Grasshopper New Media Presents...

My son recently turned 4 years old. It’s hard to believe that this little guy who’s already half my height used to be a 5-pound bundle. As always, I look back on the previous year, all the ups and downs and in-betweens. He’s made so much progress, such as:

Michael is more aware of his surroundings. Instead of running over his sister, he steers around her. If there are other children on the playground, he doesn’t plow through the middle of them as if they don’t exist.

If one of his playmates takes a toy away from him, he makes his displeasure known. The Old Michael would have wandered off and just found something else to do.

If he’s hungry, he brings me a little bag of cookies. If he’s thirsty, he brings me his sippy cup. There are the beginnings of two-way communication between us. He’s a lot less frustrated because he can let me know what’s on his mind. The Old Michael would have led me into the kitchen and have expected me to read his mind. He rarely throws head-banging tantrums now.

Then I remember the memories that have nothing to do with developmental milestones, occupational therapy, speech therapy, IEPs or autism society meetings:

How Michael loves to wiggle with the Wiggles and the joy on his face as he dances along with the videos.

How he brought “Goodnight Moon” to his grandfather (my dad) and danced as Dad read the book ten, twelve, fifteen times, and he didn’t mind.

How he dives (literally) into paints and colored pencils and makes his own kind of art.

How he pulls library books off the shelves and devours them like candy (Not literally, thank goodness, but he’d be happy if he lived in the library).

Happy Birthday, my little guy. Here’s to another wonderful year.

[tags]kids, birthday, celebration, achievements, reading, The Wiggles, Goodnight Moon, Grandfather, paints, pencils, art, life, happiness, parenting[/tags]
Beautiful photo of the beautiful birthday boy graciously provided by the author,
through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved