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!