Henry is 4!

It is really hard to believe that Henry has turned 4.  When we went to pick out his cake earlier in the week, he almost picked the "Over the Hill" cake because he thought it looked like Mt. St. Helens, his favorite volcano.  Todd and I were really hoping he'd go for that one, but he settled on a clown cake.  Throughout the whole process pre-birthday, Henry kept saying that he was going to allow Josiah to pick out his cake, to pick out his cereal (they get a sugary cereal for their birthday), as well as help him open his gifts.  I asked Henry why he was allowing Josiah to do so much and he said, "because I love him."  It's hard to argue with that.  He did end up allowing Josiah to help open his gifts, but as the day went on, he also banned Josiah from touching his new lego set.  I asked Henry a string of questions that I ask each year to see how they change.  When asked his favorite food, he answered, "Dinner, breakfast, lunch."  When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, "a fixer."  I asked him what he wanted to fix and he said he wanted to fix things that were broken.  Stupid question, I suppose.  His requested dinner tonight was shrimp, chicken, and broccoli.  It was a good meal.  I think it'll probably be Caroline's birthday meal as well as she and Henry can eat a lot of shrimp and broccoli.

Henry's new Lego castle

Caroline tried on his new underwear to make sure it fits.

As a new 4-year old Henry now wants to stand up to pee.  He's finally tall enough.  He wanted to show me how he did it, so I stood next to him.  He can pee standing up, there's no doubt, however, he cannot aim standing up.  Sometimes it's nice to be in a rental.

Saturday morning we went to buy the boys' cowboy boots.  Josiah wanted a cowboy hat and vest as well, but he's going to have to earn some money if he wants all that.  They were very happy to get them (despite Henry's lack of cheer when I asked to take a picture of them).

I finally got brave enough to take all the kids to story time at the library Wednesday morning.  It was geared for 3-6 year olds and they read books, did a puppet show, watched a video (of a book), danced/moved to songs, and made a craft.  The boys did great and loved it.  Caroline did pretty well, too.  She liked it, but wanted to participate a little too much.  Fortunately there was another little boy around her age who kept running up to his older brother and pulling his hair, so that took the attention off of Caroline's little loud outbursts.  I think this may be part of our regular routine for a while.

Caroline enjoyed her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich this week.  I gave it to her open-faced to see what she would do.  She sat there and licked off all of the peanut butter and jelly.  She loved it and asks for it a lot now.  It might be easier just to give her a spoonful of peanut butter and a spoonful of jelly since that's all she eats anyway.  She also ate a real mandarin orange and really liked that as well.  I love it when we have a new food to add to her rotation.

At CC this past Friday, it was our turn to do our family presentation.  We got up front and I spoke briefly about who was in our family, ages, etc.  I then spoke very briefly about my two grandfathers and their military service since our history sentence this week was about Pearl Harbor.  After I was done, Josiah wanted the microphone and he spoke about his Grandaddy, then how he had a pain in his ear and he hasn't had a pain in his ear since we've moved to Texas, and he finished it off with the story of how we lost his Little Buddy (blankey) at a hotel (3 years ago).  He spoke really well about all three.  Then we always close in prayer and Josiah asked to pray.  He prayed for all the teachers to teach well and for the students to learn well.  Sometimes he can be so mature!  I just never know when it'll manifest.

Sometimes it seems like the days are filled with laundry, school, dishes, making meals, etc. and it feels like I don't play with the kids as much.  So, I tried to make sure I sat and played with them distraction-free each day this week.  One day I made the kids into tacos - just rolled them up in a blanket.  An old favorite.  (Really it's burritos, but the kids call them tacos.)

3 burritos

a baby burrito with her baby burrito