I'm Four!

At preschool


Looking for birds and insects at the Botanic Gardens


A sample of what he produces at the writing table at school

Linus tells everyone that he is four. The cutest instance of this took place at the Botanic Gardens. He insisted on opening the door for us, but he was really struggling with it. He refused help from me or any of the adults lining up behind us. He finally got it open, let me through, and then insisted on holding it open for all of the people behind us. As they walked through he told them, "I'm four!" The last woman through said, "You most certainly are!"

I took him in for his four-year appointment with the pediatrician. They surprised us right off the bat by asking for a urine sample. That went fine; he thought it was interesting. When the nurse asked if I had any questions for the doctor, Linus told her he wanted to ask the doctor if dogs get pinkeye. She made a note of it on his chart and I was chuckling on the inside. The situation became more and more humorous. For the first time the doctor basically interacted solely with Linus. The doctor drew two lines on a piece of paper and held it out horizontally for Linus to identify which line was longer. After Linus pointed to the longer line, the doctor took the paper back and turned it around a bunch of times and then presented it vertically to Linus. He asked him which line was longer now. Linus looked at the lines, then at the doctor, and then back to the lines. Then he looked the doctor straight in the face and said, "As I told you before, this line is longer. These are the same lines." It was really hard not to laugh. The doctor told me at the end that Linus' awareness of his thought process and ability to verbalize it is at the level of a 3rd grader. I didn't know what to say, so I just smiled.

Never mind what grade level he is at. I just know that he is constantly slurping up information and by nightfall my brain is completely drained. Four-year-olds sure do ask a lot of questions!