And now he is 4!

Cale turned 4 on December 2nd.  We celebrated his birthday in Branson and then on December 8th with a train themed party for friends and family at the condo.  It was lots of fun!  I wrote this as a reminder of where he is at at this time in his life. 

Cale, I was just looking at some old video of you from a little over a year ago of you reading The Little Red Caboose.  Oh my how you have grown.  You still have that sweet little voice, but it has changed and matured some.  You are a joy my son.  You are strong willed and don't like when things don't go your own way.  That is sometimes a mental challenge, but it is growing and stretching your father and me and sometimes bringing us to our knees in prayer for guidance.  We so want to love you well and have all the answers and sometimes it's frustrating when we don't or don't know how to handle certain situations.  So with that being said, there are plenty of times we mess up as parents, but I hope you will know how dearly loved you are.  

I am amazed by how smart you are.  You just pick up things from your environment so quickly.  You ask lots of questions daily in trying to better understand your world.  You love trains.  Can't get enough of them.  I wonder what you will be when you grow up-maybe a train engineer.  I wonder what your likes will be a few years down the road-will it still be trains or something else?

You are a sweet boy that is full of energy.  You amaze me by your energy and I wish I could sometimes just bottle some of it up for myself!  You love to run around.  You love to be chased and tickled.  You are a great big brother.  You love wrestling with daddy.  You are a great big brother.  Although sharing is sometimes a tough thing, you overall love your brother well.  I look forward to seeing the bond between you and your brother grow as you get older!  

You are beginning to understand that things in life are not always happy or good,  that sometimes we live in a sad world and you ask great questions to try to better understand your world around you. While I wish daily that I could keep you from seeing the hurts of the world, or getting hurt, I know that we live in a broken world.  I pray that you would trust God through everything in life, the ups and the downs, the good and the bad and know that He loves you and that we will always love you!

Don't grow up to fast on me sweet boy.  We continue to be so proud of you, the person you are and look forward to where God will take you in the future and seeing you continue to explore and understand the world.  

Love,

Mom