Four!

Nathan turned four on December 17th.  Unbelievable!  Parenting has done weird things to my sense of time.  In some ways the days are long, but seriously, I think it was about 15 minutes ago that I was staring around, bewildered and wondering how Nathan was already two!  Sheesh.

This last year has been one of incredible mental and physical growth for Nathan.  His language skills have become really sophisticated--he plays with intonation, expression, hand gestures, colloquial phrases. It's hilarious!  He loves reading, and is starting to ask a lot of questions about how things are spelled.  We work with him on sounding out letters, and he picks it up quickly.  He knows how to spell his name and Natalie's name, he knows his address and birthday, understands the concept that his grandparents are Mommy and Daddy's parents, and he knows pretty much every make and model of every car or truck on the planet!  We are raising one smart cookie! (I may be biased here though).

He had one of those years where he grew up instead of out.  At his 4 year appointment he was 41.5" tall (75th percentile) and 38 lbs (50th percentile).  Long and lean!  He is healthy and super duper busy and active.  Whether he is in a good mood or being beastly, hanging out with Nathan is intense.  He is funny, silly, inquisitive, chatty (oh so chatty), requires a lot of attention and interaction, and imaginative.  He creates intricate games and scenarios, and loves to talk about what his imaginary "other dad and sister" are doing and driving--for some reason there does not seem to be an "other mom." I'm not sure whether to be flattered or offended by that! :)

So far he's turning out to be a pretty darn amazing human being. I love him.

Some photos from his actual birthday.  It was a weekday, so he opened a few presents from us, and we had a dinner that he chose: chicken nuggets, french fries and orange pop!! :)