46 months

"Dear Rabbit,

You are forty-six months old. This month I keep having to check who we have with us in the house. You are often “the man with the sword” - Starwars has much to answer for, in our house right at the moment. When you are the "man with the sword" I, of course, become “mummy with the sword”. Daddy is then “daddy with the sword” and Jak becomes “the little fluffy dog with a sword”. On other days you are the “little baby monkey”. Little baby monkeys like to cuddle with their mummy monkeys, so I rather look forward to these visits.

You are growing so independent. You want to do everything by yourself. You can now reach a few of the light switches in the house and love that you can independently enter a room and turn the light on, without having to rely on me to help you move about the house and turn lights on for you. You also want to dress and undress yourself. “I do it!” you cry if I try to offer a hand.

You refuse to hold hands with me now when we’re out. I don’t mind most of the time, but sometimes I really need to be able to hold onto you. It’s a battle. You want to cross even the busiest streets all by yourself. All in good time, Rabbit. For the meantime though, I do need to hold your hand every now and then. And, when I’m not, you need to walk along RIGHT NEXT TO ME! Not halfway down the road or in a completely different aisle of the supermarket!

Obviously I have been commenting on what a little “Mr Independent” you are. Because the other day you said “I’m not the man with the sword today, I’m Jamie Michael Link Independent.” Daddy and I think it sounds like it should be your rapper name. “JML Independent in da House!”.

You told me this month that you really like kindy. I’m so glad about that. In two weeks time you’ll start going two sessions a week – Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon. We are having a little break from speech therapy and, to me, your speech sounds much improved. I’m waiting to see how your assessment in mid October goes.

You love to sing. I hear you constantly during the day. You sing all sorts of songs. Songs I don’t recognize, songs I remember from my own childhood but had completely forgotten about, and of course the songs that you and I sing together. I love to hear you going about your business, singing merrily.

I also hear you talking away to your toys. I laugh when I hear “Silly duffer, Spiderman! Oh, silly duffer!” The one that brought a smile to my face though was when I heard you talking to a grouping of toys “You can go in there. And mummy and daddy can go in there. And, when you’re older and you’re in older kindy, you’ll be able to do that too!”

The Starwars obsession has continued. Daddy thought you’d grow tired of it after a few weeks. Boy! Did he underestimate things! You play for a while each night once Daddy’s home from work. You get so excited when you get to a new level. You have “super powers” now, apparently. I hear about it during the day. You pull your jacket out so that the sides of it form wings and shout out joyfully “suuuper powwwwers!” as you “fly” around the house.

When Daddy gets home from work you greet him at the door with “Daddy, I been good today!” and you proceed to tell him all the things you’ve done during the day that, in your opinion, qualify you for the title of “good boy”. “I was good at the shop and didn’t run away from mummy!” you said the week that I’d had a stern talking to you about running away from me all the time. “I brushed my teeth and I combed my hair this morning!” you cried another evening. It would seem that you have learned that you get to play Starwars if you “are a good boy”. It’s quite a good bargaining tool.

You are very helpful around the house. You gleefully wipe down the bath while I clean the bathroom. Your favourite chore is to clean the toilet. Unfortunately, I don’t think this helpfulness is going to last much longer. The other day, on the way from the shopping, I mentioned that we were going to clean the bathroom that afternoon. You replied “I will watch Hi5 on tellie, while Mummy does the cleaning.” Hmmmph. You didn’t. You watched Hi5 when we’d both finished the cleaning.

You are such a character and it is so wonderful to have you in our lives. My cheeky monkey. I love you!"