month...well, let"s see now...12 x 4 is...now add the 4...52

Lily is asleep and I just sat you and Carter down with a bag af mini marshmallows...each, so that gives me a few minutes to start on month 52.

(In case you're worried, here's the bag of marshmallows)

see, it's just a bitty bag.

okay, hang on, I need to eat a bag of marshmallows...

I'm back. Without further adue...month 52.

month 52 has brought with it some interesting developments in your personality. To tell you the truth, they are developments that I knew were coming and have been dreading...just a little bit. See, I know there is a point in a young child's life when they become very curious and very verbal, and the combination of curiosity and asking questions can get...how do I say this...tiresome. And I understand this burning need to know everything, and as much as I want to be your inexahstable source of information, I'm...exahsted. But if I say I don't know then you want to know why I don't know, and if I don't know, then who does? It's just absolutly neverending.

BUT, oddly enough, I'm much more patient with it than I thought I'd be, simply because you assimilate everything you learn so quickly and I love to watch you apply your knowledge. The other day we were driving down the street and you looked out the window and said, "look Mom, cumulous clouds!" and I was seriously astounded because I had forgotten what cumulous clouds were until we checked out that Childcraft encyclopedia on the earth that you wanted so badly and made me read you 10 times a day.

The other thing you're really good at is provoking and being provoked by Lily. See, there's a particular scream that you really like to get out of her, and there is a specific vein on your left temple that Lily gets a thrill from watching protrude, and you're both quite good at your craft.

So it makes for some exciting evenings at our house right about dinner time.

I don't know if that's the reason why you've become so hateful towards dinner itself or not, but the word "dinner" provokes such anger in you. You don't like to eat dinner much these days unless it is spaghetti or pizza. I'm sure this is quite common in boys your age, but I do try to give you a little more variety than cooked tomatoes and starch at least a couple times a week. And since you LOVE pancakes, I decided to try this healthy recipe for "pink" pancakes that had some hidden fruits and vegetables mixed in. So you were all excited to try them, but I think when you heard "pink" you thought pink like pink sugar cookies, not pink like made with beet puree.

And on the beet pancakes I can't say I blame you.

Even though Lily and I thought they were good. I will redeem them that far.

On the way to school this morning we had to take an alternate route because the road we usually take was closed due to construction. So we spent the next 10 minutes beating that dead, dead horse.

"Why is the road closed?"

"Do constructions workers get sick?"

"Are the construction workers for this road sick?"

"Boogers are sticky"

me "that's gross!"

Alex "why is sticky gross?"

me "boogers are gross"

Alex "Why are sticky boogers gross?"

By now I am dry heaving because despite 5 years of nursing school, 4 years of motherhood, and a stomach of steel, the only thing I cannot take is boogers. Therein lies the key to the chastity belt of my stomach. So I am singing Mary had a Little Lamb in my head and going to my happy place while you are in the back saying "boogers. BOOOOGEERRS!"

Where the 3s brought tantrums and stubbornness, the 4s have brought inginuity. (I might be referring to myself as well.) Instead of throwing a fit when you get in trouble, you simply tell me to go to my room.

And I go.

And on the way you tell me to lock the door behind me.

And I do it.

And then I pull out the Doritos I have hidden under the bed and I turn on Oprah.

And every now and then I hear you say, "It's not time for you to come out yet"

And I sadly reply, "just let me know."

OK, I don't hide Doritos under my bed. But I think I'll get a mini-fridge in my room and fill it with Bon-Bons. And when you send me to my room I'll sit and eat them and think about how "worth it" this whole parenting thing is.