Laken's 4!

For the couple weeks before his birthday, I had been trying to get a straight answer on what he wanted his birthday to be. He kept going back and forth between dinosaurs, monsters, and the Avengers. So finally when it was the Saturday before his birthday, I asked him at the store what he wanted his birthday cake to be and told him it was his last chance. He started with Avengers then switched to Spiderman. So we went with that. 

The night before his birthday, I made his cake. I wanted to do red frosting with a spiderweb but red food coloring always turns out more like pink so I decided to do blue frosting with a white spiderweb. We also got some decorations out and Jared went to the store to get a Spiderman balloon. 

The morning of his birthday, we heard him waking up so we went in his room and sang 'Happy Birthday' to him. He smiled, got out of bed, and saw all the decorations in the dining area which made him smile even bigger. He was pretty excited for his birthday. We made him wait until everyone was dressed and had eaten breakfast before letting him open his presents. He was pretty patient. But unfortunately had to be sent to his room at least once for his behavior.

When it was time for his presents, he opened the gifts from grandma and grandpa Serfas. They got him some playdoh things and the board game 'chutes and ladders'. Then he opened the gifts from us: a couple spiderman shirts, a spiderman helmet, and a new bike. I think he was happy with the gifts. We had some problems getting the bike assembled (I think someone had bought it, tried putting it together, did it wrong, and returned it to the store). So we ended up having to take a piece of it to a hardware store to get some help taking it apart to put it together the correct way. Then we let him try out the bike down in the basement. It will take him a little while to get used to (and it's not the best quality) but once he learns how to use this bike, we might look into getting him a better one.

Ready for a Spiderman party!

Spiderman cake

Opening his gifts

Trying to blow out his candles.
He doesn't like fire so he tried staying as far away as possible.
Jared had to bring it closer to him and help him blow it out.

The boys enjoying some cake.

My 4 year old

It's hard to get a good picture of him.

"I'M 4!"

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For part of his birthday, I wanted to do a birthday interview with him. I plan on doing it every year to see what changes as he gets older. So here are the questions and answers he gave me (with what I thought were the real answers too).

1. What is your favorite color?  BLUE

2. What is your favorite food?  GRAPES (mac & cheese)

3. What is your favorite book? LETS GO TO THE ZOO - lift the flap book (he has too many to name)

4. What's your favorite t.v show/movie? DANIEL TIGER/MONSTERS INC  (Curious George)

5. What is your favorite toy? TRAIN (any truck)

6. What is your favorite song? JESUS WANTS ME FOR A SUNBEAM

7. What is your favorite thing to do? PLAY OUTSIDE (and play with his cars and trucks - makes lines and designs with them)

8. Who is your hero? SUPERMAN (spiderman)

9. Who is your best friend? BIG DOG (Baby dog and sometimes Carter)

10. What do you want to be when you grow up? DADDY [at first he said mommy but I told him he couldn't be a mommy] (other times he has said he wanted to be a garbage truck driver)

11. What are you really good at? LAUGHING (finding things)

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Laken has such a fun boy to be around. 

He has an infectious laugh when he gets going. 

He has some emotional issues at times where he has huge meltdowns over small things. So we're trying to work on that.

He usually has more energy at night.

He still always sleeps with his baby dog and blanket.

He calls himself a good finder and tries to make his hand into a telescope as he searches for things.

He eats toast almost every morning for breakfast.

When he plays with his little cars/trucks he used to put them in a straight line. But now he makes different designs with them (swirls, lines, etc).

He certainly is a BIG brother and likes to tell his LITTLE brother what to do or how to do something.

He LOVES any type of truck - fire truck, garbage truck, tow truck, dump truck, bulldozer, etc.

He is hard to understand sometimes but we're still working on it. Most things that start with "s" followed by a consonant are harder for him to say (smile, smell).

I think it's safe to say he's potty trained (I feel like I say this a lot...but he does well for a while then slips and doesn't do so well for a while). I had hoped he would be completely day potty trained by the time we moved and wasn't sure if he would be at that point. But I was impressed with how well he did on the drive out here. And since being here he hasn't had too many accidents! YAY!