Here are some random notes from Bobby's 4th year:

48 months

•   Turning 4: Ellen and Fred spent Easter weekend here, April 19-22, 2003. On Sunday Bobby hunted down 20 Easter eggs in the front yard with chocolate and coins inside. On Monday, Bobby's 4th birthday, we headed down to San Jose to see Peggy and Diane.

•   Second party: While we had a small family gathering for Bobby's birthday, we decided it would be fun to invite Bobby's friends and classmates for a second fourth birthday party for Bobby. And so on May 3 we hit Chuck E. Cheese in Dublin, Calif., with his classmates Ryan (and parents) and Joshua (and mom); Mekala (and Colleen); Jessica and Staci (and Kathy); and Kennet and Miara (and Ennis). Wild and raucous time.

•   Bestest of times: Whenever we do a small favor for Bobby, like bringing him a baba, he tells us, "You're the bestest Daddy. ... You're the bestest Mommy." Nice to hear.

•   Swimming fiend: We signed up Bobby for a 10-lesson swimming course at the local Aquatic Center. On the first day (May 5), I had to get in the pool with him (it was 2 1/2 feet high) while he cried for 10 minutes, saying, "I'm scared." The water came up almost to his shoulders. But after that, he got used to it, and started splashing around with five other 3- to 5-year-olds while the instructor, Nicole, showed them the Bubble Train. Next outing, he was more adventurous, and I didn't have to go in with him.

•   Tale of the tie: His teacher in the yellow room, Miss Margaret, was talking about men who wear neckties to work. Bobby piped up: "My Daddy only wears ties to weddings." Busted.

•   Catch this: Bobby's always had a pretty good arm, and he makes a good number of the basketball shots he puts up in his bedroom, but it's only been in the past two weeks that he's become good at catching the ball, too.

49 months

•   Big weekend: For Memorial Day Weekend 2003 we spent Sunday with Colleen and Mekala going to FairyLand in Oakland for the first time. Monday we spent the afternoon at the San Ramon Kite Festival. Bobby flew his kite again, but spent most of the time splashing in the fountain and building mud pies and a castle with a system of watery locks.

•   The truth pours out: We took Bobby along on a two-day trip to Sebastopol for our friend Rick's wedding. Spent Friday afternoon at Spring Lake. At a restaurant Friday night, after Mary ordered a glass of merlot, Bobby piped up and told the waitress: "My mommy likes wine!"

•   Beach day: Another busy weekend. On Saturday (June 14), Bobby attended classmate Alissia's birthday party with several other friends. On Sunday we spent Father's Day at Capitola. Great time, though he cried a bit when a wave knocked him over and scared him. Bobby made me a plaster cast of his hand print in class.

•   New class: Bobby said he had a stomach ache this morning and couldn't go to school. Mary told him Lucas would be awfully sad to move up to Ms. Sonny's class without him, and so he relented. When he got to Ms. Sonny's class he and Lucas sat down immediately and started playing with cars, not looking around, just head down close to the carpet and the cars. "I think they didn't want to look around too much and not see Ms. Margaret," Mary said.

•   Top of his class: Mary said she watched Bobby in his new class this morning. Whenever the teacher asked a question, he was the first one with his hand up. Not shy about showing his smarts.

•   Biking fiend: Bobby's been a bit reluctant to ride his bike since he got it on his birthday, but the last two mornings he asked Mary if he could ride his bike (a two-wheeler with training wheels) down the block before school. This morning he said, "Today I ride my bike to school!" That's still a long way off, young feller.

•   Kitty family: Bobby likes his kitties and sometimes pretends he is one. And there's Daddy Kitty and Mommy Kitty, of course. When we snuggle together on the bed, Bobby sometimes says, "We're a kitty family."

50 months

•   Film auteur: Bobby is bigtime into film directing. Yesterday (June 26) he made a 20-minute "movie" for Mary by acting out a couple of scenes with his transformer as the good guy and his baby kitty and Goddard the dog as the bad guys.

•   Kitty song: At 8:30 this morning Mary and I awoke to the strains of Bobby's voice coming from the living room. I came out and asked what Bobby was singing. "I'm singing the Kitty Song for Mommy." He was improvising on the spot.

