Finally Four!!!!

The kitchen is a mess.  The "to do" list is long.  My body is tired.  BUT... My son is FOUR!  Today we celebrated four years of life that have been given to M.  I think I need to put everything else on hold and capture this moment to write, because I want to be able to treasure all the memories of M now and you all know that this is my scrapbook. 

When I reflect on M's start to life I am just so in awe of how far he has come.  He came so close to death and now he is so full of life.  God has sustained him from the moment of his conception and we are grateful. 

As I prepared to write this post I looked back on the posts from August 2012.  I am amazed by how much M has changed in the last year. 

M is chatty! His verbal skills have increased dramatically.  He talks and talks and talks.  He has good articulation and can tell LONG stories using many big words.  He loves new vocabulary.  He will work hard to sneak an "apparently" into a sentence.

M is a storyteller.  Most of his stories have to do with his imaginary friend "Jacob Nelson."  Jacob often does the same things that M does.  Jacob's mom lets him to so many more things than M.  ;) M has never blamed Jacob for his wrong choices so that is a plus. 

M is STRONG.  He has learned to pedal very well in the last year.  He pedals his princess hand-me-down bike with pride.  We live in a hilly area and I continue to be amazed at his leg strength to get up some pretty big hills.   His will is even stronger than his muscles. This is helpful at times because he is determined to do something and then does it.  This is harmful at times because he is pretty sure the world is created for his sole pleasure and he is more or less in charge of all people and things. We remind ourselves frequently that this will sustained his life that first year and then we realize how very thankful we are for it. 

M is a (pre)reader.  No, he can't read yet.  He can identify letters, but not words.  He is not super motivated to do that right now, but we will get there.  He LOVES to be read to (this isn't new this year).  He has started listening to chapter books.  He often points out letters on pages so I know he is starting to make connections.  His love for books makes my heart glad. 

M is a night owl and a morning lark!  He still wakes up a couple of times a night.  He also loves to wake up early.  I think he has figured out he can get in some quality "mommy time" before T wakes up if he just wakes up early enough.  He still takes (and needs) an afternoon nap.  I am so thankful for this.  Before we brought home T we were able to leave the room before he fell asleep, but there has been a lot of sleep regression with M and we are now in "sleep training" at our house.  M sleeps in both a double bed and a crib.  Yes, I am admitting it.  He does sleep in a crib.  He likes sleeping in a crib.  When he no longer does that is OK, but for now we are going with what he is most comfortable with.  Because he is much shorter than his peers he has plenty of room in there and it provides the cozy feeling he craves. 

M still loves to cuddle.  He is my cuddly little man.  He will cozy up while reading books, when he is sleepy, or really any other time.  I know the cuddle days with boys are limited to he knows when he asks for a cuddle I will tell him yes. 

M is a big eater!  This is another huge change from last year.  He is finally eating more foods, many more foods.  He loves casserole.  He would like to eat it every day if I let him.  He likes most things with ground beef or chicken.  He is not a fan of beef roast or steak, but otherwise will eat most meats.  He very rarely (maybe twice a month) will eat lentils or split peas.  I think they are still comfort foods for him, but his taste buds have expanded in huge ways.  I am so thankful for this.  He loves to snack on chips and popcorn and Rice Chex and Lara Bars whenever he gets a chance.

M is a video junky.  You are all saying WHAT????  right now, right?  Well, it is sort of true.  He wishes he could watch you tube videos forever I am pretty sure.  He does get to watch them a few days a week.  He likes "Sidewalk Cops" and "Curious George" and "Nothing but the Blood" the best. He does have a few DVD's that he gets to watch on Sunday mornings so I can shower and get ready. 

M likes sports.  Today he received a baseball glove and ball.  He also received a soccer ball.  I am surprised the mitt didn't go up to bed with him.  He has taken it everywhere today.  He is so proud of his "real" glove.  He has quite a throwing arm with both the baseball and the football.  He also love to play basket ball in our basement.  He can kick the soccer ball well and run fast too.  We tried to get him in to soccer this summer, but we found out about it way too late... there is always next summer.

