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| Elwood and his Birthday Cinnamon Tree |
Birthday Interview with the Wood Man
What is your full name? Elwood.
Nickname? Woody
How old are you? Five!
What is your favorite color? Red. (Pause) Red, blue, gold and silver.
Where do you live? Panama. In Basti.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A hunter.
Who is your best friend? Manu
What is your favorite food? Strawberries and treats.
Do you have a favorite toy? Yes, Tohi's new watering can
What is your favorite activity to do outside? Play swords. Chop and catch fish.
What is your favorite activity to do inside? Jump on the bed.
With Dad: Build a cabin
With Mom: Play. play airplanes.
With Tohi: Play cheetahs.
With Frances: Hold her.
What you are like at five years old:
You are an awesome little person. You are kind and funny and loving. You are on the cusp of being a big kid. You are strong; in body and mind. You carry your own backpack full of heavy groceries from town and you are sweating and tired on the path but you make it home without any complaints. You unload your bag and I can tell you are proud to be helping out the family. Dad and I make a fuss over how much you carried and it truly is impressive how much is in your bag! You still do your cooking and art class and Jiu Jitsu. We've added "play day with Manu" on Mondays and you alternate weeks. One week, Manu comes to our house and the next week you go to his house. You guys are such adorable buddies. You both love dinosaurs, playing outside, swimming, and trying to catch stuff: crabs, fish, chickens. Your play is so creative and fun to overhear. You want to walk up to his house by yourself and you insist that you can. When we walk up together you lead the way and show me how you can definitely do it by yourself. I tell you that I know you can do it yourself, but I love the walk too. I'm just not quite ready to let you do it, I'm saying it's because you're not ready but perhaps it's me that is not quite ready to let you go. You love your family so much and you love being around us but just these past months you are stretching your independence and feeling confident in your "big kid" abilities. You are an excellent swimmer. You are so strong and confident in the water, and safe. We talk about respecting Mother Nature and the power of the ocean and the waves and I can tell that you understand the strength and dangers of the ocean. One of your favorite things to remind me is "You know, Mom. You are not the boss. Neither is Daddy. Mother Nature is the real boss." True. . .
You and Tohi go to bed at the same time now and I thought you would resist it because you are a bid kid but you love it. Either Dad or me and you and T all snuggle into your bed. Most nights, Tohi lets you hold her and you just love when she lets you love her. We tell a story and you always request it to be scary. Some nights you also tell a story and it is so fun to hear your imagination come to life as your little animated voice holds mine and Tohi's attention.
You and Tohi are buds. . . sometimes. You guys aren't always able to play nicely together but when you do it's the most adorable thing ever. No one can make Tohi laugh like you can. Sometimes you pretend you are animals and you crawl around and roar and growl and giggle with each other. Other times you run around the porch and pretend to see monsters or ghosts and shoot them with pretend lasers. You get frustrated when she can't quite play at your level but overall you truly love her so much and try very hard to get along with her.
You are so crazy for Frances. You request to hold her all the time. You try your best to make her smile and laugh. To hear your little voice make such a fuss over Francie is just the cutest. Frances likes to stand up and you were holding her while she was doing it and I hear you saying, "Oh geez! look at the big girl! oh! my big girl! Where you going?? Huh? Where you going, big girl? You going to town? Yeah? town? Oh, you are my big girl" It was just you and her on the couch and it was so adorable to watch. You are just such a loving, kind, special little guy.
My mom told me that she heard one of the most accurate words to describe a five year old is turbulent. And I would agree. When you are on, you are just about the cutest, most endearing, helpful, loving, smart, hilarious little person to be around. You can melt my heart like no other. Then there are times where I am so frustrated I could just scream. You are testing your limits and you feel very big and real emotions that you are learning to control. It's amazing being together so much that Dad and I have so much influence and knowledge of what you are going through each day. I feel so happy that it is me holding you after a time out and discussing what behaviors got you there, whats an acceptable way to behave and always ending it with love and a hug. Always. Dad too. You are a very special boy. You always soften and give big hugs and then we move forward. And we always say, "We are ALL works in progress. Even Mom and Dad."
You love to use your machete and help Dad chop. You love to garden and just the other day we were weeding and I was so impressed with your ability to know which plants were weeds and which we not. Our garden is very "one with the jungle" so there are random plants growing from us letting plants re-seed themselves and you can identify these baby seedlings among all the weeds and let them be. You just transplanted some mint and you've checked it every morning and kept it watered. It is doing great and you are genuinely so excited about it.
You are surfing more with Dad and really love it. You have impressive balance and an enthusiasm for it that has Dad really excited about his new surfing buddy. You still stay on small waves and Dad pushes you into them but just the other day when it was calm you and Dad went out in front of the house for a paddle work out. Hopefully, the days of you paddling into your own waves are soon! Dad and you are such buds. I just love it. As much as you love me and the girls, sometimes you and Dad joke that the cabin is the "boy house." You help Dad with projects and run to town with him when he needs to buy materials. Some afternoons, when you've both been working hard on the cabin, you walk to the Basti store together and buy "special treat drinks." You sit up on the porch of the cabin and drink your drinks, take in the view, and talk about whatever two dudes talk about at the end of a hard work day. Occasionally, you decide to call the girls up. You adorably have decided that our family call is the wolf howl. You and Dad howl down at us and Tohi gets SO excited and runs herself to the door and places her hands on her cheeks and howls back up to you. She knows a juice is waiting for her up there and she excitedly grabs my hand and we all walk up, pausing only to give a few wolf howls.
