FOUR…What else do I say?

Ok, really I have a lot to say as you all know.  Jeremiah turned 4 on the 6th.  He very much looks like a little man.  Most people are surprised that he is only 4.  We went to the doctor on the 7th and found out he is 42″ (which we knew from our trip to Legoland the day before) and 46 lbs.  He loved jumping around and showing the nurse practitioner that he could hop on one foot.  Getting him to stop was the difficult part.  Things were going well until the shots came.  I have learned it is no longer easy for me to hold down a wiggling 4 year old who does not want shots.  But a doughnut afterward made it better. (I am sure the NP would have told me not to do that – oh, well, I was feeling guilty.)

But I have skipped ahead. November was a busy month.  We celebrated Birthdays almost every weekend.  We went to the SeaLife Aquarium at Legoland with Isaac for his birthday.  I think they were more excited for the cake at the end than the actual aquarium.  They did get to talk to a scuba diver and watch him feed the fish.  Jeremiah now pretends he is a scuba diver. We also had Kari’s party and went to Hemet for our first time to our friend Cassie’s party.  They had a bounce house and had Toy Story 3 on – quite exciting!

That took us up to Thanksgiving.  We had a great day, even though Jeremiah had a cold.  Jeremiah and I made Chex Mix and deviled eggs on Thanksgiving morning (a first for deviled eggs – that was something!)  We watched the parade and Jeremiah stayed in this pajamas ALL day.  He was so excited.  We had our traditional Turkey Manhattans for supper.  It was a great relaxing day.  On Friday Shannon and Josh came and we made cut-out Christmas cookies.  We decided to be smart and not eat all of them right away.  Since we will be here for Christmas this year, we decided to freeze them for when the Merrills come.

I finished up collecting shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  A group of us also went up to the Processing Center to help go through boxes and get them ready to ship overseas.  We had so much fun.  The boxes we were working on were going to go to Panama.  It was neat to know where they were going.

Since then we have been doing “get ready for being 4” and now Christmas stuff.  We had to postpone Jeremiah’s yearly pictures as he was looking more like Rudolph than a boy (great timing on the cold).  But they were super fast at getting them back to us so that was great!.  We also took Christmas card pictures at the beach (the cards are the next thing on the list, maybe they will be after Christmas cards).  Jeremiah actually still fits in the huge stocking that I bought for his 1st Christmas.  He thought it was funny to get inside it.

On Jeremiah’s birthday we went to Legoland with the Marta’s.  Jeremiah had such a great time.  He has been talking about it non-stop (well almost, when he is not talking about his party or Christmas, that is).  He is now tall enough he can ride any ride in the park.  He loved the roller coasters!  It was not a busy day and rode one 3 times in a row – running to get back in line and not having to wait.  He was in heaven.  He also had to have lemon bars on his birthday.  I was going to make them a few weeks ago and take them someplace, but he refused to let me.

Last Saturday we had the Batman birthday party.  He was so excited.  Uncle Nich and Aunt Mel came from Indiana for the weekend and Aunt Katie and soon to be Uncle Carlo came down too.  We had a HUGE party.  Jeremiah loved having all his friends there.  We did a relay race (it was hilarious!), a blindfolded bat-a-rang game, “Find Batman” treasure hunt and had to have a Batman craft too.  Jeremiah planned most of it (it was basically everything we did for his Pirate Party last year).  I made a Batman symbol cake, so the day was complete.  We spent the rest of the day putting Legos together and playing.

That evening we went to the Christmas boat parade.  Jeremiah loved it!  It was the first time he had been there.  It has been canceled because of weather the last few years.  I forgot his jacket, so he shared mine with me – that was an experience.  He loved all the lights.

Sunday we went to the Zoo with Nich and Mel.  Jeremiah was thrilled to have 2 days without naps (I won’t mention how rough of a day Monday was – naps are still needed!).  Then Sunday night we went and got our Christmas tree. Yay for 1/2 off at Lowes.  The last several days we have been decorating and preparing things for Christmas!  Today was “Christmas Bread Day”. Our house smells so good!

Grandpa and Grandma Merrill and Aunt Anna come on Tuesday. Jeremiah is super excited.  We will see if the rain will hold off and let us go back to the Zoo for their “Jungle Bells”.

A couple more stories to show that he is 4 – even though these were before he turned 4:  After the party in Hemet, we came home and Jeremiah played in his room for a while.  He was super quiet and I should have had my first clue there!  In the midst of taking things upstairs to play with, he took the goodie bag up too.  When he came downstairs, he told me he color the little guy (they were supposed to be colored so that was ok, but I would have rather not had the markers on the carpet.).  Should have had another clue then!  So that evening we go upstairs and all the stuff is everywhere in the room.  Andy says, why is the old pacifier holder sticky?  Jeremiah says – very casually “Probably because I ate the suckers.” Andy opened it up and ALL 4 of the sucker were stuffed in there and half eaten.  But I only ate half, Mommy.  He also had also blown bubbles in his room!  We are now very careful when we say, why don’t you go play in your room for a while!!!

Evidently we were not specific enough about nap time too.  Because a few weeks later he decided naps were optional.  We kept hearing things upstairs, but sometimes we can hear the neighbors kids and they were home on Thanksgiving break, so we assumed it was them.  And it wasn’t that loud.  I asked Andy a couple times, but we didn’t hear anything in the monitor.  We should have gone upstairs.  Finally about 15 minute before Jeremiah’s nap/play time was up, we hear him go into the bathroom.  But he came out of OUR room.  I go upstairs and find 2 of Andy’s castle Legos open on the bed.  So I stayed in the room.  Jeremiah turns the corner to come back in and play and stops in his tracks.  What have you been doing?  “I was playing.”  Needless to say he has not done this again.  But the only thing I can think of is he is turning 4.  Oh, what will this year have for us??  Will I make it?  His poor future teachers!

As this year ends, I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas and can enjoy it!  These update have become more like a journal for me, so if you don’t want to get it anymore, just let me know.  I totally understand – they are long. You can always find them on the blog too!  www.andymerrill.com/babyblog (not a baby anymore though).

Merry Christmas,
Nichole