Charlie Turned Four!

How is that my little baby boy is four?  Four?  That sounds really old.  I keep telling him to stop growing up…..he keeps smiling at me and telling me, “no, mom….I'm gonna to grow up.”  And he’s doing just that.

He had a great birthday.  Full of pampering by me and Hazel all day.  He wanted blueberry everything all day, so after his breakfast of blueberries and bacon we went to the lego store in the morning where we got him his very own “lego battery” (a motor and gear set that he can use to make his legos move).  He’s been wishing for one of these so that he can be cool like his big boy friend Ezra.  I was a little worried about the price and all the little pieces getting lost on the car ride home, let alone in our house and the fact that the employee at the store said he was way too young for this.  Before dinner he blessed the food and asked Heavenly Father to please help him not to loose any pieces of his battery.  I have to say, he’s done a pretty good job with them and has already created a lot of crazy inventions from windmills to propellers to lego people who spin round and round.  

He got to go to school on his birthday and bring “blueberry” cupcakes for his school friends.  They made him a special birthday crown and he came out beaming. 

We had a great little family birthday party that evening and he opened the rest of his presents.  I messed up by giving Jeff so many random little presents a few weeks ago for his birthday....Charlie had expectations of a lot of presents to open….so, I did just what we did for Jeff, wrap up a lot of food items (most of which we had on hand) for Charlie.  I’m so proud that some of his favorite presents were a box of grape tomatoes and some red pepper soup (no ding dongs for this boy….).  He really isn’t a great eater, but will eat tomatoes and peppers till the cows come home. Hazel was, as always, a delightful little birthday helper.  She did nice little things for him all day long and wrapped up several of her own precious things to give to Charlie.    By far the most exciting gift was the Electric set that Grandma and Grandpa Shumway sent for Charlie.  Grandpa Shumway made one of these for Jeff as a kid to teach him about electricity and now has made one for Charlie (including some vintage pieces from Jeff’s set).  I don’t know who is more in love with this present, me or Charlie or Jeff or even hazel.  I love that it’s unique and vintage and educational.  Charlie loves that he can manipulate stuff and make loud sounds.  Jeff loves that he can feel like a kid again all under the guise of being a wonderful teacher/father to his kids.  Oh, and he found a way to use it to control the kids…..as Charlie opened his gifts Jeff switched the light on when it was time for a new present and sounded the buzzer when Charlie forgot to show appropriate gratitude.    I think we’re going to find all kinds of uses for this set.   

Things I love about my four year old right now:

- He’s tough and rough and loud and crazy but underneath it all he is tender and kind and wants to do the right thing.

- he is a great big and little brother.  he makes emmeline laugh like nobody’s business and follows hazel around like a champ

-he has such a quick little brain.  he gets things and is always trying to work out how things work….from electricity, to legos, to buildings, to plants, to animals, to people, to the world. 

-he is handsome.  is it just me, or is this kid exceptionally good looking?

-somehow he is charming and endearing even when he’s mad as can be.  it’s really rare that he gets under my skin.

-he’s the best super diaper boy ever.  whenever I change emmeline I always throw the packaged up dirty diaper at Charlie and exclaim “diaper boy to the rescue!” and he races around to get that smelly thing contained in a trash can somewhere.  he takes this job very seriously.

-he’s not the most obedient boy, mostly because he get’s so darn interested in one particular thing that he doesn’t even hear me talking to him.  i love that his brain is so curious and interested about the world.

-he gives the worlds best hug

-he is easy going as ever.  most of the time he’ll just drop things and when he sticks to his guns, you know he has a good reason.

-he still has that deep throaty giggle that endeared me to him as a baby

-he is everything I felt he’d be as I thought about him hours before his birth.  this child has a good soul.  I'm so incredibly thankful to be his mom.