Live. Laugh. Love.: William Dean at 4 1/2

Will turned 4 1/2 on December 8th!

Until recently, he's still been comfortably wearing mostly 3T jeans/pants and a combination of 3T/4T shirts. But suddenly his jeans have become floods and we're shifting a lot of things out of his closet. Clothing sizes always depend on the brand, of course, but I've recently had to purchase all new pants and jeans for Will. Surprisingly, however, he's only grown 3/4" since his June well-check putting him at 40 1/4". A little before age 2, Will was plotting at about the 50th% for height, but his growth rate seems to have slowed since then and he's only at about the 25th% now for height. {Side note: we never actually measure him on his hanging growth chart. We measure against a door, barefoot, with a measuring tape and we just take a picture in front of the chart for fun and write it on there. Will has slippers on in this picture, so he appears taller.}

One of the biggest developments with Will continues to be his reading. I know I've talked about it here before, but he is just excelling faster than I ever expected. He reads pretty quickly and smoothly now and the words that he is able to read by sight have skyrocketed because he doesn't have to sound them out and he doesn't stumble on words I would think he might. Our babysitter said he was reading her daughter's 4th grade level book the other day and, when we read chapter books together, he often wants to read a paragraph from time to time.

Books and reading are definitely something he's passionate about so he puts a lot of effort into developing that skill. When we go to the library, he will have read 2-3 books in the car before we get home. When we tuck him under the covers before heading to bed at night, we often find books and a flashlight still on in his hand. And he sometimes carries books around just to have them near him when he's doing other things.

On the other hand, handwriting is not nearly as appealing to him and he needs a lot more encouragement with it. Will is very good at visualizing words and spelling them aloud or understanding words we spell, but he needs some improvement with the neatness in which he writes letters/words on paper. Same with cutting with scissors. The odd think is, he's actually pretty good and patient with fine motor work, but he just needs more practice with these things I guess. Lately, the fascination has been working with Legos. We have a small set of the bigger size Legos (Duplos?) and Will has been building things daily. But just this past weekend, he received a new Legos kit (as a party gift) with very tiny pieces and, though he struggles a bit with them, he is completely patient and interested in practicing. I like this new hobby!

I love to hear him trying to teach his sister something. He talks to her like a little adult and explains things very patiently with her. Quite the contrast from the bickering that we hear most of the time! They can play so well together sometimes... and other times it is just non-stop bickering.

Another continuous favorite activity is karate. He still loves class and has improved with the rituals that they do during class. And I'm continuing to appreciate the practice he's getting with respectfully sitting still and following directions in an organized setting like that because it seems that still needs work too. The smiles that result from every class are so rewarding and, just this week, the instructor told him he's getting stronger. :)

And though they always remind the kids that their karate skills are only to be used during class, Will is getting a lot of practice at home with daddy too. Craig took karate lessons at the same school for awhile and has a HUGE interest in mixed martial arts. So although he's not actively training, he LOVES practicing "moves" with Will. I often hear Will requesting to "fight with daddy" and how this time he's "going to get out of daddy's guard".

Do you love the fighting outfit? Jammies and Diego gardening gloves... Why?? Who knows. ;-)

Will had daddy in an "arm bar". P.S. they don't actually do this stuff in class yet. This is just Craig's teaching. ;-)

And then, of course, bowing to their opponent. Haha!

Food!

Will's school lunches have been coming home empty (or nearly empty) every school day. His eating habits are about the same: excellent with fruits and most veggies, fair to good with everything else. Not really a big drinker. Pretty educated and conscious of healthy eating (i.e. "sometimes foods" and "everyday foods") but also still a kid and partial to the sweet stuff/junk food. And his daddy slips him plenty of that. ;) One thing that isn't new but that I don't think I've ever mentioned here before is that he has an extremely sensitive gag reflex. He will gag so easily, especially with foods he doesn't care for. I wouldn't say it's often, but it's noticeable with him.

Three months ago when I wrote a post about Will's updates, I mentioned that he had just been "so good and well-behaved"...

Well, I think somebody wanted me to eat my words, 'cause we have since gone through a phase of more whining and tantrums than is normal for him. He's still a very good boy in general, but boy has he been a whiner lately! I am constantly reminding him to change his tone to a normal one and stop whining when he's speaking to me. When I calmly remain firm with him, we can usually get the tantrum under control quickly. Craig's usually better at this than me. ;)

Another struggle with Will lately has been his laziness with dressing himself or taking coat and shoes off when we come in the door and putting them away. That's completely Craig's and my fault, though, because we tend to just dress them both ourselves when we're in a hurry in the morning. Not always, but too often. He's capable... but he whines that he wants me to do it for him. Grr. That's so frustrating and annoying when you realize it's your own fault.

Aside from the dressing thing, though, Will is a very independent little boy. He's afraid of nothing, up for anything and likes to figure things out for himself.

There are a handful of traits that Will shares with me - mostly, I think, because of time spent with me and being the oldest like me (learned behaviors) - but so much of Will's personality and characteristic traits are naturally like his daddy and Papa Riedeman. They come from the same mold, I guess. Except for the loud/rambunctious behavior that Craig likes to bring to play time with the kids... Will has become more that way out of learned habit, but I think it used to be more his nature to be quieter and just calm. Don't get me wrong, he talks a lot (like his mama) but Craig likes to be loud and playful and I think Will differs in that way.