Baron's Happy Birthday

My Bear is a 4 year old! I can hardly believe it. I think it is more weird for me to have my younger kids getting older than my older kids. Does that make sense?

Anyway, we had a great day. He chose sugary crepes, sausage, and bananas for breakfast. My sweet mom-in-law made it while I wrapped his birthday gifts. Because of our plan to go to the beach, we decided to do gifts in the morning, much to Baron's happiness. (I usually let them open one gift in the morning and then make them wait until that evening to open the rest.)

After breakfast, he got right to opening.He receievd a new swimsuit, a card game, pokemon, angry bird, and super mario brothers toys, and beach toys from Andy and me and his siblings. My parents got him a racetrack (oh the excitement!) and he received many cards in the mail with money from great grandparents, aunts, and uncles. He was a lucky lucky boy.

Laylah and I decorated for his party and then we got ready to head to the beach. After we got home,

we had dinner, Bear's pick of pizza (bacon topped) and soda (orange Fanta, naturally)

While we all showered, grandma put the finishing touches on Bear's haunted house birthday cake. He has been asking for a haunted house birthday cake for months, ever since my mom gave the kids a spooky haunted house wii game for Valentine's Day. I was a little worried how I was going to accomplish this, and then we found out Andy's parents would be here. His mom is an extremely talented cake decorator, so it immedietly put my mind at ease. I figured I would bake a regular cake, and she would be able to come up with a way to decorate it.

Well, let me tell you how above and beyond she went. She brought her special pan and decorating stuff with her, baked the cake, and assembled it (yes, she made a 3D cake. Awesome!) and then did a fabulous job decorating it, including spooky trees and a graveyard. Bear couldn't have been happier. I hope next year's request isn't quite so complicated!

He also got to open one more gift from Andy's parents, and his day of celebration was complete.

He was a happy happy 4 year old boy (except in this last picture.... he was DONE with pictures for the day, ha!)

Baron at 4:

Baron is a big boy. He always has been, and I'm sure he always will be. People always think he's at least 2 years older than he is, just based on his size. He has outweighed Daphne for a couple years now. He hasn't passed her in height, but he's close, within a couple inches. Along with his big size, comes a big appetite. He loves food and loves to eat. He's a terrific eater, and will basically eat anything I place in front of him. His favorites are bananas, apples, oatmeal, cereal, eggs, pancakes, crepes, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, artichokes, mushrooms, turkey sandwiches, yogurt, cheese, raisins, pasta, and any meat. He takes after his mama and loves sweets. Cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy-he loves it all. I'm taking him in this week for his well child check-up. I'm interested to see how much he's grown since last year. He has only gained a few pounds in the last year, but he has shot up and is getting so tall. He's finally started to thin out, but he is still a solid kid. I have a really hard time lifting him anymore.

Baron is pretty challenging right now. He throws a lot of tantrums and spends some time almost every day in time out. It is almost impossible to negotiate with him. When he makes up his mind, he will cry and cry and cry to get his way. Even when he knows I will not give in, he will still whine about it hours later. He is very picky about his clothes. Certain things will "bug" him. In fact, he probably says that phrase about 10 times a day, "But it's bugging me!" and I just respond, "I know, I'm sorry." He also has a few little chores every day and sometimes it is the hugest challenge just to get him to do them. Other days, it's not a problem at all. He is a pretty moody kid, either very happy, or very grumpy. There's really no in between. I am still hoping he will grow out of this tricky and often frustrating phase.

Even with the frustrations though, we still have fun days together at home. His favorite things to do are play the wii, play computer games, and watch tv. Because of his passion for these things, we make deals (if he reads 3 books with me, he can watch 1 show on tv). He gets a 30 minute time limit on video games, and he only gets to choose either wii or computer for the day, not both. He loves to jump on the tramp and play outside, especially with Jonah, whom he idolizes. Baron will copy any and everything Jonah does. Bear loves to ride his bike and scooter, and play at the park. He likes to look for bugs outside, and he recently started soccer and he likes it okay, but he doesn't love it. He has really enjoyed his playgroup this year, and is finally looking forward to starting preschool in the fall. He and Magnus play together once in awhile, but I think Magnus is just a little too young for him still. He mostly gets frustrated that M is touching his stuff or "wrecking" his games when he's playing with toys. He loves to listen to his ipod, especially during his naps (which he still takes nearly every day) and he loves to be read to.

Bear is hilarious and has an amazing knack for memorizing. He is constantly cracking us up with his funny one-liners. One day we were at Costco and he saw a really hairy man with a long beard. He stared at him for a minute and then looked at me and said, "I feel bad for that man." I asked him why and he said, "Well, I don't think he has enough money for a shaver (razor). Look at his beard!" Another time, I made his sandwich on my whole grain bread (you know, the kind with seeds and grains baked into the bread) because I was out of the smooth wheat that I usually use for the kids. I noticed him picking at it before eating it, and I went over to see him trying to pick out every little grain and seed off the bread. When I asked what he was doing, he replied, "Oh, I'm just picking these boogers off of the bread before I eat it." Funny boy.

Bear is so much fun, and I love seeing him grow and learn every day. I can hardly believe in a little over a year he'll be going off to kindergarten and leaving me all day long. He's grown up so much and he is such a perfect addition to our family. We love you Bear, happy 4th birthday!