f.o.u.r.

We have been so busy having a wonderful holiday season that I have been a little neglectful of this old blog. Hopefully I can remedy that situation in the next few days.

 

Jed turned FOUR right before Christmas! I can't believe my boy is getting so big!

I made nutter-butter snowmen cookies for Jed's classroom treat on his birthday. He and the rest of his classmates loved them. Jed's favorite part was the nose--he calls them "candy carrots." I am really pleased with how well they turned out, even if the chocolate is a little sloppy. And they tasted SO good!

Since Jed loves the Rudolph movie so much, I knew this baby Rudolph ornament would be perfect both as a surprise on his cake and his Christmas ornament for this year. He was SO thrilled when he saw it on his cake! It is so much fun to nail something as a parent--to know you found the perfect thing and have your child love it as much as you hope they will. That was my absolute favorite thing about Jed's birthday this year.

After we cut and ate cake, we pulled out some more candles. Jed had a blast lighting them and blowing them out repeatedly.

Jed had plenty of presents for his birthday as well, but it took him three days to get them all opened, so I have no pictures of any of that. He was so thrilled with baby Rudolph and his birthday balloons that he didn't even open any presents the night of his birthday. It was kind of fun to have the presents be drawn out, so he could really enjoy each one for a while. As usual, he got something to read, something to wear, and something to play with--an awesome spelling puzzle that he is really good at already.

Some fun information about Jed, now that he's FOUR:
  -Jed is 39 inches tall and weighs 39 pounds.
  -He has an excellent memory. Jed can hear a song, read a story, play a game, hear a scripture, watch a movie, you name it, once or twice and he basically has the whole thing memorized. It is so exciting--and a little daunting--to watch his memory at work. He is constantly surprising me with the things he remembers.
  -Jed is a wonderful, caring older brother. He loves to play with Hank, to tickle him and to show him things. Now that Hank can grasp objects better, Jed is very generous about sharing his toys with Hank, provided they don't get drooled or spit-up on.
  -He is making great progress with his speech therapy both at home and at school. It is fun and challenging to listen to his language development. He has learned that he has an opinion and that it often differs from what Dave or I have asked him to do. He is not shy about telling us when he wants (or doesn't want) to do something, and we have had many conversations about how we talk nicely to each other when we disagree. In some ways, I feel like Jed is going through the two-year-old "no phase" right now and it is NOT a pleasant experience. But we'll make it through!
  -Jed has a great sense of humor. Many times he will look at me and say "I'm going to be funny now!" and then do a funny little dance that gets us all laughing. His favorite time to be silly is prayer time.
  -Jed still LOVES anything to do with Cars and Lightning McQueen. He also loves airplanes and sharks.
  -He has an excellent imagination. He is always being someone or something. A funny example: On Sunday, Dave was going to set apart some sisters who had been called to work in Relief Society after church. Since I am in the RS presidency, I needed to go and sit in on the settings-apart. Jed asked to come in and I said he could if he could be reverent. It had been a long day of church and I had a piece of candy to sustain myself. Jed, of course, ate part of it, then (during the setting-apart prayer) left the room to find more from the sweet sister who is the seminary teacher in our branch. He burst back in the room (still during the same setting-apart) and climbed on to my lap with a box of Nerds, wanting me to open them. I whispered "let's try to be reverent while you eat these." He whispered back (because Dave was still setting the sister apart) "I want to eat them on the floor." I let him go to get down on the floor, where I envisioned him quietly eating the Nerds. Instead, he dumped the entire box on the floor and loudly proclaimed "there, that's better!" Then he began to lick them up with his tounge, saying to me (still loudly, STILL during the setting-apart) "I am a bulldog!"