Bennett at 4

Things about you at 4 years old:

• We had a deal that once you turned 4, you would have to learn how to change your shirt yourself.  Up until now I have helped you with that part of getting dressed because it was hard for you.  But I had you practice one small part each day, and within a month you were doing it on your own without complaint.  As a bonus, you also figured out how to put your sandals on yourself!  I know many other kids your age have been dressing themselves for a while, but you never showed interest in that and I never pushed it past pants/undies so that you could do that yourself when you went potty.  You do still need help with trickier shirts or ones with tighter necks, but most days if it's just play clothes I can pick out clothes for you in the morning and give them to you and you do the rest (I'm not going to tell you to pick out your own clothes yet. . .you don't care, so I'd rather you be dressed the way I want on any given day!)
• You still love cooking with me and are eager to pull up a chair to make. . .whatever!  Treats, baked goods, entrees, smoothies. . .
• You still wake up right around 7am and go to sleep around 7:30pm.  You like to fall asleep to music, either Disney songs, Enya, or Inside Out church music. You go down without a fuss, but ever since we got back from New York in January (!) you have more often than not snuck into our bed at some point during the night.  We don't usually wake up when this happens so we don't realize until morning.  Now that you're 4 we'll start working on that, but honestly I totally get it!  All the rest of us are in our bedroom together so you want to join in!
• I've been working hard to raise you on much healthier foods than I ate growing up.  You don't have treats too often, almost never have store-bought juice/soda, and you handled our whole-grain conversion very well.  You love whole grain pitas and waffles.  You don't like many veggies besides carrots and corn but you do like many kinds of fruit.
• You do this cute loud "licking your lips" thing whenever I offer you a food you love.  Most often you do it in reference to things I've made myself (right now, zucchini bread) so I'll take that as a compliment!
• Some of the other 4 year olds in the neighborhood figured out how to ride real bikes this summer, but you aren't even that interested in your Glider bike so I suspect it'll be a couple more years.
• Your favorite things to play are superhero dress up (you like to be the villain), action figures, and Legos.
• You love to travel to different places and go on airplanes.  Which is great since we travel with you quite a lot!
• You hum and sing to yourself all the time while you're playing.
• You are figuring out jokes although your own made-up jokes are your favorite.
• You are very in-tune with Aria and bring her up in casual conversation all the time - drawing a picture that includes all of us, making lists of people who are part of your game, including her in jokes, etc.
• You are still very snuggly with me which is awesome!!  

You are just an awesome kid and I brag about you all the time!  For the most part you are pretty easy which makes it so that we have more time to have fun together!  We are best buddies!

3 1/2

A few things about you at this age:

• Your favorite toys are superheroes and trains.  You also have started to play around with board games.  You can play Candy Land correctly and enjoy it.  You don't really like any of the other toddler games we have.  You will play around with the pieces for Battleship, Blokus, Labyrinth, and Ticket to Ride.
• You started SUNBEAMS a couple weeks ago!  I can't believe you're that old!  You get bored easily in Sharing Time but do well in class time.
• You like to make up little nonsense songs all the time while you're playing.  Just like Daddy.  It's very cute.
• Your food palate has grown a lot ever since I put my foot down and started making you try one bite of everything at dinner, and a certain amount of veggies before you can leave the table.  For breakfast you usually have either dry cereal, cheesy egg, sausage, or strawberries, and warm milk.  Lunch is usually some combo of mac&cheese (with tuna and corn mixed in), quesadilla, Gogurt, string cheese, oranges.  Dinner is whatever we make to eat as a family.
• You loooove Slurpees.  They are by far your favorite treat.  You were exposed to them late summer and ask for them anytime we see a gas station.  Your other most reliable treat is still the Thai tamarind flavored candies.  
• You are still tiny - 0% for everything.
• You know all your letters (upper case, anyway) and can count to 13.
• You like to snuggle, which definitely has not been the case for most of your life!
• We have very honest conversations with each other and you are learning things quickly.  I try hard to make you feel like you can talk to me about anything - although while still teaching you that some things are only discussed privately.
• You value comedy and are constantly trying things out and asking, "is that funny?" as you try to figure out what exactly makes something funny.
• Probably because of Aria, you notice and like little babies and will usually go say hi to them and baby-talk - but only for a couple seconds, and then you get bored.
• You know how to put on your own undies, pants, and socks.  Most of the time, at least.  
• You love playing games on the iPad and talking to family on Facetime.
• You know all of your uppercase letters and can also tell us what letters everybody's names start with.
• You know most of your shapes. 
• You are a good sleeper again although you do wake up once every few days to go potty during the night.  As always, you wake up promptly at 7am every morning on your own accord.
• You are, and always have been, very friendly to everyone.  Including complete strangers.  We make sure to always keep you in sight!