Dear Jacob: January/February 2008

If I could say only one thing about the past two months, it would more than suffice to tell about your fantasy world. That's pretty much 95% of your life right now, the rest is just background noise. For example, should the phone ever ring in our house, you jump up to get it telling me "It's probably the pavers!" You've got a running dialog with them. Our driveway needs to be fixed and you called them weeks ago telling them what day to come. They haven't called back, but you haven't lost heart.

Or how about the chicken coop that you were going to build? You held onto that one for a good couple weeks. It was going to go in our back yard and we'd have lots of chickens so that we'd always have organic eggs at the ready. Since then that plan has morphed into the current fantasy: You're going to build a barn. You're going to buy the land across the street that is for sale and build your barn there. Apparently one day you asked MamMa how people buy land and she talked all about needing the money to buy it, going to the people who own it and getting the deed from them. So you know exactly what you need to do, and a couple weekends ago, in all seriousness, you came to get me and announced you were ready to go across the street (to the house you assumed owns the land) and give them the money from your piggy bank in exchange for the deed to their land. In that moment there was no pretending left to do so I had to tell you the truth that it was simply something we couldn't do. You didn't talk to me for an hour.


Starting around Christmas you went through this short-lived shy phase, but that has long passed and anyone who will talk to you gets the full story about the barn you are building. You're going to have cows also, by the way. Despite the fact that I truly believe some day you will become a builder and build that barn or yours, it's hard listening to you go on and on about it right now. I feel like you are this ball of potential with all these dreams and hopes, and you want to see that stuff realized now, but the fact of the matter is you are only four.

In addition to talking about your fantasy buildings, you actually draw out the plans. You have a little work book that you made yourself with paper and staples which you carry around everywhere drawing up the blueprints. They actually look pretty good. You went from being a kid who never had any interest in drawing to be obsessed with it overnight. I really wish I could help you figure out how to carry out all these grandiose plans because it's painful for a parent to not be able to give their child something they so desperately desire. I'm trying to get Daddy to commit to some cool projects with you in the spring to serve as an outlet. Hopefully you guys will get to start with a nice dog house.

Anyway, some of the background noise I was talking about include the following:

Second only to building, are your cleaning urges. You are still really into it and often beg me to let you clean something. Dust, vacuum, clean windows, dishes, put away laundry, you do it all.


Your new favorite place in the house is sitting on top of the radiators. You like taking your meals on the radiator in the kitchen now. At any given time I'm most likely to find you on a radiator, that is when you are not running around the circle in our house doing you 'exercises'. You put on the Sauconies I bought on sale that are still a little too big, get into your workout clothes and set to doing at least 20 laps around the house.


Shoveling also tops the list. And we've had a lot of snow this winter, so this has been good news for you. Sometimes we have trouble getting you to stop shoveling to just play in the snow.

There's about a million other things that I could say about these past months. You're such a fun, quirky kid and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the next few months bring.