Emilio - 4 years

Emi,

You have grown so much. The last year has flown by with so many changes. When you turned 3, you had just been weaned and you went through that rough  night terror phase. That lasted a few months and thankfully, we have figured it out and now we know that rest needs to be a priority for you. You just literally can't stop having fun!! you just go, go, go and sleep is like a huge punishment to you, so we are always making sure you are not too overtired or else you will be up in the night screaming and crying like a mad man.
Interestingly, even though you are weaned now, sleep issues are still a big part of our life. Besides the terrors, you seemed to have gone back to having big difficulty falling asleep. You always have to fall asleep eating something and will wake up pretty much every night asking for food. If you do get a snack during the night, then you will sleep in. Otherwise you will wake up really early even if you didn't have a good night sleep, and you will be cranky as hell.
Speaking of sleep, you have also dropped the nap about maybe 6 months ago. You were staying up way too late and so now for the most part you don't nap, unless you have been since too early. This helps you go to sleep early around 7.30 or 8 at night but you are usually pretty tired and miserable in the evening.
Moving on to happier topics, when you have had good sleeps you are so fun to be around. YOu are cheerful, sweet and super helpful. You love helping me around the house and one of your favourite passtimes is helping me prepare dinner or lunch. You just love cooking.
When we go out, you always love going with me anywhere as long as you are not tired or hungry. You are cheerful and chatty and people always comment on how happy you look and how chatty you are.You are very friendly and the kids on the street love hanging out with you. They know they can count on you being willing to play.
You love dancing and always want to be listening to music in the car or wherever we are. You are incredibly active. You even know how to ride your bike without training wheels already!! you are amazing, although you can't still ride for long distances because you get tired but you are really good at it.
You will be starting Kindergarten next year and I have to admit I am a bit worried. You are an incredible kind, respectful and sweet little boy, but I am not sure that the amount of structure in the school systems is designed to help little boys like you. You are incredibly active and have trouble sitting still. You cannot focus for too long and sometimes you have trouble controlling your temperament. You are very emotional and certainly don't like to hear the word "NO". You have no interest in activities such as drawing or anything that requires sitting down for long periods. You mostly enjoy reading books, pretend play, and even building games, but only if somebody is fully engaged with you. Otherwise you get bored and move on.

Little Emi you are such a sweet boy and I love how you always look after your brother and even me when we are sad. You are helpful and just fun to be around. I love you so much!
Mom

Paulo 6

Paulo,

You and your brother are one of my favourite topics to talk about. But time is short and I won't let "perfect " get in the way of "done", so I will try to keep it short.

You are an amazing little boy. It is a strange feeling to know that just 6 years ago you were just this subjective thought, and now you have become a complete, articulate person with his own personality. You are smart, kind, very creative, brave and mature. Since you started Kindergarten you have become the dream student. You are quiet, you are pensive, very creative and you listen very well. In one of your teacher's words: you are the dream student. In the last year or two you have been chosen to carry the wreath on Remembrance Day, receive awards for showing "Respect" at school and most importantly, you continue to love school.

Your dad and I feel that we share a true connection with you. We trust you, you trust us, and we truly admire the person you are becoming.

This time I want to share with you my challenges, and not yours. You and your brother have opened my eyes and I have realize that my challenge with you is to respect who you are and try to preserve that bright mind of yours and encourage you and help you become the best version of yourself. You are brave, and I don't want my fears for you to get in the way of your learning new things. You are authentic, and I don't want my desire for you to fit in to get in the way of you staying true to yourself. You are confident and I don't want my own shyness to rub off on you or my insecurities making you feel you need more friends to feel approved. You are creative, and I don't want our structured world and our need to fit into a mold to block that. In sum, I have to overcome my own limitations to help you foster your amazing self.

And just to finish, a little list of things that you do:

- You have become phisically very coordinated and strong. You climb trees, run, dance very confidently.

- You are OBSESSED with bikes and your bike. You have also recently started riding a cruiser (skateboard) and spend hours outside practicing. You are becoming quite good very fast. You also recently got a scooter and love riding that as well. The amount of energy you have lately is way way above in beyond what you had last year.

- You are learning to read and write at school. It is a challenge to find the time to sit down and practice reading and writing with all the time you spend outdoors, but we try and some days you really enjoy just sitting down and browsing through magazines and writing.

- The odd time you will sit down and start drawing. I don't consider you super keen on drawing, but you are actually good at it, putting lots of details and you always come up with very interesting ideas.

- Even though school has kind of gotten in the way of your creativity, you are big on building things with paper, cardboard, tape, etc. You have an incredible ability to keep yourself busy.

- Tons more than I can talk about, but I just want to mention that despite the fact that you are quiet and serious, you are good at making friends. You even have some friends who are years older than you. But you have made lots of friends in our street and at school. I think they like you because you are kind and respectful, you never hit, push or talk disrespectfully to anyone.

Paulo, chiquis, we love you always,

Mama