4 Years Old!

It's official, James is 4 years old! I can't believe it has been 4 years since I became a mom and met James for the first time.  It has been pretty incredible to watch James grow and change these past 4 years into the wonderful boy that he is today. He loves to imagine, play pretend, dress up, build things, be read to and play with friends. He gets frustrated easily, is very sensitive and has a hard time saying goodbye. He loves cereal for breakfast, snacks all day long, and sweet treats (especially ice cream). He acts shy when he first sees people but warms up quickly and loves to act crazy and silly with his friends. He loves to sing and can sing pretty much any song in tune and remembers all the lyrics after only hearing it a few times. He is curious about absolutely everything and asks 17 million questions a day. He loves his daddy and his little brother like crazy. He loves to snuggle and often tells me, "I have a long list of things to do today," and snuggle is the first thing on his list. James is constantly amazing me with the things he knows, remembers and thinks about. James is an amazing little boy and I am so, so lucky and proud that he is mine.

                                               

We of course had our big birthday celebration a couple of weeks ago with his superhero birthday party, but there were still plenty of surprises and excitement for James yesterday on his actual birthday. He woke up to balloons and a presents-a few little Lego sets. James is amazing at building with blocks and his big Duplo Legos. He has been talking about little Legos for weeks and how he can't wait until he is in Kindergarten so he can play with little Legos. We decided to start off his real Lego collection a little early and have implemented many rules and tactics to try to keep the 405 teeny tiny pieces out of the mouth of a certain baby. We will see how successful we are....

James was thrilled with the little Lego people that came with the sets and literally spent 2 straight hours by himself sitting at the table playing with thema and creating elaborate stories complete with dialogue.

 The Birthday Boy and his little brother.

Yesterday was a school day for James, so Mac and I joined him for lunch at school (black bean soup, brown rice, avocado, zucchini from their garden and apples), and watched his birthday ceremony.

                                                                          
James held the globe and walked around the candle (the sun) 4 times to represent his 4 years on the Earth.
                             

 Last night we had all of the Nichols over for pizza and ice cream cake and more presents. I don't think there is a superhero toy left that James doesn't own.

The Nichols cousins-since James wasn't technically 4 until 10:55 pm, they are ages 4, 3, 2, 1 in this picture.

 James requested an ice cream cake with guys on it-we delivered.

 Happy Birthday James! Thank you for making me a Mama. It is the most rewarding, difficult, frustrating, and enjoyable job I could ever imagine :-)