Thankful Tuesday: Lil J turns 4

Dearest Lil J,

You turn four this week. Four! You've been telling us about all the things you would do when you turn four, like how you would sleep on your own, and how you would learn the violin. One word aptly describes you: intense. You have a fiery temper, you are strong-willed and opinionated, but yet, you can be one of the sweetest little boys on earth at times. You are fiercely independent with regards to many things, and would get angry and frustrated if we do certain things for you that you want to do for yourself. 

You continue to make us laugh with your crazy antics. You now love being read to, and still have very itchy fingers. You find the scissors irresistible, and have cut off parts of your hair three times, and have also cut holes in your brother's bedsheets! Sensory play is a must for you, and you still enjoy playing with your vehicles the most. While you fight with your brothers very often, your brothers miss you when you are not around. You've become a lot better at following instructions when it comes to doing crafts, and these days, you enjoy painting a whole lot more. 

Mealtimes are still quite a challenge for you, and you are the smallest eater of our family. You love variety, you like to try new foods, but you really don't eat much. I'm so glad that the food allergies seem to be less severe these days, though you are still allergic to certain foods. 

Walking along with you as you grow up has been such a roller-coaster ride, and we continue to pray that your strong will can help you to be determined and resilient, but not lead to obstinacy and defiance. It's been such a journey, seeing how each of you grow up to be such different individuals, yet it always warms my heart to see the three of you playing together. 

We love you, Lil J. So so much. Happy Birthday!

Love,

Your Mama and Papa

PS: I've decided to do away with the linky for "Thankful Tuesdays" as it's been challenging keeping up. However, we'll most definitely continue to post thankful posts. A big thank you for those who have been linking up previously, you have been such an encouragement to me. Do continue to count your blessings! 

Lil J turns 3

Oh you. My ham in the sandwich. You turned three this week, and this mama is still in disbelief that her baby is a big boy! You know that, because I still call you "baby", and you retort back, and remind me that you are a big boy. 

You used to be the one that could never sit still. These days, you are still fidgety, especially during meals, but you've grown to love books and now can sit down quietly for stories. You love the Berenstain Bears, and all manner of books on trucks and construction vehicles, and are obsessed with excavators.

Mess is still your middle name. You tend to disappear into the toilet and spend lots of time playing with water at the sink, and you cannot resist investigating any body of water, from drains to fountains to puddles. You love cake (unfortunately you can't eat most cakes because of your egg allergy), and have been caught trying to nibble at your birthday cake while everyone is still singing you a birthday song! You are quite the beverage boy, and would always be investigating everyone's drinks and asking for sips.

We marvel at how you always speak complete sentences, and love your kiddy voice and how you tend to mispronounce things and drop your "r"s. You are starting to be fascinated with numbers, but absolutely refuse to learn your alphabet. 

You love green and yellow things, and you are a carb king: you scarf down pasta and noodles and you love rice. You also love fruit, but meat is on your not-too-fond list. 

You are quite the imp, but you also have such a generous giving little heart. We love you so so much... and here's a big Happy Birthday to our little ham!

Love,

Mama, Papa, Koko and baby.

Thankful Tuesday: 2.5 years

Dearest Lil J,

You just turned two and half! These days you are still a bundle of energy, and nothing can stop you. Most of my photos of you are usually a blur, because you are always moving. Your fingers are always getting themselves into something, and usually that gets you into alot of trouble. You've managed to wreck so many things: you've ripped our speaker covers, you discovered a Bible with pages falling out and ripped out those pages to wrap some coins, you make massive messes in the toilet with soap and toilet paper. You've locked yourself in our room before, and there are days you insist on shutting all the windows and switching off all the fans, and declaring that it is winter (while we swelter in the heat). Your hobbies these days include multiple flushings of our toilet, sneaking off to play with the taps, and throwing random household things into the dustbin, which means I end up having to check through my trash before I throw it out. 

While you're always getting into some scrape or another, you are also our beam of sunshine. You are always making us laugh with all your funny antics, from insisting on wearing a curtain tie as a collar, to the strange things you say. You're now more willing to give kisses and hugs, previously you were always busy trying to scramble off to do something. While it seems like your big brother is always picking on you, he really loves you very much and is always asking when you would wake up from your nap. 

These days, you have taught us to rely more and more on God to parent you. You're learning to exert your independence, and I'm learning to redraw those boundaries to let you grow. Being your mama is like flying a kite in a fierce fierce wind. I'm trying my best to let go, while you fight so so hard to fly. But I know you are one that will certainly fly really high, and I hope and pray that we will be able to help you to do so. Meanwhile, we give thanks for you, our little ham in the sandwich. 

Love,
Your Mama and Papa.

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Lil J's 2nd: Party decor

This time round, we didn't do much in terms of party decor (I'd love a dessert table, but it didn't make sense for such a small gathering, plus making the bus took up most of my time!). So we just dressed up the dining area with lots of crepe paper (just like our seaweed wall that we had at Junior J's 3rd), and blew up balloons in Lil J's favourite colour: yellow. I decided to go with more muted shades, so we used light yellow, cream and silver coloured crepe paper (the light yellow crepe was surprisingly hard to find, and we only managed to buy it at our third try, at Art Friend!). The words were outlined using a grey marker and cut out of regular white paper. My FIL gamely helped me to string everything up!

Surprisingly, even though the decorations were simple, they provided quite a bit of entertainment for the kids in themselves. They had fun running about with the extra ribbons of paper:

And by the end of the party, the two older kids had fashioned a "trap" between the play kitchen and the fan on their own accord, and absolutely refused to let us take it down:

The crepe paper curtain has long been pulled down by Lil J, but the boys are still having fun with the remnants of crepe paper, wrapping toys with it and twirling them about. I'm going to give it a few more days before I start on my cleaning rampage to clear the scraps!