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.

   

Favorite Things

There have been quite a few things I have been loving lately and really wanted to write them all down in one place in an effort to share their awesomeness with anyone else that may be interested/sleep deprived. The first few are related to toddler sleep.

 My very favorite thing in the world right now is the OK to Wake Clock.

 I seriously cannot say enough about this thing. We started using one with Finn back in the Spring before switching him to his big boy bed so he could get used to it. Now that he's in his bed, he waits for it to turn green at 7:15 before sitting up and looking into the monitor and saying "mommy! my clock's green"- at which point, I waddle up to his room to get him. Knock on wood- he has never has an issue with getting out of bed on his own. Now, he is almost 4 so it's a little easier to understand that, BUT the real miracle in all of this is that we recently got one for Ryder.

If you know anything about this kid, you know he's been pretty consistent at waking up between 5 and 5:30 since he was about 12 months old. Letting him "cry it out" didn't work much either, because he would get to a screaming level so loud that he would ultimately wake up Finn (in the next room with a sound machine) or gag and throw up. So for the past year and a half, our days have started at 5:30 around here. We got him the clock- not really expecting him to "get it" yet since he wasn't even two and a half.

The first day I set it to 5:45. He woke up at 5:30 and cried for 15 min. I went in when it turned green at 5:45.

The next day was the same.

The next day, he woke up at 5:30 but rolled around quietly until it turned green. Then he stood up and looked into the monitor yelling" my tick tock geen! my tick tock geen!"

Little by little, I've been pushing it back and getting the same response. Now- a few weeks into it, he will stay in bed until 7:00! GLORY GLORY. He'll still roll around and make some noises before then, but the screaming as if his crib was sinking into the Atlantic has stopped. And I feel like a brand new person.

In a very close second place, would be these blackout shades from Amazon.

 You guys. Our boys go to bed between 7:30 and 8 nearly every night. This is super difficult when it doesn't even come close to getting dark until 9PM in the summer. Not to mention that naps in the afternoon may as well look like they're outside. I've looked at about a million different blackout shade options and this one does the trick. You can't beat the price, as you get 6 of them for under $30. They're marketed as "temporary" only because they attach to the inside of your window frame with double sided tape essentially. AND THEY WORK. Their rooms always look like it's the middle of the night and are even a good bit cooler thanks to the sun being fully blocked. They have had very little trouble going to bed since it looks like it's "darky outside" (Ryder's words). The downside is that they are not pretty in the least bit. For both boys, we have them behind the "real blinds", but we never even open the curtains in their rooms so you never see them anyway. I will warn you that from the outside, the windows look black- but both of theirs are on the back of the house, so you'd never see them anyway. Since they're "temporary" and installed without any hardware I would imagine you could even take a couple on vacation with you if your destination has a super early sunrise or you're in an earlier timezone (I'm lookin' at you, Seaside) since 6 come in a pack and they're so cheap.

Next are a few skincare products that don't require as lengthy descriptions but equally qualify as current favorite things.

Clinique Moisture Surge Overnight Mask- I use this as moisturizer after I wash my face at night and my face still feels the same in the morning. My skin is soft and doesn't feel dried out. Win. Win.

Clinique City Block Sunscreen for the face- keeping with the "anti-aging" theme here, I wear this everyday either by itself over my regular moisturizer or under make-up. Let's be honest, most of my days are spent at the park or the pool so this makes me in need of some serious SPF so I don't age faster than the tiny humans are already causing me to do so.

 

Clinique All About Eyes De-puffing Serum- I actually got this as a free gift with purchase a couple months ago, but have been using it every day and love it! I keep it in the fridge and it's like the little metal roller ball just wakes my eyes up and shrinks away all signs of pregnancy sleeplessness. Also, it makes me feel like I'm putting on (colorless) football eye black in the morning to gear up for the big game-- aka my normal day with toddlers.

 

Thayers Witch Hazel- I bought this a year ago when I started using essential oils to use as a mixing agent or base, and it's been sitting in a cabinet since then. I recently started using it as a toner in the morning after I wash my face and it has done wonders for my pregnancy acne and skin discoloration caused by pregnancy- not to mention is is just so refreshing and makes my face feel clean.

That's it for now, friends. Finn starts school in a couple weeks so we're busy trying to soak up these last weeks of summer before the glorious cool days of Fall are here- also our last weeks of being a family of four.