Four!

I sat on Marley's floor reading my book by flashlight the other night as he laid in bed. He was quiet and I looked up to see if he had fallen asleep. I saw him smiling up at the ceiling and kind of chewing on his fingernails. I asked him what he was thinking about and he said, "I'm just so excited about my birthday!"

So far, I have a love-hate relationship with age four. It's the age of genius and invention. Imagination and innovation. Recently he described to us something he wanted to build: A machine that grabs milk and gets it down for kids who can't reach. Today he told us that he'd like to ride in a basket being pulled by an airplane so he could see all around. Later, he said he wished that he was born before us so that he could see what it was like to be a grown up (we would be his kids).

But, four is also the age of exuberance and energy.  Boundary testing and being LOUD.  Sometimes by the end of the day, I'm literally covering my ears while he talks.  When Jeff gets home I beg him to do bath time because the echo in there is just too much for me to take!  He's also trying to figure out what we know and don't know.  The other morning he poured an entire box of cereal into and around Amelia's bowl when I left to use the bathroom.  He told me Amelia did it.  When I asked him how, he said she turned into a robot and used her long robot arm to grab the cereal box and pour it in.

Some other things about 4-year-old Marley:
*His favorite colors are green and blue (he still likes pink, "but only a little").
*Despite the fact that pink is no longer his favorite color, he still needs his pink dolphin, Shamir, and Shamir's best friend, Giraffe, to fall asleep at night.
*He loves climbing and is always the highest one in the tree after preschool each day.
*He wants to be able to go across the monkey bars really badly and practices every chance he gets.
*He pays attention to the words when I read to him and wants to know which word says what.  He loves pointing out words that he knows.
*He is making connections between words and sounds.  He wanted to know how the word "up" could start with a "u" instead of an "a" because it sounds just like the beginning of "Amelia", and that starts with an "a".
*He can fingerspell his name and a few other words.
*He's very interested in the natural world: Volcanoes, space, deep sea, dinosaurs (our new favorite show is PBS's Dinosaur Train).
*He loves looking at maps.  He always wants to know where we are on every map.
*He enjoys taking pictures.  He often asks for his camera (an old digital one of ours) when he sees something he wants to photograph.  I've been meaning to post some of his pictures.  Note to self: do that.
*He loves his little sister and shares everything with her.
*He likes to draw and wants things to turn out exactly as they appear in real life.
*He really got into planning his birthday this year, and for weeks before wanted to know how many more days until he was four.  One of his requests was a cake with "toys on top that you can wash off and play with afterward".
*He likes to play with his wooden train set, cash register, board/card games, dress up stuff, and puppets (among other things).
*He wears size 4T clothing and size 11 shoes.  He weighs 39 lbs (75th percentile) and is 41.5 inches tall (80th percentile).

Here is some of the action from Marley's birthday.  Enjoy!

Marley's lovely gift opening assistants, Jada and Cindy.

A crazy ice cream cake made even crazier with Dinosaur Train figures on top.

Testing out the stomp rocket in the back yard.