•   Fireworks: We spent the Fourth of July at Dublin's little water park in the afternoon, then returned to its parking lot around 8:30 p.m. for a surreal scene: dozens of families shooting off every kind of fireworks imaginable (no bottle rockets, though). Bobby cried a little when we got there because it was so loud, and an hour later, as we were leaving, he began crying again at all the noise. But he liked the vivid colors.

•   World of the Dead: Bobby blew us away tonight (6/12/03). We spent the night after attending Fred's 80th birthday party. Around 10 p.m., Bobby agreed to tell us a story, but he wanted all the lights off. So as Fred, Ellen, Peggy, Diane, Mary and JD sat around the table, Bobby took out Ellen's colored night light, waited for it to turn red, then spookily held it up to his face. "This is story of the World of the Dead!" he intoned. Mary and I cracked up, but he went on like that for two minutes, telling a Bobbyesque narrative of dread. We were all amazed at his gumption as well as his story-telling abilities at age 4.

•   Biking: Bobby took his first real bike ride today (6/16/03). JD guided Bobby on his two-wheeler with training wheels as we crossed street after street to get to the neighborhood park. After 20 minutes of going down slides, Bobby was too tired to ride the bike back so we walked it home.

51 months

•   Star watch: On Saturday we glued little luminescent stars onto the ceiling of Bobby's bedroom. Before he goes to sleep at night, we shine flashlights onto the stars to make them glow. (Mary made a Milky Way.) We've also begun doing puppet shadows and other creatures by the light of the flashlights.

•   Code words: Bobby has learned his first code words. (We're so proud!) On the way home from preschool or on the way to his grandparents' house, he has taken to saying, "I'm so hot!" He knows that his parents suggest that he cool off with a bowl full of ice cream.

•   First flick: Bobby saw his first movie today! (Aug. 6, 2003) We don't count "Return to Neverland" when Mary took him a year ago because he got scared of Captain Hook and left halfway through. This time he saw "Finding Nemo" with his Grandpa and Grandma, and he loved it. "It was awesome!" the young movie critic said.

•   When the Shark Bites: Bobby told us tonight about the latest rousing game being played on the St. Clare's Preschool playground: Shark Bites Your Arm Off, featuring shark soldiers.

•   No shy boy: When he arrived at St. Clare's this morning, he shouted out to his friends, "Come on, guys, let's rock 'n' roll!"

52 months

•   Card player: Bobby loves playing with his Yu-Gi-Oh cards, usually against Mary. They'll create imaginary battles based on the cards in front of them. Bobby pretty much determines the rules.

•   Getting bigger: Bobby keeps getting bigger. He now wears a size 12 shoe and size 6 shirt and pants.

•   New class: Today (Aug. 26) Bobby began a new school year in Miss Felicia's class (whom he had when he was in the red room). Lucas and Alissa are two of his pals who'll be joining him.

•   First homework: The pressure is on! Bobby has his first homework assignment: to draw the letters m and i. We're helping him with it.

•   Dream time: Bobby told Mary about a dream he had last night: A bunch of red bugs got into his mouth and cleaned his teeth.

53 months

•   Jokester: Bobby now really likes to join JD and Mary in the outside spa. Tonight we were looking at the full moon while throwing the tennis ball to Tassie. Bobby cracked a joke: "Tassie, go jump at the moon -- it's a ball!"

54 months

•   A-mazed: The three of us spent an hour on Oct. 11 traveling to Livermore to a farm that had carved out a huge maze in the middle of a cornfield. It was kind of fun to see so many lost families, but after a time Bobby was getting tired so we turned back. Instead, Bobby went inside a dark spooky tunnel made of haystacks, and we bought two big pumpkins.

•   A whole lotta love: Lately Bobby has taken to telling us, "I love you, Mommy and Daddy, more than anyone in the whole wide world! Or even in the whole town!"

•   Halloween humor: Bobby told me a joke, as he was getting excited about Halloween arriving tomorrow: "It'll be like taking candy from grownups."

•   Halloween reality check: As we did trick or treating in the neighborhood on Halloween, I commented on Bobby's Superman costume, and he reminded me, "This is just a costume. I don't really have his powers."

