Happy fourth birthday, Ford!

These are a few of my favorite pictures from the last year:































Ford had his fourth birthday party at My Gym with about 20 friends.  It was Ninja Turtle themed, although that really only applied to the invitations and cupcakes.

  

Ford came home from his party and passed out.  Margot thought it was funny and imitated.

Pissed he was given a Leonardo cupcake instead of Donatello.   

Ford at four:

• His personality is definitely a mix of both Jamie and me.  He's silly and funny and is definitely not shy, but he's also introspective, and isn't going to be the most outgoing in a group of kids.  He has friends and plays well with other kids, but also enjoys doing things by himself.  He's meticulous, observant, cautious, and logical.  He has a great sense of humor.  He's happy and upbeat.
• He is super loving.  Every morning at school when he says goodbye he says, "Have a great day!"  He'll say, "I need to whisper something in your ear," which is always, "woah woah woah I love you most woah woah woah."  He gives tons of unsolicited kisses and hugs.
• He talks.  A lot.  About everything.  He asks questions.  A lot.  I'm sure every parent of a toddler says this, but his teachers at school have verified that Ford is The Asker.
• He's a great big brother.  He thinks Margot is hilarious, and has never (knock on wood) been jealous or envious of her.  He shares.  He always wants to include her, and she tries to imitate everything he does.  At dinner he'll get her to mimic tasks like "clap your hands" or "pat your head" or "say da-da;" he loves teaching her.  They have nightly dance parties together; Margot's favorite song is "Uptown Funk," which Ford says he doesn't like (his favorites are on the chalkboard in the photo above), but that we should play it because he knows Margot likes it.
• He is a good, easy kid.  Throughout his life I've seen other kids melt the eff down in public or be little jerks.  Not that he doesn't have his moments, but they're much less frequent, and with much less intensity, than I see with other kids his age.  E.g We didn't have friends bring gifts to his birthday party, explained that he has more than enough things and would get gifts from family, and he understood (which was a happy surprise for me since we take gifts to all of his friends' birthdays).  E.g. We were at an Off 5th outlet store a couple of weekends ago and there was a big candy display by the register.  He said, "Mommy, look at all those candies.  We don't need those though, because they're not good for us."  If I wasn't there I'd say that sounds too good to be true.
• On that note, he understands eating and drinking well, and is a pretty good eater.  He knows we don't buy certain cereals on the cereal aisle, and he understands why and is okay with it.  He won't eat salad or tomatoes or brussels sprouts, so we don't push them, but he does understand he eats a green vegetable at at least one meal every day.  And he's all-around healthy; we've been so incredibly lucky that the worst he's been through is a double ear infection and one case of a stomach bug (during which I learned Jamie's gag reflex is extremely weak), and those were over a year ago now.
• He's learning to read and write.  He knows his letters and letter sounds, and knows some sight words.  He knows some basic addition and subtraction from 1 to 10.  He can write his name. He understands the color wheel.  He just finished his first set of swim lessons and would be able to swim on his own if he had a little more confidence.  He loves music, pays attention to and learns lyrics (which is both good and bad), and has a good sense of rhythm.  He's starting to play pretty complex Wii games (compared to the simple NES controllers of my youth).  He hasn't had an accident at night for months (a pretty big feat for a boy, I think), and I'll hear him get up to use the bathroom on his own at 1 in the morning, in the dark, quietly so he won't wake anyone else.  He brushes his own teeth, and picks out his clothes and dresses himself, and washes himself in the bathtub, and sets the table, and goes in the backyard to play by himself, and all of the things that come along with a toddler becoming an independent kid.  And it's incredible and it's exciting and it's heartbreaking.

I'm such a sappy mess about the loss of the threes because it was a particularly stellar year in a child's life that's been nothing but.  I said to Ford on his birthday that I was kinda sad that he was growing up, and he said, "Don't worry, I'm just a little bit big.  And when I get really big, we'll still be best friends."  It was so sweet, and he said it with such sincerity, but it just made me sadder because I knew it wasn't true.  My mom told me this super sugary sweetness lasted with my brother until around age 5, and it kills me to think that I have one more year, give or take, of him not worrying about whether kissing mommy is uncool.  I'll take everything I can get until then.  Every stage of his life so far that I've been saddened as it's ended has been replaced by one that's even better.  Still, I'm sure that years from now when I look back I'll remember these days as some of the best.