Benjamin - 4 Years Old!!

Benjamin turned 4 years old on Tuesday!

With recently getting back from the big trip, and his birthday, and Felicity deciding this was a good time to have a major melt down/sleep regression, and both DH and I busy at work, things have been crazy. Its the first year in quite some time where I am just not "feeling" the new year, so the new years posts have not been done. But, I think Ben deserves a post.

We have celebrated his birthday twice so far and will do so at least one more time. First, DH, Aunt M, and Felicity and I took Ben out on his actual birthday. We went (by his request) to McDonalds, then to Adventure Zone, an arcade with bounce houses as well. We even swung by the classic candy store - Hepzibah's. Ben especially liked the bounce house slide, the "Star Wars Battle Pod" arcade game, and chasing his sister around.

Then, on Thursday we had a family birthday party with my parents, older sis and brother (and their spouses of course). It was a lot of fun. We decorated pizza's to taste. Aunt K made really cool snacks - Harry Potter Broomsticks (pretzels with mozzarella), cracker tie fighters, pretzel stick wands and lightsabers, cake pops decorated as snitches and death stars (Hand Painted!) ... it was very cool. Even if the broomsticks lost all structural integrity.... we colored Harry Potter and Star Wars pictures. Ben got a lot of lego sets and immediately wanted to build them. He also got to pay shoots and ladders with his uncle. It was just a generally fun, relaxing time, and he did not melt down when we sang the birthday song to him.

We will have one more party in a couple weeks for his friends. He has told me that I need to decorate more before that (currently we have some streamers, a Happy Birthday banner, and a few balloons). I asked him what he wanted and told him he needed to come up with ideas. His answer was "a medium sized shiny 4 hanging from the ceiling with Darth Vader, 3cpo, and r2d2 on it". I guess I have my work cut out for me.

I put this on Face Book on his Birthday:
Four things about Benjamin my (brand new) four year old that I want to brag about/share with the world:
(1) He just started to build lego sets by himself! Yes, he needs some help with tricky parts but he does very well with it and has shown a lot of perseverance.
(2) He loves Harry Potter, whether it be listening to the audio books, listening to us read it, watching the movies, playing the lego board game, or playing make believe. He is familiar with the first two books and will be allowed to start the third now that he is four. (After that there will be a wait).
(3) He dotes on his baby sister. Even when he is super grumpy, she can make him smile. Sometimes his doting is a bit rough, but oh how he loves her.
(4) He is so curious and wants to learn about the world around him. Lately he is especially interested in the water cycle, outer space, and time.

It summarizes some of the most fun things about him right now. He is constantly cracking us up, usually accidentally with the way his mind works. Other things to remember about him at this age - he roots for the bad guy most of the time. He likes being contrary, so he wants to root for the teams we do not. He says he is going to live with us forever, or, "in a house really nearby so we can walk to each other". He doesn't like transitions/leaving places. If we are home, he wants to stay home. If we are at Grandma's, he wants to stay at Grandmas. He loves board games, especially lego board games, but in general. He loves reading books, especially if they have magic and monsters or space ships in them. He is into both Harry Potter and Star Wars. He has an entire fantasy world where "good Darth Vader" is the main character and he comes up with the most detailed crazy stories for what happens to good Darth Vader. He pictures the Hogwarts hospital wing as a tower with separate sections for each house. He builds an awesome spaceship or castle. He draws a lot. He likes to color. Most of the time he does not like having his picture taken... but when he does want his picture taken he has a super corny big grin. He is not afraid of movies or books, but he is afraid of models (like big dinosaurs at a museum) and live animals (like the zoo), and he is not a big fan of pitch dark. We have some behavior issues, especially at daycare, but it depends on the day. 

Little man, Benjamin, Mr B, Ben, Big Brother, Bry Guy, I love you very much and look forward to seeing how you grow and change in the coming year!!