Rohin – you continue to amaze us at what a four year old can
accomplish. Your intellectual ability to
learn is really quite amazing. You are
now able to write your name – Rohin and recognize many of the letters and
numbers when you see them. You are now even taking books and guessing what they
mean. Recently, mommy bought picture
books that ask questions (e.g. where does the helmet go, which of these Is not
a fruit, etc)… and you know pretty much most of them. Daddy went to a kindergarten seminar the
other day and all of the items on the checklist that 5 years are supposed to
do, you already do them at 4. You’re
very conversant now and have a great memory (you can sing A, B, C songs, Doe a
deer, and We got the beat (courtesy of mama).
Even last night, daddy was sing “Johnny Be Good” and you were already to join in and sing with just a
couple times through the song. You love
to draw and are really good with shape recognition – and drawing a hypnotic swirl. You love to ask penetrating questions about
why things are and also like to take things like pliers and act like you’re
happy daddy with cutting weeds. You love
the jungle gym and are a HUGE fan of Great falls park, where you love to play
on the mountain climbing section
(especially if daddy pretends to be a monster) and love to slide down
the fireman poll. So onto a couple
memories:
Let’s start off with Easter – which was a blast. The weekend before – you and mommy went over
to Chucky Cheese with mommy, where you had a blast playing with the video
games. You really like riding on the
truck and taking pictures of yourself riding with Chucky Cheese. Though, you’re now getting interesting in
games like ones where you can race or the fire fighter game. We then hoped in
the iron horse (our car) and drove down to Ticondergoa farms – home of the
outdoor slides! They had their annual
easter egg hunt going on and our children were real contenders J. Imagine, 75 children gathered for one
gigantic easter egg hunt. Daddy sat down
with all of you and reminded you to not follow other children – he recounted a
story when he was a child and used to chase other kids – who would pickup the
eggs first! You were a trooper Talin and
went right to work picking up eggs.
Everyone did a great job and came back with three huge basketfuls of
candy! Your basket was brimming over – I think you had a really good strategy
lined out. You also go to see the easter
bunny. The rest of the afternoon was
spent going down slides, bouncing on the big bouncy hill and climbing up in the
wooden fort – which you and Rohin really enjoyed doing. The following weekend, we went over to
Grandma and grandpa’s for Easter weekend – where you got to dye easter eggs
(pink of course), and we road on the gator – and got our big easter baskets
from the easter bunny. You seemed to
really love the gummy worms the best and quickly figured out how to find the
eggs that sounded like they had gummy worms inside. The rest of the weekend – we spent time on
the gators and walked through the words – where daddy build you a little lean
to fort – that you enjoyed sitting in.
We also recently went to Jovin’s birthday party – which was
a blast. Batman even came – ok, well,
long story – it wasn’t really batman – but a pretty overweight dishelved
version of him. But we had a great
time. You loved riding on the train with
Talin and Aeowyn at Burke Park Lake and also riding on the Mary Go Round. We
spent the afternoon have a little impromptu dinner in the median strip in the
parking lot with some of your closet friends.
Rohin – you’re now to the age where mommy and daddy are
going to start blogging about our experiences and stories and how they might
relate to you. You’re ready for
that. I have to talk from Daddy’s
perspective for a minute because it’s really important to share this. Two right now – one was recently we were
downstairs and you were talking about my grandfather’s chair and we talked
about death – and what happened to my grandma – and you asked if we will one
day die. Such penetrating questions for
a 4 year old. Daddy was almost in tears
talking about this. But one thing I want
you to know – even at this age Rohin – is that while death is a certainty in
our life – so is love. Love is the binding
force across space and time. While one
day, we will face this in our lives – I want you, Talin and Aeowyn to know that
love is never broken. Your faith in God,
as mommy and daddy are teaching you, is your ability to understand this – your
ability to believe and have faith that there is more to life than life. Your mother and I often talk about this – but
the universe(s) (I believe there are multiples) – is incredibly vast – beyond
our comprehension. That when we do pass
one day – we’re going to be amazed at how incredibly beautiaful, complex and
simple it all is. And the love we share
as a family endures. You won’t read this
for many years from now – but it’s important to remember that love and faith
are your armor for the hard battles that you will face in life.
Another item I need to talk about is when I attended the
kindergartner prep class at Westbriar – they talked about the story of Jack and
Bean Stalk and modified it to talk about Jack and his mom preparing him to
climb up the stalk – and dealing with the fears and concerns of the
unkown. I have to tell you that I was
one of those dads, holding back tears at the tought of you going to school next
year. You’re my big boy and I love you
so much – we always want to protect you and always want the best for you. But as someone once told me – from birth, as
a parent, we must practice letting go. I
find myself preparing to once again let go of you, to let you become the boy
and eventually the man that you are destined to be. Mommy and daddy will be sharing our stories
with you in hopes to help guide you’re and protect you. But I write about my feelings here because as
your daddy, I won’t be able to talk with you about this. I will be totally encouraging, loving and
excited about your next step because you need that from your mom and I. Watching you grow up, transports me back to
when I started kindergarten. Even at my age, I can remember taking the bus to
school, the people, the environment, the other children that I
encountered. I loved my elementary
school and thrived in it. I hope that I
can provide you the same opportunity that I was presented with – the ability to
love your life as a child, to enjoy the environment, to be safe, to be excited,
and to have fun without growing up too fast.
Mommy and I will do everything we can Rohin to guide you and protect you
on your life’s journey that is taking off in full speed. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be your father
Rohin.
