IN THE MOMENT......: January Update on Hollister

My friend Jennifer once told me about something she does for her children each year. She writes them a letter and seals in in an envelope so that they will have it later on in life. I loved this idea and consequently stole it from her. (Thanks Jen).

Each January, (I give myself until January 31st), I write a letter to Hollister. In it, I put details from the year about things we did, or milestones he met, funny things he said, and my wishes and dreams for him. Then I seal it in a red envelope and put the year on it.

I havent written my letter this year. My plan is to work on it over this weekend since the end of the month is rapidly approaching. But just to warm me up, I thought I would post a quick update on all things Hollister.

So here goes...

I think I may have mentioned last month that he was into dinosaurs. Well..."into" is not really the correct word for it. He lives, breathes, dreams and speaks only dinosaurs. They have consumed his life. He now has more knowledge about dinosaurs than I do and that's alot (I used to teach a 6 week unit on it for my 3rd graders). Last week we went and got his first library card so that we could check out more dinosaur books. For Christmas, his Uncle Scott and Aunt Cindy and his Godfather Justin all gave him dinosaurs. So we now arrange them "by family" in parades. Dan has converted the train table into dinosaur world. We are watching as many "real" dinosaur documentaries as we can find, and the fact that his teachers did a dinosaur theme at school this week was more than he could have dreamed of!

I'm really amazed at his tenacity, and his thirst for knowledge, so I'm not complaining. It's just funny...

He also loved the new movie Tangled (we have seen it twice at the movies) and has taken to calling me "Rapunzel." He calls himself "Flynn" (the hero of the movie) and daddy is Maximus (the horse). He loves to play with my hair and refers to me as Rapunzel more often than not. I'm not complaining about that either. Hey...If he thinks I look like her, who am I to argue? However, he is really into kissing now and loves to smash my face against his for a nice big kiss. I told him that Rapunzel and Flynn might kiss like that, but Mommy and Hollister might get some strange looks if he keeps planting these 20 second kisses on my mouth.

He also is really into group hugs. Every day now he says to Dan and I, "Hey Guys-let's all hug together!" This is definitely one of my favorite times of the day.

He has learned to write the letters H and O. We are working on the L's right now. Poor guy, he has a long name to learn.

He still loves school and the notes home about him "not listening" are few and far between. He is also still loving gymnastics and his beloved "Miss Kathy." This session he is going on Wednesday, which leaves our Mondays and Fridays free for lots of fun.

We've also been working on independent skills around the house. He has his own shelf with his plates, cups, etc... I walked downstairs the other day and he was drinking a glass or orange juice. He had opened the fridge, pulled up a stool, taken down the juice, poured it in the cup and proceeded to carry it in front of the television to drink while watching. I was pretty impressed.

He's also smitten with a little girl from our small group at church. Her name is Tattie and quite frankly, she is not overly impressed with him. But Wednesdays are full of "When are we going to Tatties house?" (It apparently belongs to her, not her parents) and "Will Tattie let me play with her Buzz and her T-rex today?" Wednesday are all about Tattie. Poor girl, he follows her around like a puppy.

NC was "lucky" enough to get snow twice in the last month and Hollister has definitely proven himself a snowbug! He would have stayed out there all day, every day if we would have let him. The dinosaur made "tracks" in the snow and Hollister demonstrated a great snow angel making ability that he learned from who knows where (I certainly did not teach him). He could definitely survive living in the North. However, his mother could NOT. So he will have to make do with the few snow storms we have each year.

Christmas was great. We went to Texas for a few days and Hollister LOVED spending time with his cousin Buck. They are a heap of trouble when they are together though. Craziness. Then our family from Connecticut came in town and we had a great time with them as well. Hollister really loved playing with his little cousin Myra. He smothered her with kisses all week, and she was not thrilled about that.

Well...That wraps up my latest update. I've been working on cleaning out the guest room for our possible new addition to the family, so I need to get back to work.

Hope your new year is starting out great...

Amy