Luke is FOUR!

My baby is FOUR! At four, Luke is precocious, wild, silly, and smart. He's also a bit impulsive and sometimes has trouble listening and following directions. Some of this is just particular to this age and some we will watch for potential ADHD in the future, which he would come by naturally, so we just want to watch for it.

He knows all his letters and their sounds, can count to 28 (he says 100 after that!), can spell, recognize, and write his name (though this needs work). He has an amazing imagination and I love watching his imaginative play. He is great with puzzles and things that require creativity, but still has little desire to sit and read a book or color or do other such "docile" activities. He is very social and loves being at school and with his friends. In fact, though he attends Harding Tues-Wed-Thurs, he also goes back to Highland Day School on Fridays to play with the friends he left there. I'll ask him if he wants to stay home with Mommy and play on a Friday morning and he will say, "Mommy, it's ok, I can play with you after school." I guess I am thankful he enjoys it so much. He also comes by his social nature naturally. Favorite TV shows include The Backyardigans, Super Why, WordWorld, and thanks to Daddy's influence, he LOVES Ninja Turtles, Superman, Spiderman and Batman cartoons. 

At four, Luke is 42 inches tall (75th-90th percentile) and weighs 38 lbs (75th percentile). He wears size 4T or 4 shirts and 3T or 4T pants, depending on brand.

We asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said Chuck E Cheese. Of course. Well, Chuck E Cheese it was! I took a picture of him at the same little phone where he played at about 15 months, so below is the side by side. :)

He told me he wanted a strawberry birthday cake, so homemade strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese icing it was! 

We had his birthday party the following Saturday. Luke is very into superheroes, so a superhero party it was! We invited his friends to attend a Superhero Training Academy. We held it at our church, which also functions as the Day School, so we had access to all sorts of things to help make it awesome.

We had capes and masks for all the kids, including a little envelope filled with adhesive-backed felt lightning bolts and stars for the kids to use to decorate the back of their capes.

We also had a couple photo stations. This one has our superkids flying through the air!

And this one involved a homemade foam barbell to show off their super strength!

I love this picture of Luke's little friend, Mark. Doesn't he look awesome?!

And my sister created this obstacle course. The picture doesn't show the whole thing, but the kids loved it. This was a test of their "super speed" and "super skill". 

I don't have a picture of the kids shaking the parachute, but we borrowed the Day School's parachute and threw 3 big balls in the middle. The kids had to use their "super strength" to bounce the balls off the parachute.

We also had the kids stand in a line and use their "super speed" and "super skill" to pass a ball over their heads to the kid behind them, and then again between their legs to the kid behind them. 

Cake time! 

How awesome is this cake?! 

There are different superhero symbols all around the sides.

Lacey was so funny with the ice cream. With each bite Nanna (Allen's mom) gave to her, she gave a little shudder because it was cold. I think it was the first time she's had ice cream and, of course, she loved it. 

After cake and ice cream, we opened presents. Luke got several new superhero items, but none of which he already had, so he was thrilled. 

Here are some recent pictures:

One of our big developments as a 4 year old: we removed the bedrail. He's in a full big boy bed these days!

This kid LOVES chocolate and sweets. Any day he gets some kind of treat, especially one he gets on the way home from school (like at Starbucks) is a great day in his opinion. He actually tells me each time we get in the car as I pick him up, "Mommy, I had a great day today." He then expects a treat. He does not get something sweet each time, but he sure tries for it!

Luke is all about weapons. A bit earlier than I would have liked, but so it goes with boys, I suppose. Daddy doesn't help; he loves having a boy. They sword fight each night when he gets home from work. In this picture he is shooting his crossbow. He became obsessed with bows and arrows after we went to Bass Pro to see Santa this year so, of course, Daddy had to get one for him. 

Using his kid digital camera. He's so cute when he tries to take pictures like Daddy.

I have no idea what he was doing in this pic, sitting in our armoire, putting outside clothes over his PJs....Silly boy.

We love our FOUR year old! 

We pray that God gives us the wisdom to teach, play, love and nurture our boy, to mold his will while keeping the spirit God has given him. We pray that he learns to love and share Jesus and that, as his parents, somehow our parenting victories outweigh the parenting mistakes.