Letter to Jarom: Month 48

Dear Jarom,

Yesterday you turned 4 years old! Happy Birthday! You have been so excited for your birthday for a couple months now and we're glad it finally arrived. You have been growing so much. You now weigh 38 lbs and are 40 inches tall. You'll be bigger than mommy in no time. You have a really fun birthday. In the morning, mommy and daddy gave you your first bicycle! You were so excited and wanted to ride it right away. Then we went with Grandma and Aunt Laura to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. You loved looking at all the dinosaurs and trying out all the kid activities like playing in the wet sand and also in the excavation sand. Next we had lunch at Applebee's because you had a postcard for a free kid's meal. I made you take a nap in the afternoon so you'd be all ready for your party that night!

We had your party at Walden Park along the Jordan Parkway and the theme was Toy Story. Buzz and Woody were on your birthday cake. You had a great time playing with Bailey, Lindzie, Dylan, Kaitlyn, and Owen. And you got SO many presents! Action figures and LEGOS, Lincoln Logs and Toy Story coloring books, puzzles, books, a Buzz Lightyear hooded towel, Iron Man mask and arc light. I can't even remember everything you got because there was so much of it! And you were excited for all of it. And so far you've played with pretty much everything! I'm going to need to make more room in your closet.

We've had a lot of good times the past month. It's been $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point so we've gone to the Children's Gardens, The Dinosaur Museum and the Farm. You have had so much fun at each of those. You love playing at the Noah's Ark fountain and all the other fun spots in the Children's Gardens. We already discussed the Dinosaur Museum. And you love seeing all the animals and taking a pony ride at the Farm. They're all well worth the $2 to get in.

This month you also went camping twice. First was the Fathers and Sons for the stake and you went with daddy, Uncle Jonnie and Bailey. You told me you and Bailey are "the best friends ever!" You guys went fishing and thought it was funny to touch the fish! Second, the four of us went camping in Vernal. You had such a good time! You and daddy have been doing a lot of fishing lately and you caught two fish with your Batman fishing pole! You were so excited! You also liked sleeping in the tent and building a fire to make s'mores. We visited a Dinosaur Museum in Vernal too and you just love dinosaurs. We took a tour of Flaming Gorge too and everybody thought you were the cutest thing.

You love people and you talk to anybody. You tell them all about yourself - your name, age, the toys you like to play with, what you've been doing lately. It's fun to see how your social and verbal skills are growing. You are such a smart boy. You're doing better at recognizing your letters and always want to know what letters spell words you see. You'll be reading before we know it! We're also working on getting you to count from 11-20 now that you have 1-10 down. It's funny to hear you say 13 and 14 because you can't say TH yet so they both sound the same! You're actually really good at simple math too. You can do some basic addition and subtraction already. You're amazing!

We went to Chuck E. Cheese for Owen's birthday party and you had so much fun! You had never been there before but you told me that's where you want to go for your 5th birthday! You got to eat pizza and play air hockey. You had a great time playing with Owen and Maddie. You loved all the rides and playing all the games. You were pretty good at some of them and everybody got prizes from the tickets at the end of the afternoon. We'll definitely be going back there.

You have a great time playing with Alex now that he's getting bigger and moving around. You like to carry him and show him your toys. Grandma and Grandpa got a playset for the backyard and you love swinging and sliding with Alex. And you love having him chase you around as you drive your little car around their living room.

We went to daddy's work party at This is the Place Heritage Park and you had such a good time! I think your favorite part was playing the Pioneer games. You loved trying out the stilts and rolling the barrel ring down the hill. You enjoyed the ice cream and kettle corn. And you had a great time doing all the little crafts. You got to dip a candle, make an arrowhead necklace, stamp some leather. Then you also got to ride a pony and a little train. And gather candy after it was blown out of a candy cannon! You fell asleep on the way home because you had had so much fun! And we can't wait to have more fun for many more years to come!

Love, Mommy