot is growing and developing. And, here, at four years old, it is time for another update.

It jarred me at first as I tried to accept that Eliot is in fact four years old. It sounds so much older than three, but Eliot has seemed like a five-year-old for so long that it is easy to see him as four--well, he'd be a kind of badly behaved five-year-old, but the things he says and does are so big.

On his birthday, I took cupcakes in to his school to share with his friends. Then that weekend, we celebrated with a Godzilla birthday party. Godzilla and Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles are currently his two favorites.

Eliot loves to build, explore, discover, and do things his way. He has become particular in many things. Chris pushes him on the swing the best. I put him to bed the best. His diet is crazy and the "crust" has to be cut off his pop tarts, and his food must be warm (not hot and not cold). I gotta say, it can be frustrating, but he knows what he wants.

He can do all kinds of news things (as of a few months ago), like riding his bike, swimming, riding a scooter, and so on. He had a great season of soccer and is looking forward to the spring season.

His favorite adventures include going to the aquarium, the zoo, for bike rides, to get icecream, and shopping. Dude loves to shop, but we rarely take him to Target with us anymore because he wants all the toys. He thinks we owe him a toy each trip, so I try to avoid that conflict. Eliot's favorite place in whole world might be the beach, even when it is cold. He likes to chase the waves, play in the sand, and feed the seagulls.

I'm happy to say that all of the issues with not wanting to go to preschool are prettyyyy much resolved. He never complains and never, ever cries about going to school. I'm so glad, and it did take a couple of months, but I think he needed to get settled in with a group of friends. And his teachers are just awesome, which makes a world of difference. For their Christmas program, he eagerly sang along and could barely stand still from all of the excitement. I was super proud of him because I really worried that he would just stand there and cry (or run off the stage or something). Christmas was a whole different world for us this year. I never wanted to push Santa, but he learned about Santa at school, so the whole month of December was littered with questions about Christmas and Santa and Baby Jesus. It was really exciting for him, and I felt like this year, he had built up the anticipation of Christmas morning coming whereas before, he just saw it as it came.

Eliot is such a sweet, affectionate boy. He constantly tells us how much he loves us. He loves animals and babies like crazy. He assigns family roles to his toys by making them parents with babies all the time. He asks frequently when I'm going to have a baby for Jack, but that isn't quite in the plans.

I love watching his creativity grow. He draws and colors so well. Sometimes his drawings don't make sense at first, but he explains it all so well and it comes together. He is also crazy good at mazes. I once bought him a tracing and maze activity book with at least 100 mazes. He did the entire book in one sitting. His creativity does get him in trouble, though, because he is always "designing" things that don't exist and then demanding them. I'm the same way--I'll make up a shirt or a piece of furniture or anything, really, and then get mad if I can't find it in stores just the way I envisioned it. Eliot is this way with toys. He makes up elaborate toys and describes how the toys would look, work, and function. Then he gets mad that I can't find him a "bones dragon". No worries: He asked Santa for the bones dragon, so he got around the fact that I couldn't find one on Amazon for him. Unfortunately, Santa didn't bring a bones dragon, and Eliot didn't complain.

One of the sweetest things about Eliot right now (to me, at least) is how incredibly concerned is about everyone, especially me. He loves to push my buttons and I think he tries to frustrate me sometimes, but at other points, he wants to take care of me. When I take him grocery shopping, he tries to get me to buy myself make-up. If I mention that I have a headache starting, he tells me that I should eat something. Whenever a commercial comes on tv targeted to women--whether it's glitter for my hair or footcare--he asks me if I'd like it and then goes on to try to convince me that I need it.

Eliot is an amazing big brother and has a better relationship with Jack than I had ever expected. Eliot has never shown an ounce of jealousy and is always concerned with how Jack is doing (and what Jack is doing wrong). I do have to remind Eliot that I am Jack's parent (not him), so I do the disciplining; however, their conflicts aren't as big, bad, or frequent as I had feared. If anything, they build off eachother and play together too well. Jack will growl at Eliot and Eliot will chase him, and before I know it, they're both rolling around on the floor laughing and roaring. Oh, goodness. I have yet to determine the proper balance between "boys will be boys" and avoiding Emergency Room visits (none so far).

Eliot's language and speech has really developed quite well. He uses big words, and I think, generally, most everyone can understand him (sometimes with some small translations by me). He definitely has some deep, abstract, even metaphysical questions. He wants to know how everything works and why things are the way they are. He asks how all of our food is made. He asks questions like why we have legs or why birds have wings and so on. He asks why God lives in outer space (and insists that this is the case even when I try to explain it).

Eliot isn't a baby anymore. No, far, far from a baby. When schooltime approached in the fall, I worried if he'd have accidents or be able to pull up his pants after using the bathroom. That thought seems ridiculous now. He doesn't have any accidents anymore (even on road trips), and he dresses himself every day. He may be a "big kid" now, but he always makes me feel like I am special, important to, and needed by him. I hope he always has room for me in his heart.