Happy 4th Birthday

Nathan went to preschool and brought a special treat to share (fish sugar cookies). Then he went to his buddy, Jonah's house for a couple of hours. Tuesdays are our busy nights, but we managed to get dinner in before we headed off to soccer practice and such. Originally he told me he wanted noodles and rice for dinner. I asked him several more times to see if we could get something other than carbs added to the menu. Two days before his birthday he told me he wanted "the same dinner as last night. Only no peppers and no meat and no zucchini." I said, "so you want corn on the cob?" "Yep, just corn on the cob." HE HE HE. I managed to get him to agree to chicken, so we had chicken, rice, corn on the cob and red peppers ("not cooked"). He had been telling me for months that he wanted a shark cake (I'm thinking he got the idea from Jonah who had been saying the same thing). Then about a week before his birthday he changed his mind and said a wolf cake. Then he changed his mind again. The day before his birthday I went through thing after thing (cars, race track, truck, shark, monkey, any other animal I could think of, beach, etc, etc - probably 30 things, showing him pictures of different options and everything). Sometimes he would said yes to something and then a minute later he would say no. Finally I gave up and decided to make my own choice. So I made him a snake cake, which he was happy as could be about. It was a fun day. The next morning he asked me if it was still his birthday. I said, "no, but guess how old you are," and he got a big grin on his face and held up 4 fingers. Nathan is quite the character in our home. He is a real mix between the personalities of all our kids. He is just an all around fun kid - fun and happy. He's smart. We can see the wheels moving around in his head (about all sorts of different things). He is a sneaker. There has been more than one occasion that we have found big chunks taken out of the middle of cakes or brownies during the night (realizing it was him). He likes to ride bikes on the back deck and jump on the trampoline and jump from the couch to the love sac (despite the number of times I tell him not to). He loves cottage cheese, other cheese, most fruits, red and orange and yellow peppers (he will eat them like an apple), anything sugary (he must take after his Mom), chicken, rice, plain noodles, pancakes, and lots of other things. He will ask me if he can help me drive once we get onto our little dirt road almost every morning...and he has some pretty good control. He LOVES his little brother. Austin can make anything better for Nathan. He says great prayers. He finally likes our dog but isn't very fond of most other dogs (well, he likes them....from a distance). He is pretty independent and capable: can buckle himself in the car, put on his own clothes and shoes, take his own showers, help himself to his own snacks and is even pretty good at cleaning up (when it suits him). He says some awesome things. We just love him to bits and can't imagine life without him. Grandpa and Grandma Dick sent him a Swat costume in the mail for his birthday. At first he wasn't sure he wanted to try it on - he had another costume on at the time and was pretty content wearing that. But we convinced him and then he didn't want to take it off all day.