Lucas Keith at Four

 

Lucas, Lukey, Lukeybear,

You are fabulous at four!  You are so much fun to be around and your smile and silliness make everyone around you smile.

When I think about this past year, I immediately think of your incredible imagination.  I am in awe of your creativity and pure joy for playing.  You are engaging and your excitement about everything just makes people want to play with you!

You love to read a book, watch a movie, or hear a story, and then act it out.  The most often heard phrase from you is “Let’s play the movie!”  You always want everyone else to pick their part first and then you choose who you want to be – so generous and thoughtful.  I think you are a director in the making.  You will NEVER be a bad guy.  Some of your favorite roles include Cinderella, Jaq (the mouse from Cinderella), Grumpy the dwarf, and more recently a slew of superheroes with various mutations.  Everything gets quite silly by the end, and I just adore seeing your joyful smile and hearing your precious laugh.

I must admit that I loved your princess phase most of all  - whenever we went over to Ryan and Lucie’s house , you were always the first to dive into their dress-up box and come out in full princess regalia. Love it!!

 

Your love of acting out stories led us to register you in your first class by yourself – Creative Drama at Junior Theater!  You seem to enjoy it, and we are anxiously awaiting your first performance.  Your teacher made a point of saying that you (one of the youngest in the class) do a GREAT job acting out the stories, remembering the plot and coming up with lines.  Since this is your first class alone, your Dad and I take turns each weekend taking you to the class and then out to lunch.  I absolutely treasure our time together.  We have great conversations and I love being spontaneous with you while exploring Balboa Park.  You always enjoy a good trolley bus ride!

When you are not acting out stories, you are asking to read more and more new ones.  You love going to the library and ask to go much more often than the biweekly trip we usually make.  You will always head to the Disney section first and pick out a “movie book” right away.  Then you head into the stacks and come out with a bunch of interesting books, excited to go home and read.  You will cuddle close to me and ask me to read Cinderella or Peter Pan for the 500th time in a week, and I couldn’t be happier as long as it keeps you close to me.

Reading is just one of the ways in which you learned to pace yourself so well this year.  Don’t get me wrong, you are still a very active little boy, but you have discovered ways to give yourself downtime, be it reading, playing with cars or just choosing to take a nap, that have helped you relax and be able to enjoy life without pooping out too soon.

Between relaxing activities, however, you will find any reason to play tag or chase.  Most people will not remember a chase scene from Cinderella, but you will find a way to incorporate it into your reenactment of the story.  Our Superhero dramas inevitably devolve into one big chase, with you laughing as you corner the bad guy (ALWAYS played by me).  Somehow the bad guy always ends up managing to tickle you before being carted off to jail.

As you always have been, you are a person with definite opinions and clear thoughts and you do a great job communicating them.  MANY times a day I hear “Excuse me Mommy,” and look at you, with your finger raised in the air, ready to make a point, explain something, or direct an activity.  You are confident and well-spoken – I love your ideas and your leadership.

Even though you have a lot to tell us, you have even more to ask  us these days.  You want to know about everything – how, what, why, when and where.  I love your curiosity about the world – it reminds me to be curious myself, which makes life so much more interesting! 

You get great reports from your teachers at school.  You are a nice boy, a great listener, you make friends easily and communicate very well in class.  You love to learn, although  you don’t always like me to show you how to do something.  You insist on doing things yourself and then get frustrated when they don’t work just right.  Just like your mother.  We’ve both learned how to be more patient with ourselves and each other this year.  As usual, YOU teach ME so much!

Along with your hair, body and feet, your heart has grown so much this year.  You clearly adore your brother and love to play with him, laugh with him and get into all sorts of trouble with him.

You continue to treasure time with family this year.  I think the highlight of every week is visiting Grandma and Grandpa for lunch, a movie and a treat. 

 

Nights with Gaga and Pop-Pop, when Mommy and Daddy go out, are filled with laughter and snuggles.  Any visits from uncles, aunts and cousins are celebrated with great excitement by you. 

Some of your favorite things are the color green, pizza or pasta for dinner, playing guitar, chasing anybody and everybody, your stuffed animals – Dino, Spritz the Dolphin, Bop and Beep, Flopsie the Cow, and of course Abba, sucking your thumb, The Ladybug Game, your bike,  tummy rubs, and cuddling in the morning in Mommy and Daddy’s bed.

You are such a sweet, fun, silly, smart, kind, confident, creative boy.  I love being with you all the time!  I have to admit, however, that some of my very favorite times are the most quiet ones,  when I just get to hold you, stroke your hair, listening to you suck your thumb and breathe.  I love you for all that you are, and I love you for just being here.  You are my very special little Lukey and I am so excited to spend another year getting to know even more about the wonderful little boy you are. 

Happy Birthday Lucas!  We love you!!!!!!!!