Oliver: 4 1/2 Years Old

Dear Oliver,

Oh, Oliver, where do I even start?! You are totally, ridiculously, completely adorable, but you are so hard!  You definitely win the award for "most difficult child" these days. I'm not going to lie, I'm really struggling with you lately. I feel like our relationship is strained and you don't even like me. You're unhappy with me from the moment you wake up to when you go to bed at night. It's hard because I play the role as the enforcer because I'm the one that's home with you all day. I'm the one that makes you take baths, get dressed, eat your meals, clean up your messes, and disciplines you (all of the things you hate). And you take all of your unhappiness about these things out on me. You yell at me all day long. Sometimes I feel like I simply don't know what to do with you.

You are an incredibly dramatic child. Some of the things you say make me laugh until I cry because they're so ridiculous. Some of the most recent have been:

• "I'm not just having a bad day, I'm having a bad life on this earth!" 
• "If you don't let me play a game on your phone, I am going to cry for the rest of my life until I'm an old man and then I will keep crying even after I die." 
• "If you don't let me watch a show on the count of three, I'm seriously going to sit in this chair for my whole life and not talk to anyone ever again!"
• "If you don't let me watch a show, when that guy comes to my school when I'm in kindergarten and does an assembly about not taking drugs, I'll take them anyway. I will take drugs because I want to die when you don't let me watch shows."
• "This is the worst life of my whole life!"

Your little lisp is stronger than ever and it couldn't be cuter. I love listening to you talk because everything out of your mouth sounds funny. I'm not concerned about it yet, but I am going to talk to your pediatrician about it at your 5 year appointment. I'm not sure if you're need speech therapy or not, but from what I've heard, it's better to start it sooner than later. So I don't want to wait too long to talk to someone about it.

I have completely given up on every trying to dress you in anything appropriate or cute. Your drawers are stuffed full of fashionable clothes, but all you'll wear are graphic tees, dingy jeans with holes in the knees, and your hideous gray rubber shoes with the holes in the toes that are two sizes too big. You think everything is too tight and if I ever try to dress you in something that actually fits, you throw a tantrum. It drives me nuts that you look homeless every day, but it's actually stopped a lot of fights because I never say anything anymore. I let you be a free man and do your own thing. 

You're still doing your happy hop whenever you're excited about something. You've been doing it since you were two years old and I adore it. It is truly one of my very favorite things about you. I'm going to cry when you stop doing it. Another one of my favorite things about you is how you pose for pictures. You tilt your head to the side, angle your face away from the camera slightly, bring one shoulder up, and do a shy little closed-mouth smile. It is simply adorable. You pose like this for every picture, no matter what.

Your obsession with TV is ridiculous. You wake up in the morning begging for shows and continue begging for them all day. You walk around the house saying things like, "This is the most bored I have ever been in my whole life and the only thing that will make me not bored is to watch a show." Most of the dramatic things that come out of your mouth revolve around TV. You also love to play computer games and watch short clips on YouTube. You love watching how engines work.

You are a stinker at bedtime and usually come out of your room a couple of times before you'll concede and finally fall asleep. One of your favorite stalling techniques is to come out of your room announcing that you have to poop after we've already put you to bed. You are the world's slowest pooper, so it's quite and ordeal when you have to go. I can't complain about it though because at least you're a consistent pooper, unlike your brothers. You go almost every day and never go longer than every 2 days.

Your eating has gotten worse over the past few months. It's not that you truly don't like certain foods, it's just that it's become a bit of a power struggle. You don't want to eat anything that you don't want to eat and there's usually nothing I can do to change your mind. Your favorite foods right now are strawberries, broccoli, hot chocolate, pizza, dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, slices of sharp cheddar cheese, and buttered pasta with "snow cheese." I really don't worry about your eating at all. I just wish you'd eat more. You sure don't seem like you eat much.

One of your favorite past times lately that drives me absolutely crazy is how you always drag your comforter from your bed into the kitchen and wrap yourself in it while you lay on the floor. Your favorite spot is in front of the refrigerator, which means you're always in my way. No matter how often I tell you that what you're doing in unsanitary, you don't listen. You love it. I'm constantly dragging your blanket back to your room, but before long, it always ends up on the kitchen floor again.

Oliver, you are a spunky, sassy, rambunctious little boy. I adore your big brown eyes, the way you tell stories, and your big cheeks. You have perfect skin, red lips, and the cutest little bum crack that is ALWAYS hanging out of your pants. I feel so lucky to be your mom and wish I was doing a better job with you. I pray every night for Heavenly Father to give me inspiration on how to relate to you better because I truly feel like I'm failing. I hope I'm not screwing things up with you too badly! I love you though and would do anything for you. Thanks for being mine.

I'll love you forever,
Mama

Height:42 1/2 inches (61st percentile)
Weight: 41 lbs (70th percentile)