M likes music.  His life is seriously a rock opera of sorts.  He sings most things that others just say.  He breaks out into song randomly throughout the day.  He has fallen in love with the Classical Conversations CD's (another post about this soon hopefully) and can regularly be heard singing the Presidents of the United States and history sentences like, "Taxes, slavery, unemployment and diseases all contributed to the fall of Rome." These were just about the only CD's we listened to on our recent road trips (yes, I said trips... I will blog about your recent one soon). I wondered what the people in the rest stops thought of the songs he was singing as he was in the bathroom. 

M is social.  M loves having friends over.  He plays with L several days a week.  They fight like brothers, but they sure miss each other when they are not around. M really enjoys the other children in our Friday night group.  Even though they are a variety of ages, they all get along very well with each other and enjoy each other's company.  M longs for "parties" so he can play with them.  M loves our neighbors.  He is the neighborhood watch and has no problem striking up a question filled conversation with any neighbor he sees.

M needs lots of encouragement from me.  Since we returned home from Ch!na M has become "velcro child" pretty frequently.  I know we added a lot of "rocks to his pile" when we left him and then added a sibling.  He often reflects on us "leaving him" with sadness.  He does not like it when I have to go to a meeting or leave the house to go to the store.  Recently Brandon has started putting him to bed.  I am noticing a positive shift in M the longer Brandon does this.  He is relearning that Brandon is OK too.  Maybe before too long he will remember that others can care for him too. 

M is a big brother.  I know he loves his sister so much.  I am pretty sure he would be lost without her.  She makes him laugh and cry every day.  He has not wished she would leave in a while so I think he might be forgetting that there was a time before she was around.  He is finally starting to adjust to sharing me... most of the time.  He takes great care of T and wants to be a big helper when ever he can be.  He "watches" T when I run upstairs to get something, and I can tell that he takes it seriously. 

M is loved.  I will never forget the ache of leaving him when we went to Ch!na in January and I will never forget the deep urge I had to sprint through the airport to get back to him.  He is my son.  He is cherished and cared for to the best of my abilities.  He is loved by our neighbors and our church family and friends.  He is loved by our family and our extended families.  More than anything he is loved by his Creator and Life Sustainer.  That God found me worthy to be his mom is a wonder I will always be in awe of.

OK... enough of that sappy stuff...
Today for M's Birthday we did many special things.  We took many photos and a blog will be up about them at some point.  I wished him a Happy Birthday when he woke up this morning and he asked, "Am I really 4?"  He has been waiting and waiting.  I decorated last night and he was excited to see everything when we got downstairs.  We celebrated his Birthday with my family when we were there so he actually said, "Yep, you got it right, but how come we didn't have the big '4' at Grandma Kathy's?" I guess now he expects signs and streamer.  Funny guy.  He then wanted me to change the "4" on the wall to look like "the one on the phone" and not the one with three straight lines.

We had pancakes for breakfast even though  it wasn't Saturday.  I made him a tow truck pancake that was so big he had to eat it on a meat platter.  He played outside and then came in to open presents.  I made the mistake of getting wrapping paper than doesn't tear and really sticky tape so Brandon ended up doing a lot of the unwrapping... maybe I didn't have to stay up until 11:00 pm last night wrapping after all. 

After presents our friends Charissa and L came over and we played here and then did a little walk and park time.  We went to lunch with L and his family at M's favorite place.  They sang to him and it was great. 

M took a good nap and opened cards then went to the park with T and Daddy.  We had casserole and pumpkin pie for supper.  M never tired of people singing to him!  After dinner we took a walk and then after T went to bed M and I watched an episode of "The Pond" together.  We both enjoyed it.  He didn't get to sleep until near 9:30, but I think he had a super day. 

In other four year reflections...
It is hard to believe we have now lived here for exactly four years.  Our time has gone so quickly, yet when I think about all that has changed and all the ways we have changed it makes sense that we have been here this long.  We continue to be in awe of what God is doing at church and even more we stand in awe of the Gospel! 

So many blessings to reflect on... OK, now to clean up the dinner dishes (oh yea and the lunch and breakfast ones too).