4 Years Old

On September 29th, Ryan turned 4-years-old and started a near week-long celebration of his birthday!  He got to celebrate at preschool, out to eat with family, then on the actual day with a big donut breakfast and my parents in town visiting.  The following day we had a family dinner and opened more presents.  By the next week, he kept asking to make sure there weren't anymore birthday events planned--or presents we forgot to give him! 

Ryan loves all things sports and was thrilled with a new frisbee, wiffle balls, and his own tennis racket.  He loves playing catch outside with Dad and lights up every time there is mention of going to the driving range at the golf course. 

His love for Legos is still going strong too and he'll build for hours during the day while Jack is at school.

Aunt Jenny made him a Lego pinata and he scored more fun gifts from his cousins.  Grandma DeWitt gave him an early gift she made that we'll share pictures of next week for Halloween.  Jack and Ryan are going to be two very well-dressed pirates!

Ryan is so much fun and cracks me up on a daily basis.  He's so talkative (around us--pretty quiet around others though) and asks me dozens of questions every day.  Some are questions about what the plan is for the day or what time does Jack get home..., then he likes to ask lots of hypothetical questions like who would win--Batman or Spiderman?  Or which would win--rain or the trees?  It doesn't matter how well-thought my answer is--I always choose wrong and he tells me why.  Sometimes I have to tell him no more questions for a while so I don't go crazy!  My favorite though is when he asks, "Mom, when we get home later, will you play with me?"  Once we took the boys to a movie and about halfway through, Ryan leans over and whispers loudly, "Dad, when we get home, will you play with me?"

Ryan also has a fiery temper and you don't want to cross him when he's in a bad mood!  We've broken up many a fight between him and Jack and we're working on him not shouting when he gets upset.  We've discovered he can be kind of a worry-wart and gets nervous when someone borrows something of ours for example.  He'll ask when we're getting it back and what if they forget.  Same with Lola when we have someone else watch her--what if, what if...!  One night we were outside and a big gust of wind picked up some toys and they were blowing around the yard.  I grabbed our plastic pool to put in the garage and Ryan starts racing after every belonging he can see and freaking out that the wind will take something before he can pick it all up.  We keep telling him it's fine, we'll get it all, but he was so upset and just kept crying, "WIND, WIND, WIND." It was sad and cute at the same time.

Ryan has always been my good eater and willing to try new things, but recently he's become pretty picky.  Not picky like Jack where he doesn't like a lot of things, but picky where he can't see any seasonings or there can't be any grill marks or "black" or he won't eat it.  He inspects his food very carefully before deciding it's safe to go in his mouth.

Ryan is very opinionated and likes to do things a certain way.  He does not want any input on what he wears and it takes some convincing to at least choose matching clothes before we leave the house.  He's very stubborn for me, but will do pretty much anything his dad asks!  I guess we're too alike and butt heads.  He also prefers to sleep on the floor next to his bed instead of in it, but I stopped trying to change his mind on that long ago.

I love my middle child and all his quirks.  He's so silly and smart and such a good big brother and little brother.  Happy 4th Birthday Ryan!