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Monday, August 15, 2011

Four.

This is the day that I should probably stop calling my sweet Derek a tiny infant baby boy.
He is four years old today, so now I must learn to refer to him as what he is:

A toddler.

(Forgive me, but I cannot be expected to allow him to grow up all at once, now can I?)

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday, since Josh could be home all day.
Alex and I wrapped his gifts the day before while he and Josh ran errands, and then we tormented him the rest of the evening with the stack of untouchable presents.

He would just stand by them, staring and smiling.



With his pants twisted because he can go potty all by himself
(I hate to brag, but he's totally advanced for a toddler.) 


The first gift he opened on Sunday was this alligator (crocodile?) squirt-gun that I found for 99 cents.


Since then, anyone who asks what he got for his birthday hears first and foremost about that squirt gun. I should have saved myself some money and just cleared out the dollar bins at Target for all his presents.

Our main gift to Derek was a Toy Story boombox and several books on CD for him to listen to during quiet time. So far, they've been a hit.
Except that the unabridged Winnie the Pooh stories were kind of over his head, so now Alex is happily keeping them company in her room during quiet time.
Yesterday, she didn't want to come out because she was still listening to the books.



I have a 6 and 4 year old! How did that happen?


Derek would make this face with every gift he opened...


We did not have a party for him, because:
1) I am lame
2) They are a lot of work
3) The boy is oblivious and probably didn't even notice

Instead we took him here:


And he had a grand 'ol time playing twenty dollars worth of games and earning enough tickets to bring home a twisty straw.

Good times.


Love that Birthday Boy!



PS-- I have special powers to read people's minds-- right now Pat the Bunny is thinking When are they going to get that boy a haircut?

Am I right PtB? Am I right?  ;)

8 comments:

Grandma said...

Happy Birthday to my favorite 4 year old! And I am not concerned about his hair, because he will soon be visiting at my house, and one day when I am "letting mama sleep" we will visit one of the many local barber shops! (just kidding - he is perfect just the way he is)

Corie said...

Happy Birthday Derek!!

Taylor said...

Your kids are so cute! Happy Birthday to Derek! They do grow up too fast, don' they?

Lisa Stepi said...

Erin, I love reading your blog - your kids are adorable and you always make me laugh. Happy Birthday to Derek!

Mindee@ourfrontdoor said...

He's also very tall for a toddler. :)

We only do birthday parties every other year for just the reasons you mentioned.

Mish said...

happy birthday, little man!

Rebecca D said...

I would rather throw a huge party that took days of prep time and required me to clean parts of my house that spring cleaning missed to avoid one hour at that evil "mouse" restaurant... I hated that place when the girlies were little...
I'm glad you had fun though!
(PS. Hi, I just popped over from the Lumberjack's Wife... Nice to meet you... Maybe I should have led with that??)

Christina said...

Our babies skipped right to toddlerhood the same week. :)
I love his gift-opening face. (Don't tell, but we didn't even get Eliana any presents at all. She didn't have a clue.) (I did make her chocolate cake.)