Addison

It is taxing to have three little ones at home all the time. Sometimes I long for the days when Addison is big enough to do his own laundry or empty the entire dishwasher by himself. But as I see him growing up it makes me a little sad too. Because, let's face it, he'll always be my baby - they all will. (Don't tell them I said that. They would not appreciate it.)

For our daily mommy-Addison preschool time we've been working on reading. He is doing amazingly well! Today he read this story to me:
"This little cat can run in sand. That little cat can sit on sand. See the feet."

I can also have a normal and somewhat deep conversation with him, like this one from lunch today.
Addison: Mom, are you happy we have a baby sister?
Me: Yeah, are you?
Addison: Yeah. But sometimes I don't like her. Just when she yells and screams I don't like her.
Me: You yell and scream too sometimes. Like this morning you were yelling and screaming when Bryn took your toy. And remember when Bryn was yelling and screaming at the library the other day? Leah's not the only one who is loud. 
Addison (looking thoughtful): Well when you drop something on Leah, she's really loud. She's louder than Bryn at the library.
And then we laughed.

I remember a time when Addison was little when I fretted frequently about how I was going to teach him to play imaginatively. Ha. Turns out the fretting was not necessary. He's got it covered. I am amazed by the make-believe scenarios this guy comes up with sometimes.



And while we're on the subject of Addison, a hilarious story. Last week Nate's mom came up to help me with the kids while Nate was out of town partying working at Princeton and Yale. She always fills our house with deliciousness and then leaves me to eat it all after she goes home. We were outside with the kids having some doughnuts one night and watching the chickens. Addison's doughnut had white frosting with sprinkles on it and one of the chickens kept eyeing it. Addison was eating away and playing with the chicken, when all of a sudden it swiped the doughnut right out of his hand, ran away with it, and ate the whole thing! Me and Grandma were dying laughing, and Addison wasn't sure whether to laugh his head off or bawl, so he did both. It was hilarious. And luckily Bryn shared her sprinkle doughnut with him.

Anyway, I feel lucky that with all his big boy-ness, there are still a few things that keep him a baby to me. Like the way I catch him checking out his dance moves every time he stands in front of the mirror. Also he's still hanging on to a few cute little words like "looked-ed" instead of "looked" and "grav" instead of "grab." And even though I don't want him to be four forever, I don't think I'll be correcting those anytime soon.