Four Years {Riley}

My baby boy is four years old today. FOUR. That’s almost one whole hand old!

At the age of four Riley weighs 38.4 pounds and stands 42.5 inches tall. He wears a 4-5T in shirts, a 3-4T in pants, and a size 10-10.5 shoe. I take both boys to Dr. N in a few weeks for their next round of check-ups, and I am very interested to see what their percentages are.

Here’s his new and improved birthday interview. I loved hearing how much some of his answers changed from last year.

So what can I say about my four-year-old on the occasion of his birthday? He is still headstrong and stubborn, that’s for sure. Once he gets it in his head to say something or do something, there’s very little stopping him. On the other hand, he is very sweet and caring, telling us “I love you” all the time.

His other favorite phrase is “I have to tell you something.” He says this many, many, MANY times throughout the day. It can be very important or it can be extremely mundane. (Mostly it’s the latter.)

He loves his brother but sometimes doesn’t realize he has to be more careful with him. They love “racing” around the house with their ride-on toys, but Riley often gets a little carried away and pushes Rory out of the way, occasionally knocking him down. And he doesn’t want to share all the time but he ultimately is very accommodating to his little brother. I have to just remind myself that he’s only four and he’s still learning, too.

He is not quite as adventurous with his food choices these days, but he is very good about trying at least one bite. I am so proud of him for that.

His imagination is becoming more and more vivid. In the past few months he has started talking about monsters coming to get him, which in all likelihood stems from what he watches on tv. But he is also making up different scenarios while he plays, and some of them are very detailed and specific, which impresses me to no end.

He loves making plans. He will outline the next few things on his agenda while in the middle of something else or even plan out what he wants to do later in the day.

He loves playing bad guys, especially with Jack at school. This apparently involves chasing the “creepy girls” and trying to “knock down the tree” in the schoolyard. He has actually gotten a couple of time-outs because of this, but we’ve talked with him about it and we’re hoping the bad behavior stops.

He still loves him some trucks.

We aren’t sure he is taking a nap at school, but when he’s at home he does nap pretty well. And he still sleeps great at night, although sometimes it seems like he’s not ready to go to bed at 7:30. He went through a little phase when he wanted to sleep with his door open, but it didn’t last very long.

He’s been talking a lot about heaven lately, possibly because they’ve talked about it at school. He got a little emotional at the dinner table one night, telling me he didn’t want to go to heaven because he would miss his toys. And he didn’t think God would let him bring Giraffey and Blanket with him since they’re only toys and they’re not real. Gulp. I’m still trying to figure out how best to respond when he talks about this, but I basically told him that heaven was not a scary place and that maybe God has toys up there but that I hoped he wouldn’t have to go to heaven for a very long time. Wow.

He and I have been butting heads a bit lately. He doesn’t always listen to me, which frustrates me to no end. And he sometimes says hurtful things towards me. Even though I know I shouldn’t take them to heart, I do. When he tells me “I don’t want you to be my mama” and “I want to put you on top of the garbage truck” and “you’re the meanest mama ever” I can’t help but get a little upset.

He amazes me with how observant he is and how well he speaks and what words he uses. We may have some trouble with handwriting, but he really is so smart and I am loving watching his brain continue to develop.

He came into our lives four years ago, on August 30, 2010, at 5:03pm. And we are so grateful that he did. It is our pleasure to know him and to be his parents. We love you, Riley-bean!