Jake's fourth birthday!

Jake turned FOUR on Saturday! I can't believe it. He's turning into this little man right in front of my eyes. At four, Jake is...

Affectionate. He's taken to chasing after Deric as Deric is walking out of the house to go to work, and kissing his leg (the highest he can reach!) a few times before he leaves. All this after Deric's hugged and kissed all of us a few times. Its so sweet to see. At breakfast on one of these mornings he asked me, "Mom, did you give Dad a kiss and hug when he left for worK? I did. I don't even know how many cause I didn't count."

CURIOUS. Oh my word, the amount of times I hear "But why?" in a day is too many, honestly. ;) I'm pretty sure that most of the time, Jake doesn't even realize that he's asking me "Why?". But other times I can almost see the gears working in his brain to piece information together. At dinner tonight he asked me why a basketball hoop has two holes in it and we talked it through until he figured out why you need two holes to shoot a ball through it. As tiring as it is for me to answer his questions though, I do hope he keeps a curiosity for life and learning.

Always building. Magna Tiles and K'Nex are at the top of his list but he is definitely drawn to any type of toy he can put together, versus activities like coloring. He seems to have a mathematical bent already so we'll see if that continues as he grows. If it does, soon he'll be teaching me things because math is definitely not a strong suit of mine!

So funny. The things kids say! I asked him yesterday morning if he remembered his dreams and he said, "I basically do not know." Everything is so matter of fact right now! The other day when he and Deric were playing, Jake was crawling on Deric's back and yelling in Deric's ear. Deric said, "Bud, you're yelling in my ear!" And without missing a beat Jake yelled just as loudly, "That's what they're for!"

Keeping track of which foods are healthy and which aren't. He asks me fairly often if a particular food we're eating has sugar in it. If it does, he'll assure me that "Its ok, Mom. We can have sugar sometimes." Last week on Deric's day off, I took Jake to Panera to get a bagel while Deric and Reid were asleep. We ended up getting a cinnamon roll as big as Jake's head and he polished off the majority of it in no time. As we were getting in the car afterwards, he told me that he wanted to have a cinnamon roll for dinner and naturally I told him that we couldn't because its not healthy. He said, "I know what will make them more healthy! We can have a cinnamon roll and then broccoli, cinnamon roll than broccoli!"

A few photos from his birthday...

^^his token face every time we take a pic! 

We hung streamers and got balloons to surprise him in the morning! Breakfast was eggs, bacon and blueberries muffins as requested. He opened his gift from Aunt Foo and immediately got to work building on his new Magna Tile cars. After breakfast we watched a few Looney Tune cartoons (his current favorite, and Deric's too) before heading out to play. The weather was seriously perfect all day Saturday: warm enough to enjoy it but not even a hint of humidity!

^Laughing out loud, probably at some poor cartoon getting hammered over the head ;)

Y'all, these guys are such peas in a pod. I can't get enough of watching them play and interact. Reid is all about Deric these days (he cried so hard when Deric left for work today!). And Deric is such a great dad, always playing and engaged with them. Its no wonder we all adore him.

After lunch, we went to the Aquatic Center in town to play in the pool and both boys were in heaven. Reid was dying to dive headfirst into the water and Jake played hard on the playground. We introduced Jake to the "wazy" river as well. ;)

After swimming, Deric and Jake went to the grandparents' to help lay mulch. Ric and Sherry bought him work gloves and a wheelbarrow and Jake took his job very seriously. He made multiple trips back and forth with mulch, loading the mulch ever so precisely in his wheelbarrow. But first we had to take Reid for a ride!

The day before Jake's birthday I told him how my dad used to say things like "This is the last time you'll eat dinner while you're (x) old...This is the last time you'll go to bed while you're (x) old..." And Jake thought it was so funny. So not only did we do all the "Last times" the day before his birthday, we also thought up plenty of "This is the first time..." all day long on his birthday. (And even a few days after.) Each time he just grins like he doesn't know what to think about it. I think the concept of age and birthdays is still processing in that little brain. ;)

We are so proud of Jake and love him to pieces! And now I have to gear up my emotions for a little brother's first birthday a week from now....(and get started on birthday party prep for later this month!)