Dear Sweet Boy

This morning you woke up and said, "Trains! Play trains." You are nearly four and half and this is the first time in two years that you wanted to play with trains without tantrums and without me plying you with treats.  You watched a video of a classmate playing with them and you decided that you could do it, to.  You never have liked wheeled vehicles before, and today you still weren't interested in setting up the track or in moving the train on the track.

Instead you played with them in your own unique way.  You nested.

Your daddy and I made you a train table when you were one and half.  And today you piled the tracks and trains on it, added a layer of Toy Story figures (paying the trains your highest compliment), you added some bubble wrap for good measure and then added the doggies, soft blankie and the quilt from your bed (your own version of whipped cream and a cherry on top).

I didn't get a picture of the next part because I was too busy giggling.  You laid on top of your treasures with the quilt covering you and your toys.  Your head was under the quilt and everything else was in a pile under you and you kept saying, "Sleep." Then you poked your head out from under the quilt, grinned at me and said, "I'm exhausted."

You, my son, are a hoarder of great treasures, you are a nester (often singing, "lay down in your nest, let me take a rest") and a cuddler.  And you accepted trains and train tracks into your nest to cuddle today, right on top of your train table.  And it made me cry--the happy kind.  My joyful boy learned how to play with trains in his own way.  You watched a peer at school, saw how happy trains made him and you decided to show me how happy trains make you.

I love you more than words can express.  So I think you and I will make a nest later today.