To quote my very wise former PEPS Group leader, Mimi Miller: "The days are long, but the years are short."
It doesn't seem like it has already been FOUR YEARS since this day:
I got all nostalgic and stayed up until 2am reading old posts from Hayden's baby blog. http://babylott.blogspott.com Wow, did I really manage to do a new posting every week?! I wish I had the time and energy to keep that up, and I'm glad I have that record of his first year.
So his actual birthday was Friday, but the festivities began on Thursday at preschool where he got to wear his special birthday crown, bring in a special treat for the class, and his teacher, Mrs. Pat, prayed a wonderful prayer blessing over him that brought tears to my eyes.
My mom was visiting this week from Michigan and we wanted to do something fun on Friday, and the weather was spectacular - best day of the year so far! I thought about going to Enchanted Village or Remlinger Farms, but they are only open on the weekends until June. So then the plan was to go to the Family Fun Center in Tukwila. I thought Hayden would really enjoy the bumper cars and other games they have there. It didn't open until noon, so we decided to spend the morning scouting out the community-wide Garage Sale our neighborhood had going on this weekend. About one in every 20th house had a Yard Sale and there was a lot of great stuff. Hayden rode his bike all around and Brooklyn rode in the jogger stroller. We had a lot of fun just walking around the neighborhood, looking for the 'red balloons' and finding super cheap treasures! We got a real, working weed whacker for $5, and Hayden hit a gold mine when we came upon a Hot Wheels collector's 3 giant tubs full of Hot wheels and a ton of other toy trucks and cars for $0.25 each. The man was also a Go-Kart racer so he and Phil exchanged info and Phil is excited at the possibility of getting more into Go-Karting. We were having so much fun and enjoying the low-budget excursion, that we decided to forgo the Family Fun Center altogether and keep garage saling. Who knew that would be the highlight of Hayden's 4th birthday?!
That evening, we capped it off with a night out at good ol' Chuck E Cheese, where Hayden (who doesn't like Pizza!) ate from the Salad Bar and liked putting tokens in any game he could! He and Brooklyn both enjoyed the evening and we all returned home with our complimentary germs that became colds the next day. Of course. The price you pay for fun.
The next day was his big birthday party (despite the onset of sneezes and sniffles). We did a Monster Truck theme with lots of fun decorations, a Monster Truck coloring craft project, a pinata (pull-string kind!) and a big chocolate cake with a monster truck on top.
Hayden received several fantastic and thoughtful gifts highlighted by a new Razor scooter AND a new bike.
Plus a VERY special gift from my sister - she painted a portrait of his beloved 'Doggie', which is extra special coming from her because Hayden always loves to paint with her when she comes to babysit and he even nicknamed her 'murky' because he asks her to change the water every time he cleans off his paint brush! Too precious!
And his 4 year doctor checkup went great. He's 42.5" tall and almost 40 lbs. (He actually was over 40 lbs a few weeks ago before having the stomach flu for over a week!) He's still tall for his age (75th percentile) but 50th percentile for weight. Over 40 inches, 40 lbs, 4 years old. How 'bout that?!
Some of his favorite things include:
TRUCKS (monster trucks, garbage trucks, construction trucks, you name it!)
Cars (and the movie Cars)
Toy Story
Curious George
Books
Singing and Dancing
Painting
Playing with Brooklyn (chasing, tickling, cuddling!)
Digging in the Dirt
Playing 'Yard Maintenance Man' - pretend weed whackering, lawn mowing
Riding his glide bike (soon to be real bike!)
Riding his scooter
M&Ms, Jelly Beans, chocolate
Jokes (see previous post!)
Dislikes:
Ice cream or anything cold or anything mushy
Juice except for Orange Juice
Loud noises
Naps (I think we're pretty much done with naptime for him)
Developmentally, the doctor confirmed he is right on track and we are so excited to see how he continues to blossom and grow as a FOUR YEAR OLD!!!
