Sawyer's Birthday

 Sawyer turned 4 this week! My littlest man is growing up! We, of course, skipped school on his birthday so that we could celebrate. We got him a train set from Ikea for his birthday and a couple of books. Recently, when he was at one of his preschool playmate's house, he just loved playing with their train set; so I decided I needed to get him one of his own for his birthday. It was a good thing, too, because by the 4th kid, it's hard to know what to get them. We have basically all the cool toys and things that a little boy would love: magnatiles, lego, blocks, cars and trucks, etc. So I was having a hard time coming up with something I thought he would really like. I also got him a little orange pickup truck (he loves orange) with flames on the side, and he's loved playing with that, too. 

The kids played with Sawyer's new train set for a while, and we just hung out most of the day. But in the afternoon, we had a movie day and watched Cars 3. He'd been asking me if we could watch it together for a while. I sat down and watched with them for a little bit, and then I got up to work on a birthday cake. I just made him a giant chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles. Not too fancy, but he was happy. 

It was an easy going birthday for the little man. 

Sawyer is a little spunky dude. He knows what he wants and gets mad at people who get in the way of what he wants. He is frequently heard screaming at people, or hitting, or kicking, or spitting, or stealing toys... we're working on it, haha. He's also very independent and wants to do many things all by himself. He's so independent, in fact, that I'm often surprised by the things he asks for help with, because I just assume he'd want to try and do it himself. 

He loves his brother, Jack, so so much. He loves playing with Jack and emulating Jack in every way. He's sad when Jack isn't around for whatever reason. He and Jack play with cars and trucks a lot, or they build things with Lego. They also like to go outside when the weather is nice. They dig around in the backyard and drive the big trucks around. I love watching or hearing them play together. Especially when they are playing well together!

Sawyer loves to ride his little strider bike around. He's pretty good at it, and he's loved it ever since last summer when he first started riding. He's so good on it that he would probably be able to ride a real pedal bike, if we were ready to teach him that skill. Maybe next summer. 

He loves listening to truck tunes. It's his favorite music to listen to, and he frequently will ask me to play a specific song. He likes watching the accompanying videos, as well. He likes to watch TV, especially Firebuds or Pupstruction or the Cars movies. But he'll sit down and watch whatever the big kids want to watch.

He's my best eater, probably. He's started being a little more picky, but I believe it's because Jack is picky and he likes to be just like Jack. He's stopped eating beans because of Jack, even though he ate them perfectly well only 5 or 6 months ago. He loves fruit, although he doesn't quite have the concept of eating the whole piece of fruit... he'll take a few or even several bites of an apple or a peach and then when he feels like he's done, or he can't eat the rest of it, he'll just throw it away. It drives me crazy! He also loves pizza, yogurt, cereal. He doesn't eat anything I serve anymore, like he used to. But I expect when this phase is over, he'll start eating most things again. 

He's still sleeping in his crib, even though he can now climb out. He started climbing out of his crib in the mornings when he wakes up a few months ago. So he can come in our room when we're still sleeping. But he doesn't climb out at night after we put him to bed. He's a pretty good sleeper, and it seems like most days he's ready to go to sleep when we put him to bed. 

His best friend is Taylor Frei... but they seem to be little frenemies, haha! They love playing with each other ... some of the time. And the other times, they fight and yell at each other. Something about two 4th children getting together. 

Sawyer is probably the biggest of our children. He's almost as big as Jack (he may even weigh more than Jack), even though there are three years between them. It's a bit of a problem when I need to move him up to the next size of clothes ... but Jack is wearing the next size of clothes! It'll be interesting to watch them grow up next to each other. I also suspect that he'll be our most athletic kid. Only time will tell. 

Sawyer is a cute little man. He's always coming up to me and saying, "Mom, I love you." He loves his Lamby and his Blankie and some of his other stuffed animals. He snuggles with them and bites them. And when he needs comfort, he will sometimes come to me, but often he goes to find his blankie to snuggle with. He says the funniest things sometimes, and he just loves being with his family. He's my little sweet man. I'm so glad he's mine!