Kaleb is FOUR!!

I still can't believe how much Kaleb has grown up over the last few months.  Seriously, this has been one of his biggest periods of change since he was a little baby!  At his four-year appointment, he was 43.5 inches tall (95th percentile) and 43 pounds (90th percentile).  But I'm not even talking physical changes.  I mean mental changes!!  It's been AWESOME!!

What has startled me is how much smarter he has become.  

He plays with his play-doh as an independent agent.

Kaleb has always been good with puzzles, and he seems capable of doing mazes pretty easily as well.  And until recently, he seemed to have no desire to color in the lines of a coloring book.  However, Ammon sat down with him and showed him the difference, and ever since then Kaleb has shown more interest in making his pictures prettier.

What's been the most exciting is how Kaleb has been able to recognize, write and utilize letters and numbers so much.  He 'gets' the concept of reading, sounding out letters to make words.  We taught him how to write his name, and below you can see the results.  The bottom is his attempt to write his name all by himself, without asking for any help.  He got all the letters, just not in the right order.  The middle one is my hand-writing and the top one is how he wrote it looking at my writing.  So THRILLING!  

He's not perfect though, he still mixes up words like saying "Got for" something, when he really fFORGOT it.  Just some of the joys of having a young kid!

Kaleb just loves to stay active,  such a comfort.  He loves to be outside, which as the weather gets warmer is much less appealing to me.  

When trapped indoors, I often catch him just running back and forth in his bedroom or in the living room.  He loves to 'get exercise' on my recumbant bike as well.

His favorite form of indoor exercise is dancing.  He loves to turn on the radio and listen to "Good Time" and "Fireflies" by the band Owl City.  He occasionally rolls around on the floor like a break dancer, but there are rare moments when he does the interpretive moves... this was one of those moments... just kills me!!

Almost to a fault my little boy wants to be helpful, often getting in Sasha's way when I ask her to do something or whining when we don't utilize his efforts.  He loves to vacuum, and I'm looking forward to the days when i have the patience to assign weekly chores to him.    

Here he is feeding Sasha yogurt.

This is one of my favorite pics of the two of them:  Kaleb wanted to put Sasha's shoes on for her. She kept squirming and he was getting SOOO frustrated.  The he gave me (and the camera) this face. 

 Classic!  He is so mini-me!!

We have been putting the kids to bed together lately, and overall Kaleb has accepted that this is his opportunity to manipulate Sasha to do his bidding (suggesting songs or books for the night-time ritual).  Thankfully, Sasha is too free a spirit to be too manipulated for too long.  

Thankfully in spite of growing up, he is still SUCH a kid.  He is a strong pretender, loves to spontaneously  make up songs about life's events.  He went through a few weeks of hating Sunbeams and even a "I don't wanna hold mommy's hand" phase.  That was ugly, but thankfully Ammon, the supportive father that he is, set him straight, both times.  

Kaleb's confidence continues to blossom, being a bit less of a follower lately.  There was even one time when Kaleb was all dressed up for church, Ammon told him to pose "like a cool guy!"  Kaleb's response was "I'm already a cool guy!!" 

From this picture, I would say he is a Super Cool Guy!!

This period of his life, I also like to call the "IwannaplaywiththeIPOD" phase.  OY!  He constantly asked to play with Ammon's ipod or anyone else's Smart Phone or tablet when it was around.  Madness! 

 Fortunately (?), Ammon's Ipod's screen is shattered to the point that only Ammon would want to use it.  

On Kaleb's birthday we decided to keep it low-key.  I was suffering from a nasty MRSA infection (more on that later) and we didn't have much money.  Kaleb, however had a pile of change and a five dollar bill given to him by a random stranger at IHOP, so we took his bear bank to a CoinStar Machine to dollarize his coinage, then to Toys R Us where we had a $3 coupon.  

He got a balloon, a crown, water guns, a balloon pumper full of balloons, a giant pen and a jump-rope.  Since we had to post-pone his birthday party for a month (more on that later), it was nice that he had a few fun things to tide him over.  

For lunch we visited the mall for some Panda Chow Mein... 

and a ride on the Carousel.

That night we ended up visiting my parents and she gave Kaleb a Wreck-it Ralph DVD.  Overall, I don't think he can complain, especially since I had the option of checking into the hospital that day, but no!  I put my baby first, dang it.  Anyway, that's my big boy in a nut shell!!