happy FOUR years

Happy four years to Blue! Here is what he is up to these days...

- Questions, so many questions. Lots of the classic "why?" but his trademark is "what'd you say?" which actually ends up sounding more like "say?". He says that means he is thinking about it and needs more time to answer. But his questions are really thoughtful and not always easy to answer. Like, after learning that buzzards eat dead animals, he asked if "buzzards eat other buzzards?". Hmmm. 

- Letters and numbers. He wants to know how to spell everything and likes sounding out words. He has a much better grasp on letters than he does numbers. He gets out of sequence in the teens and manipulates numbers so that they work for him. Like saying he is 69 so that he is the oldest. I just let him enjoy pretending he knows what he is talking about and hope that leads to him enjoying numbers in general and figure understanding them will come later. 

- Superheroes. This must have come from his friends at school but he is into Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, etc. Anything where there are bad guys and good guys and they get to fight is "awesome" in his book. Transformers, which have been his thing for the past few months, fit right into that mix. We watched some old school animated Transformers videos for a while but it was too much of a trigger for his boy brain. 

- Long-sleeves and pants. He has been into having his skin "covered" for years now and I don't fully get it. Poor guy lives in Austin though where it is still in the 90s during the day so I send him to school in shorts and a t-shirt and he comes home and changes into pants and a sweatshirt. 

- School. There is a good little crew of boys at school that Blue really enjoys. They run around the playground in a little pack. He didn't have a crew at his school in Tokyo and I think that was a big part of why he never really settled in. The social aspect is the most important part for Blue. 

- Siblings. Blue loves and enjoys his siblings. And, this is a real change, he is actually pretty gentle with them these days. He has always been sweet and gentle with Brother but Wiley arrived when he was an impulsive two year old and she had to endure years of mild abuse. Wiley went on a little weekend trip with my parents and Blue really missed her. The more the merrier in his book. He is still holding out hope for a baby girl next round. 

- Chatty Cathy. It is not just the questions but a constant stream of words coming out of this kid's mouth. We were all ready for Wiley to come home to help us absorb some of those words. Graham finally had to tell him "you know what, Blue, I think I'd like some quiet time. My voice hurts." He said "my voice hurts too, Dad". G laughed and said something like "then why are you talking so much?". Blue didn't have an answer.

You can't help but love this one. 

It's gonna be a long year waiting to turn five ;).