We are home schooling you and it is going pretty good. I use a program, Reading Eggs, that is great. We do other activities too but the reading eggs is really good for both of us. It's repetition in fun, interactive games is great for you and it reinforces for me what I should be reviewing with you. After reading eggs and math seeds, we do writing. I tell you a sentence and you sound out the words and write them down. I am so impressed with how hard you are trying. I go so crazy over you and I see your little face beam with pride. Learning to read and write is no joke and there are days that you get frustrated but I couldn't be happier that we are working together and making great progress!
We had a small birthday party for you this year and you loved it! You requested cheesy beans and cake: chocolate cake with white frosting and M&Ms on top. Cake was made to order but we upped the cheesy beans to a taco party. There was swimming, airplane throwing, sword fighting, tacos and cake. It was a blast. Happy Birthday to our big boy!
You and Tohi go to bed at the same time now and I thought you would resist it because you are a bid kid but you love it. Either Dad or me and you and T all snuggle into your bed. Most nights, Tohi lets you hold her and you just love when she lets you love her. We tell a story and you always request it to be scary. Some nights you also tell a story and it is so fun to hear your imagination come to life as your little animated voice holds mine and Tohi's attention.
You and Tohi are buds. . . sometimes. You guys aren't always able to play nicely together but when you do it's the most adorable thing ever. No one can make Tohi laugh like you can. Sometimes you pretend you are animals and you crawl around and roar and growl and giggle with each other. Other times you run around the porch and pretend to see monsters or ghosts and shoot them with pretend lasers. You get frustrated when she can't quite play at your level but overall you truly love her so much and try very hard to get along with her.
You are so crazy for Frances. You request to hold her all the time. You try your best to make her smile and laugh. To hear your little voice make such a fuss over Francie is just the cutest. Frances likes to stand up and you were holding her while she was doing it and I hear you saying, "Oh geez! look at the big girl! oh! my big girl! Where you going?? Huh? Where you going, big girl? You going to town? Yeah? town? Oh, you are my big girl" It was just you and her on the couch and it was so adorable to watch. You are just such a loving, kind, special little guy.
My mom told me that she heard one of the most accurate words to describe a five year old is turbulent. And I would agree. When you are on, you are just about the cutest, most endearing, helpful, loving, smart, hilarious little person to be around. You can melt my heart like no other. Then there are times where I am so frustrated I could just scream. You are testing your limits and you feel very big and real emotions that you are learning to control. It's amazing being together so much that Dad and I have so much influence and knowledge of what you are going through each day. I feel so happy that it is me holding you after a time out and discussing what behaviors got you there, whats an acceptable way to behave and always ending it with love and a hug. Always. Dad too. You are a very special boy. You always soften and give big hugs and then we move forward. And we always say, "We are ALL works in progress. Even Mom and Dad."
You love to use your machete and help Dad chop. You love to garden and just the other day we were weeding and I was so impressed with your ability to know which plants were weeds and which we not. Our garden is very "one with the jungle" so there are random plants growing from us letting plants re-seed themselves and you can identify these baby seedlings among all the weeds and let them be. You just transplanted some mint and you've checked it every morning and kept it watered. It is doing great and you are genuinely so excited about it.
You are surfing more with Dad and really love it. You have impressive balance and an enthusiasm for it that has Dad really excited about his new surfing buddy. You still stay on small waves and Dad pushes you into them but just the other day when it was calm you and Dad went out in front of the house for a paddle work out. Hopefully, the days of you paddling into your own waves are soon! Dad and you are such buds. I just love it. As much as you love me and the girls, sometimes you and Dad joke that the cabin is the "boy house." You help Dad with projects and run to town with him when he needs to buy materials. Some afternoons, when you've both been working hard on the cabin, you walk to the Basti store together and buy "special treat drinks." You sit up on the porch of the cabin and drink your drinks, take in the view, and talk about whatever two dudes talk about at the end of a hard work day. Occasionally, you decide to call the girls up. You adorably have decided that our family call is the wolf howl. You and Dad howl down at us and Tohi gets SO excited and runs herself to the door and places her hands on her cheeks and howls back up to you. She knows a juice is waiting for her up there and she excitedly grabs my hand and we all walk up, pausing only to give a few wolf howls.
We are home schooling you and it is going pretty good. I use a program, Reading Eggs, that is great. We do other activities too but the reading eggs is really good for both of us. It's repetition in fun, interactive games is great for you and it reinforces for me what I should be reviewing with you. After reading eggs and math seeds, we do writing. I tell you a sentence and you sound out the words and write them down. I am so impressed with how hard you are trying. I go so crazy over you and I see your little face beam with pride. Learning to read and write is no joke and there are days that you get frustrated but I couldn't be happier that we are working together and making great progress!
We had a small birthday party for you this year and you loved it! You requested cheesy beans and cake: chocolate cake with white frosting and M&Ms on top. Cake was made to order but we upped the cheesy beans to a taco party. There was swimming, airplane throwing, sword fighting, tacos and cake. It was a blast. Happy Birthday to our big boy!
In true birthday week rules, we had cake for breakfast the next day
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