4 years old!!!!

It is incredibly hard to believe that Ryder has turned 4!  He has gotten so big and so grown-up; I shudder to think  how fast the next 4 years will go by and how big he and grown -up he'll be then!

Ryder knew all month that his birthday was coming and it was hard for him to contain his excitement!  The week before his party we put up some dinosaur decorations and then finally his birthday banner.  He had requested a red cake, which unfortunately I ended up not having enough food coloring to pull off, but he still got a red Apatosaurus on it, plus all of his favorite foods, including meatballs, fruit and guacamole!  The morning of his party, we gave him and Vivi dinosaur shirts and big inflatable dinosaurs to play with while we finished the preparations.  Most of his gifts were dinosaur related, so of course he loved that.  He got enough dinosaurs and dinosaur activities to last him quite some time!

This month has been the month of the dinosaur.  He knows the name and characteristic of what seems like every dinosaur out there.   All the books that he wanted to read, every game he wanted to play, every show that we watched on TV; it was all dinosaurs!  It is fun to see him so excited about something- he is genuinely thrilled to be learning new things and sharing his knowledge, so that's really cool.

Bedtime is pretty funny.  Ryder still loves to use the monitor.  Almost every naptime and nighttime we hear "Mommy, come on the monitor!"  Most of the time now I can comfort him without having to go upstairs, which really helps keep Vivi asleep in the evening.  What is really funny is that we can hear Ryder over the monitor.  He has books and sometimes toys in his room, plus his own personal flashlight, so he usually plays or reads for a little while before falling asleep.  It is adorable to hear him talking to his dinosaurs or acting out a firefighting scenario!

Aside from turning 4, the other big development this month was that we signed him up for Pre-school and he'll be going 3 mornings a week next year.  This step was so hard for me!  I want him  to be my little baby at home forever!  We visited his new school and he enjoyed seeing the school, playing with the toys and meeting the teacher, so we think that he will love it.