Four

FOUR. It is so hard to believe our sweet, first baby boy is four years old. We had no idea of the adventure we were beginning when God chose us to be your mommy and daddy; however, we do know for a fact that He had that planned from Day 1. You were absolutely meant to be ours and we are so thankful!

You are sweet and spunky and full of joy. You have two speeds- 100mph and asleep. You love anything having to do with Cars or Lightning McQueen right now, which goes hand in hand with your need for speed. You have always been our "runner" and one of the things you say the most now is "want to see how fast I am?!" I have been the mom at the park sprinting full speed after you more times than I can count and I can still barely catch you. You have your own way of doing things and love to figure it out for yourself. I just have the hardest time remembering to let you. You can get your own water from the fridge, snacks from the pantry, dress yourself, brush your teeth and use the potty. You can also buckle and unbuckle yourself in the car which has graduated you to big boy status in that you now sit in the third row. You love helping me clean and unload groceries. You love helping daddy in the yard or really just doing anything outside with daddy. Your favorite sports are soccer and golf, but love watching the Clemson tigers on TV.

You love to sing and play guitar. Often times throughout the day you just want to "play one more song" on your guitar. You love to listen to music and name the instruments you hear "guitar, fiddle, banjo, piano, drums". If we're all in the car together, you want to "throw" us instruments so that we'll play along with you.

It's taken nearly 4 years, but you finally love to sit and look at books. Now that you're in a big boy bed, you'll ask us through the monitor in the morning if you can turn your light on and read books before your clock turns green. You like to lead story time with Ryder and always want to make sure he's sitting on the carpet before you start. He doesn't always understand this.

You love to play with your cars, trucks and trains. We got a free train table back in the Spring and I'm not sure how we would've survived the summer without it. With hot temps and a very pregnant mama, it's consistently the only thing that's kept both of you occupied all summer long.

Ryder is your absolute best buddy. I forget how much of a baby you really were when he was born at just 18 mos yourself, so you really don't know life without him. You both can fight like crazy, but when I try to separate you in the house, you don't know what to do without each other. We moved into our new house to have more space and you both consistently play in the same room- usually on top of one another. If Ryder's sad, you want to go make sure he's ok. You love to sing him songs at bedtime and make sure he has his lovie. Bath time together is one of your favorites usually followed by trying to race from one end of the house to the other upstairs.

You run to the door when the trash truck comes on Thursday mornings and usually have your guitar in hand to play them a song.

You are our great eater and great sleeper- always have been. You always tell me "this is a yummy dinner mommy!" One of my favorites is when you say "who made this?!" When I say "I did". You say "give me snuggles!!" I love how Ryder now does this too.

You love being a "big helper" to Ryder and I just know that will only grow when your new baby brother arrives. You love to talk to my belly and ask me constantly "mommy, is the baby asleep or awake?" If I say he's awake, you run up and pat my belly and say "hi baby!" You say "when the baby's here, he's going to be really loud and sleep and poop". Hopefully, this means I've been successful in teaching you that he won't come out ready to play in the driveway with you and Ryder yet.

Your favorite shows are Thomas the Train, Daniel Tiger, Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol, Chuggington, Curious George and most recently- anything to do with Cars.

You are still our tiny little guy at just 29lbs and 38in. You're wearing 4T shirts and 2T shorts.

This year has brought a lot of firsts for you and you have handled them all very well and usually with a lot of excitement. From your first trip to Disney World to moving to a new house to a big boy bed, potty training and a new school. You treat everyday like it's a brand new adventure and ask me every morning "what are we doing today, mommy?"

You are our little feeler and feel all emotions really big. You're really great at identifying how you're feeling and also how you think someone else is feeling. With this, you are incredibly strong-willed and determined. While this can be hard to harness in a four year old, I know that these qualities will take you really far in life.

With my pregnancy this time around, you know a lot more of what's happening that you did with Ryder. This has brought some really sweet conversations that we hope will one day lead into talking about your adoption. We want you to know that God chose you from day 1 to be our firstborn baby boy, even though it wasn't in mommy's tummy. This is something we want you to be proud of and for it to always be a part of you. It's never been something we want to try and hide or "spring on you" as a teenager when the repercussions would be far worse. Right now, you just know that God chose to put this baby in mommy's tummy and Ryder in mommy's tummy, but God chose to put you in mommy's heart. While, we don't expect you to fully understand what the means yet, we hope and pray it's a good starting place.

If I could take away one thing from you, it would be your asthma. We knew from the beginning that this would likely be an issue from you based on family history and the fact that you could have been born as early as 34 wks. From 10 days in the NICU at birth to your first ER visit at 8 mos old to 6 days at Texas Children's with RSV over Christmas, you've been a little fighter. You are used to your daily inhaler and know exactly how to set up your nebulizer. Thankfully, it's never seemed to slow you down at all.

Happy birthday, sweet boy! We love you so much and are so thankful we get to watch you grow into such a fun little boy!

Planning for Finn's party was the most fun this year, as this seemed to be the year he really "got it". All previous years, he loved his parties but this year he's been asking for a party since Ryder had his back in March. We had it this past weekend, since I'm about 87 weeks pregnant at this point and didn't want to wait one more week even though his birthday wasn't until Tuesday. He's been super into Cars recently and everything has been "Lighting McQueen" or what he calls his "fast car", so we had a simple Cars birthday party at our neighborhood playground with some close friends and family.