Fantastic Four!

It's hard to believe that I now have a four year-old child. I mean, seriously, where did the time go?? And, as silly as this sounds, FOUR just sounds old...it's fully out of toddlerhood and quickly moving into school-age territory...Yikes!

But, nevertheless, it's time to celebrate my little old man! Here are some tidbits about our newly 4 year-old Choi Boy:

*Three Continents Photography

Four is fun:

Without going into a lot of detail, I'll just say that three had its fair share of challenges. ;) The tail-end of three, however, was lots of fun and I think we're in for a great year! Now that CB knows more, he *gets* more and is quite amusing and entertaining. The conversations we are able to have now are so interesting and insightful and often hilarious. We've really enjoyed hearing his interpretations of things and listening to him explain his thoughts and reasoning. Of course, they don't always make sense, but that's part of the fun! For example, a few weeks ago, CB explained to me that people are like berries "...because berries can be all different colors like blue, and red, and purple. And people can be all different colors, too...like peach, and brown, and tan, and blue and silver." See? Fun. ;)

Four year-old Foodie:
We are grateful that Choi Boy has always been a great eater. He continues to be an adventurous little foodie and his latest favorites include blue crab, tuna rolls, anchovies, clams, mussels (do you sense a theme here??), roasted red peppers, and salad. Thankfully, he hasn't yet discovered lobster yet and my dad grills an amazing steak, so CB won't be depleting our finances with his eating habits...yet. And, also, don't let his fancy palate fool you. The boy also loves mac and cheese, french fries and all sorts of junk food goodness. We get along quite well in that department!

Four is fearless:
Throughout the summer, Choi Boy was conquering fears left and right! And within this past week, he's conquered a big one: swimming a few strokes with his head underwater! This is a huge accomplishment for our little fish who was not a fan of water in his face. We're still a ways off from really swimming, but he's definitely making progress. CB also learned to ride a two-wheeler and has loved cruising around the neighborhood on his "big boy bike". I'll say it again, those balance bikes really are amazing! Last week, as an early birthday present, we bought CB a 12" bike with training wheels, brought it home, promptly took off the training wheels and gave CB a push and told him to pedal. He did. And he took off pedaling and riding his bike on that very first try! It's been incredible to watch him zoom around and he is so very proud of himself!

Four year-old obsessions:
It seems we are truly phasing out of all things trains...they're still here, but they don't get played with as often, which means I'm not always stepping over or tripping on train tracks! In their place, it seems superheroes are here to stay...which is fine by me and my nerdy self! Though we try to avoid a lot of the "bad guy" stuff, we've been having lots of fun with the watered down versions of our favorite superheroes through the Superhero Squad and the DC Super Friends. In fact, we just threw a superhero party for CB which I hope to blog about later this week!

Four is full of learning:
It has been amazing to watch how much Choi Boy has grown and learned this past year. His incredible memory and interest in just about everything continues to impress us and we hope his curiosity only builds and continues. CB will head to preschool again in a few weeks in the same program he was in last year. We are excited for another year with his fantastic teachers and can't wait to see all he will learn! Before we know it, he'll be 5 and heading off to Kindergarten, so we're going to soak up this year as best as we can! It's gonna be a great one -- I can feel it!

We love our little four-year old! Happy 4th Birthday, CB!