To my dear Jonah,
Happy birthday, my little son. You’re not so little anymore, because now you are 4! I hope that one day you can enjoy reading our letters to you – it’s funny how the small things slip from our memories. We want to treasure it all.
You have come so far in just a year, and we’ve learned more about you than any other year. Your personality and quirks are really showing, our wonderfully different Jonah!
Because of the coronavirus epidemic, we spend our days in a little bubble at home – we play, go for long walks, have slow lunches, and watch too much telly.
And we won’t be spending your fourth birthday as we imagined we would – a big party with a bouncy castle and all of your nursery friends. Instead we’re having a humble get together at your grandma Heather’s house, with just a few close family and friends – all appropriately distanced, of course. But I know you’ll have a great day, anyway. You’re always happy with the simpler things!
There’s so much I can tell you about what happened to 3 year old Jonah! It was the year you really stepped out into the world – starting at school nursery and taking it completely in your stride.
You made new friends and impressed your teachers with your progress. But rather than starting at primary school in September, you’ll be going back to school nursery, and I know you’ll love it. We get to keep you at home just a little while longer – you are still so little on the inside. There’s time to catch up later.
When you were 3, you mastered using the toilet and did so well, we’re still so proud of you! We knew you’d do it!
We’ve seen a more inquisitive Jonah come out of his shell. Your speech and language has come on a treat, in fact, we hear your voice non-stop now! Like most kids your age, you ask so many questions every day. What is this? Why is that? It makes our hearts sing! Why? Because you were in speech and language therapy and we were worried about you, but we didn’t need to be. You soon caught up!
And as for now. Your love for your sister is growing daily. Every day you tell her “I love you little baby”. You tear around the house together, building “caves”, pretending to be caterpillars, and being accomplices in fun!
We understand more about the way you tick now, Jonah. You were seen by a paediatrician and you’re showing signs of high functioning autism. In 6 months, we’ll learn if you’ll be referred for further assessment. We hope it will help you get the extra support you need at school. It doesn’t change anything else for us.
Your love for trains and vehicles continues. You spend hours reading train books, watching trains on YouTube, and building train tracks. Your current interest is vans. Spotting vans. Counting their ladders. Telling us all the different logos you see. We’re noticing your amazing memory!
And you’re still in love with fire engines. It helps that we live really close to a fire station and can hear the fire station alarm sounding.
You’re funny, silly, and you when you really want something you work hard to get it. You love the outdoors, and both your grandmas and uncle Nick. Your favourite food is “cheese ganwiches”. You drive me and your dad mad with screaming! Since not having a haircut for months, your giant mop of hair features prominently, but you won’t let me trim it.
But you overcame your fear of the vacuum cleaner, well – almost. You have the odd wobble if tired.
You’re the only man who regularly brings me flowers and tells me you love you me – how romantic! And I love how you take an interest in mummy’s “tail” (hair) and “mummy’s makeup” – your word for all my skincare.
This year we hope to teach you to ride a bike. I’m so sorry we didn’t buy you one until now. You see, we’re still learning how to be a good mummy and daddy – we make all our mistakes on you! Once the coronavirus epidemic has calmed down, we’ll be back to a new and lovely life – nursery, friends, more time outside, and family trips. We’ll take you to Whitby for the first time.
We love you Jonah! Don’t ever stop shining and growing, we love being your parents and can’t wait spend our next year together.
With lots of love,
Mummy and Daddy Bear. Xx
5 Comments
Aww happy birthday Jonah!
This is so sweet, it was my birthday last week and now I wish my mom wrote this to me too ahah
I did not start blogging until my kids were much older. This is such a great way to have all of the memories in one place. Happy birthday to your son
Happy Birthday, Jonah! Four is such a fun age as they really come into their personalities and are able to do more things.
Happy birthday to the little one.
And love the letter you wrote to him xoox
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