4 years old

On the 12th of October my baby boy turned 4 years old.  I can't believe how grown-up he is getting.  He is such a fun loving, stubborn, contradicting, whinny (hopefully a short stage) independent,imaginative, whole-hearted little boy.  Oh excuse me, Cooper would correct me and say 'big boy'.  At his 4 year old well child check-up he weight 31.7 lbs and was 40 inches tall.  He's in the 11th percentile for weight and just above the 25th percentile for height.  Hopefully he got his daddy's genes for height.  Cooper is till wearing his dafo (leg/foot brace) on his right foot to help with correct foot placement and aliment while walking/running.  He's doing great most of the time with and without it the brace except when he is tired.  Then sometimes you can see him dragging his right leg a little.  Cooper is now FINALLY potty trained! (insert band playing and crowd cheering)  It only took a year to do it...and boy, was it a tough year.  His teachers at school finally said "ditch the pull-ups." And so we did, and haven't looked back since.

Here are a few of Cooper's favorite things:
Cooper has the best imagination.  He can make up the most interesting games to play.  Usually involving a fireman, policeman, or some sort of super hero.

Cooper LOVES to watch daddy's "iPad" while he eats.  We started this when he was about 2 in order to keep him at the table.  Now it's the only way he will eat his meals.  Or I guess I should say stay at the table.  We still have to constantly remind him to eat. Hopefully when Elana starts sitting at the table too, we can remove the movie watching.

Favorite movie/shows to watch: usually Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but he also likes to watch Chuggington, Handy Manny, Roary the racing car, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Veggie Tales, and lately the Pink Panther (which is much more violent than I remember from when I was a kid).

Favorite book:  Not sure he has a favorite book, but he does like Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, Thomas, Little Critter.  Cooper says his favorite book is, "All By Myself," but that could be because it was the last book we read.
Favorite Healthy food: Oatmeal, scrambled and flat eggs, cereal
Favorite Veggie: Carrots
Favorite Sweet: any kind of candy will do, he's really into bubble gum now
Favorite snack food:  Cheetos (or Pcheetos, according to him)
Favorite toys: wooden trains, Hot Wheels, construction vehicles
Favorite game: super hero game he invented (he is usually spider man)
Favorite pizza toppings: red eyeballs and grapes (aka: peperoni and olives)
Favorite place to visit and play: train museum  
Favorite clothes: naked boy  (underwear only) or PJ's
Favorite method of transportation: hopping.  He hops all over the house!
Favorite Color: Black
Favorite Animal: A monkey and a parrot
When he grows up, he want to be: "A dad."
Cooper is also starting to like helping cook or bake in the kitchen and he loves to help daddy whenever he is fixing something.
Cooper loves to ask questions and not just simple questions either.  Complex questions such as "why do we need zero?" and "why do we sometimes need to be squishy?"
And Cooper's most favorite thing in the whole wide world right now that he can't live without... Daddy!  I'm glad he loves his daddy but he's becoming a little too much like Velcro.

Here are a few of Cooper's dislikes: 
Eating without watching a movie
Getting ready for bed
Stop playing to do anything
Taking naps at home

Cooper talks well for his age but still has a few word that he doesn't say correctly.  Being a speech pathologist, I do try and make him say most things correctly but there are a few that I think are still just too cute to correct.  Here are a few of his Cooperisims:
Chicken for kitchen, ut (short u as in up) for ate, ament truck for cement truck, beblongs for belongs, light boat for light bulb, smallow for swallow, same of the time for at the same time, flat egg for fried egg, betanic for mechanic, last day for last night, gynosaur for dinosaur.

Cooper is really into super heros lately, mainly Spider-Man. How that quite happened, I'm not sure.  So he wanted to be Spider-Man for Halloween and he wanted a Spider-Man birthday party.

Cooper was so excited to help me make his birthday cake,

His favorite part was helping put the frosting on the cake (actually he just ate it).  My favorite part too.

We ended up making two cakes.  One to have on his real birthday and one to have for his party.

 

This is a picture of Elana sitting on the kitchen table while we sang happy birthday to Cooper.

For Cooper's birthday party, we decided to do something special this year.  We had the Tumblebus come to our house for the kids to play on.  The kids had a blast.

 

 

Who knew Cooper was so strong!

Rope swing

 

Parachute play

Monkey bars

Zip line, love his face!

 

Awards ceremony, getting a medal.

Giving his friends a medal.

 

Getting a new bike from our neighbor Papi.

After the Tumblebus we ate cake and ice cream.

Then the craziness began with opening presents.   After opening his presents, Cooper decided he wanted to go play outside.  It was a cloudy, chilly day. 

Even Elana didn't want to miss any of the fun.

Cooper plays with Monroe's Jeep more than she does.

 

Playing around in the leaves in the yard.

Later that night Cooper got two more presents from grandparents.  Grammy Terry and Grandpa Ed gave Cooper a gas station.  Now he can fill up his fire truck and lawn mower.

  

Grammy Rachel and Poppy gave Cooper more wooden train tracks and trains.  This track is usually set up somewhere in the house.  

It was a great day for a birthday party!

I still can't believe my baby boy is 4 years old!  Every day I am more amazed at the things he knows, the things he says, and the things he can do.