Four, Soon

O is turning four at the end of the month. He's changed so amazingly this year...I can hardly see the little 3 year old that we put into preschool so many months ago. Those are his feet, as he was sitting in my lap this past week at the end-of-school year picnic. (They were singing "Michael Finnegan" which seems to involve all sorts of stomping and/or dancing.)

It feels like he is not listening to us at all, anymore. He's so independently minded, so strong-willed. But happy. He does it in a charming way that makes us feel terribly guilty after the fact for ever appending any punishment to completely disregarding what we say.

But he's happy. So he's testing us. Right? Sometimes I wonder if we let him get away with too much. We try not to. But sometimes I want to stop disciplining him, to just let him run around and forget his pleases and thank-yous and just be a crazy, messy, loud boy.