A Letter For Grammy

I happen to be the eldest of five children. When I moved away to college, my youngest brother was just 4 years old. He was a wonderful little boy with a happy, sunny personality, and I missed him like crazy.

To tide me over until my next visit home, Mom would send me letters from little Sethie, along with coloring pages and sticks of gum taped inside the cards. These bright spots in my day always made me laugh and cry, and they are still some of my most treasured possessions. (Okay, I admit I tend toward sentimentality!) Seth couldn't write yet at the time, so Mom would write down exactly what he said as he dictated to her. Sorry, Seth, to share your inmost 4-year-old thoughts with the blogosphere, but some things should just be shared:

"Dear Larisa,
I miss you very much, and I love you. I always like to sleep with you when you come home because I miss you.
We are eating at Arby's in Fort Wayne, and Mom's going to get me a Peter Pan hat.
I'm gonna have fun in school next year. I'm gonna color, put bricks together and draw.
I go with my Dad in the combine and tractor. Oh, and the spray coupe.
Chet plays me "farm."
Thor jumps on me and knocks me over. I do not like the dog. One night, we came home from Grandpa's and all of a sudden there was a "plop" and he broke his chain. Dad had to fix it.
Dad built our house 10 million years ago. Who knows who built this Arby's we are in?!
I wish I was a ship captain because boats are fun to ride in.
Mom wore a flowered shirt.
I saw a lot of junky cars today.
I'll be glad to see you this weekend.
Bye,
Seth

Then there were the colored pictures - like this one with the unlikely title "Lou is wearing NARROW pants." What?!

Today, that little guy with the very random thoughts is a 4.0 pharmacy student who is also a husband and a father to three children - including his very own 4 year old boy. It's hard to believe how fast time goes, but I love having these little glimpses into who he was "back in the day."

Which brings me to the point of this post: my Mom had knee surgery last week, and Yikealo asked if we could please send her a card. (BTW, he received something like 85 cards and gifts following his appendectomy, so I'm glad that he's feeling the need to "give back" - for awhile, the constant influx of stuff was making him feel pretty entitled.) Anyway, I decided that Grammy needed a taste of a little boy's letter, so yesterday Mr. Y dictated the following:

Dear Grammy,
I love you. We hope you get better. We hope you can feel better. We hope you can join us.
I am sending $5 to you because you have an ouchie leg. I think you should buy a Spiderman with your money. I think you should like Spidermans because I like them. 
I love you forever and ever and ever.
I was writing my favorite smell for pre-school this morning, and then I wrote my name in the wrong spot. Instead of just saying "caramel corn", my paper said, "caramelyikcornealo." Now my Dad says that's my new name.
We love you like a puzzle, and we like you even if you ever get mad.
If you get angry or grouchy like my mom, we will still love you - even if you are like a yellow pencil."

Okay, so maybe Mr. Y doesn't have quite the breadth of subject matter that his "Uncle Seffie" had at this age, but you've gotta love the assortment of stickers that he included, right? The best part was when my mom called today - giggling away over the phone. Yikealo was beaming from ear to ear when she thanked him for the letter.

A few other side notes on the gifts from his hospitalization: the kid received LOTS of cash from LOTS of people. We are trying to start teaching him about stewardship, so he and David counted it all out one Saturday. We made him put 10% into a charity or Sunday school fund, we made him pay for the $130 emergency room bill (we told him we'd handle the rest), and then we told him that he has to save the rest for things that he would like to purchase. In order to buy something, he has to tell us what he wants and then wait at least one week before buying it so that he can think about whether or not he's making a good decision. It was all his idea to send Grammy five of his dollars, so I was glad that he was thinking of someone else. However, lately he has suddenly become OBSESSED with Disney World. I really don't know how he even learned about it, but he has been talking about it non-stop and asking if we can please go sometime. We've told him that maybe someday we can, but it is very expensive, and right now we are saving our money so that we "can get our new little boy or girl." Tonight, he suggested that perhaps all three of us could get sick and go to the hospital so that people would send us money...so that we could go to Disney World. Hmmmm....I think we've got a little more work to do on the explanation of just where money comes from and how it should be used!