Monkey points to his chest and say “Meh.”
He’s really enjoying being four so far. He has enjoyed the attention this year more than ever before. We skipped the activities that we know will upset him, like singing “Happy Birthday,” and pushed him a bit on the things we thought he might enjoy, like opening gifts. We were really pleased with how well he’s done!
Yesterday was the big, family party at my parents’ house. Monkey loves going there and since it’s almost always a party when we visit he is not at all phased by the crowds; whereas here, he gets upset if there are too many people in the house. He did so fantastic!
He played with his older cousins, he tickled Auntie Kristie, he let my second cousin (who he doesn’t see often) help him up after he tripped and even let her hug him and he sat at the table with Papa (his great grandfather) and they shared cake and ice cream. He moved in and out of rooms, interacted with people who approached him and sought others out for help or fun.
One of the biggest surprises yesterday was that he opened all his gifts. He has never done this! We thought we were doing good at Christmas when we convinced him to rip a few small strips of paper off his gifts but he did so much better yesterday. Initially, I had thought we’d just let him open things when the mood struck and we wouldn’t make it an event but we ended up giving it a shot and I’m glad we did. We gave him lots of time and everyone made sure he had plenty of space but he stayed with Duhdee and I at the center of the room and opened them all. He did the classic kid thing of tossing aside clothing but he was very excited about all the toys. It was great!
Everyone commented on how much he has changed recently and we definitely see it too. Sometimes progress is so painfully slow that we miss it but not lately! Lately he changes on an almost daily basis and we’re all having so much fun.
That is just awesome! I love that he opened his gifts. Sounds like it was a good day.