We had a great time celebrating Jack's fourth birthday here at home with Anthony and in Pearland with family. We have a tradition that every other year each child gets a big birthday party and on the off year it is a family party. This year was kind of a bonus for Jack because we were traveling over his real birthday and ended up with quite a nice crowd of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents to join in the celebrating. Before we left town we celebrated with Anthony so technically he got two parties...not sure the off year really happened.
I have given up on wasting my time on baking and decorating cake for Jack. He doesn't really care for it, but eats it when there is nothing else going on. That is never the case on his own birthday so when I make him cake he won't eat it. This year I went easy on myself and filled a Spider Man cup with Skittles. I found four long candles that stayed up nicely and voila! He was thrilled. After he blew out the candles we handed Skittles out to everyone. Easy deal. Happy child. Happy mom. :)
Here he is with the plasma car Nana and Pops bought him.
Jack has been looking forward to turning 4 for a long time. As the birthday approached he would tell people he was "almost 4, and then 5, and then 6, and then 7." Sometimes he tells me he is 9 for the day. Now that he is 4, he is very concerned that I remove all size 3 clothing from his drawers. He checks with me in the mornings, "is this shirt a 4 mom?" After being assured that the shirt is his age he will dress.
Anthony picked cowboy gear out for him this year. Jack is all about getting into character.
Some of my favorite current things Jack does:
1. Add "really super" in front of his adjectives. Things are really super big, funny, scary, gross, etc.
2. Ask me to sing "I Am a Child of God" every. single. night. Really, I like it.
3. Sings "I Am a Child of God" to Millie when she is crying.
4. Spontaneously tells me he loves me. Middle of the day. Middle of a store. Wherever.
5. Wears his leather belt over his play clothes almost every day. It's an excellent gun/sword spot.
6. Runs and jumps faster and higher in new running shoes.
7. Sits on the curb and watches the high school boys across the street play basketball.
8. Has kung fu fights with the living room furniture, sound effects included.
The list keeps growing! Obviously Jack is endless fun. I missed him so much when I was in the hospital. His sweet voice telling me it was "morning time" was my first thought most days. We are so blessed to have Jack in our family and can't wait to see what this year of being "almost 5" holds.