•   Literary flair: We gave Bobby some ice water, and he told us, "That's too cold. It's making me a popsicle!"

55 months

•   Bobby the hipster: For some reason Bobby has begun calling me "Dadderoo" on occasion. And a week later he began calling Mary "Mommadoo" sometimes when he's being playful.

•   Thanksgiving 2003: Bobby's been in a great mood all week. He spent Tuesday to Friday at his grandparents' (the Schraders), and on Thanksgiving joined us and the Moynihans (including Kris and his finacee Jen) for a turkey dinner.

•   Evil minions: Our boy's developing quite the vocabulary. This morning he was talking about "evil minions" (in reference to some Rainbow Rangers) and tonight he was talking about clones.

•   Sick days: The week of Dec. 1 JD got pretty sick, suffering from what we thought was a severe cold or bronchitis. By Friday X-rays revealed he had pneumonia. Mary drove JD and Bobby to Valley Hospital (5 minutes away) and, while JD was admitted, she took Bobby to the ER because he also was coughing and wheezing. He then got some medication from his regular doctor the next day. Bobby stayed home a total of four school days before returning to St. Clare's.

•   Deck the halls: Bobby helped us set up the ornaments on the Christmas tree and said afterward, "This is the best day ever!" He already loves the Christmas tradition. We captured some of it on video.

•   Magic trick: Mary isn't very fond of this new trick that Bobby and I cooked up. When he stands on the bedsheet in the middle of the bed, I pull the sheet and he goes bouncing on his back on the bedsprings. He laughs uproariously,but Mary gets nervous and leaves the room.

•   Snow day: Bobby got his second chance to see snow when we drove up Dec. 20, 2003, to Lake Tahoe for Mary's cousin Kris's wedding to Jennifer. He was extremely well-behaved even though it was a 3 1/2-hour drive, the longest he's ever had. After the reception he threw two snowballs at a tree and hit it both times. Mary drove home just as a snowstorm was beginning to hit, so we got to see big, whipping gusts of snow against the windshield.

56 months

•   Christmas 2003: Mary's parents spent Dec. 24-26 with us, and Bobby was very excited by the mountain of gifts under the tree. We had a good holiday, with several rounds of opening presents; the afternoon session came when Aunt Peggy arrived. Later, we had dinner, and Peggy led us in a round of Christmas songs (which we videotaped).

•   Music: Bobby and I put on the CD player today and listened to some light jazz while doing a Pinocchio puzzle. "Do you like the music?" I asked at one point. "I always like your music," he said. Know that won't last.

•   Dreaming: Bobby told Mary about a dream he had last night. A good one. "I was dancing with big butterflies!" What an amazing age.

57 months

•   Sweet dreams: I peeked in on Bobby tonight and as I pulled the blanket under his chin I thought I heard him murmur "Power Rangers." Next morning, Mary asked if he'd had a dream about power rangers. He said yes, they were chasing bad guys, and they were all thre, even the silver and gold power rangers.

•   Valentine's Day: Bobby joined Mary and me for a nice sit-down Valentine's Day dinner. He helped set the table and set the mood by turning down the lights. Earlier in the day he said, "Valentine's Day is not just about candy. It's about love."

58 months

•   Weighty matters: Bobby wanted to tip the scales today. He now weighs 44 pounds. When he coaxed me onto the scale and looked at the red numbers light up, he exclaimed, "Whoa! Big numbers!"

•   Rewards program: Mary put up a sheet in the bathroom and now Bobby gets a triangle, or a letter, every time he brushes his teeth or picks up his toys. The reward, after 40 or so squares, is a new toy, like the Unicron we just got him.

59 months

•   Easter bunny: For Easter this year we drove down to San Jose for a mid-afternoon dinner at Peggy and Diane's. Bobby spent part of the afternoon playing against 3-year-old Chance on Diane's fairly new wooden baseball stadium pinball machine. He was excited because he scored about 11 runs -- he was really good at it.


GO TO: | Bobby's photo gallery, age 4

GO TO: | Bobby, age 5

GO TO: | Bobby's home page