My sweet Luke has been four years old for over two weeks and has been loving it! He tells everyone (and I mean everyone, even random people on the street) that he is four. He is one proud big boy! We made it to his four year check-up yesterday. Here is what is going on with my buddy boy...
1. Luke is 3'6.75" (92%) so he is still on the tall side. He is the spitting image of his daddy. He wears pretty much all 5T sizes for shorts, jeans and shirts now. I feel like he will be in the big boy section at the stores soon. I feel he outgrows his clothes so quickly.
2. He weighs 45 lbs 6.4 oz (96%) so even though he is super skinny, he is dense and his weight proves that. He is a super picky eater, so he mainly lives off of pretzels, dried cherries and apples. And Chick Fil A nuggets for a treat. And milk. The boy loves milk and wants it all the time. But I can tell it is a comfort thing because he has to drink it from a certain cup and has to have his blanket when he drinks it. He loves sprite and gets it when we go out to eat sometimes if we need an incentive for him to stay in his seat. Don't tell him it is actually half water and it isn't quite supposed to taste like that.
3. Luke passed his vision and hearing test with flying colors! He actually enjoyed telling the nurse the letters as she pointed them out and had a huge grin on his face as he raised his hand when he heard the beep through the head phones. As his mother, I was beaming with pride. I know it seems so small, but to see him take direction so well and do everything with pride and a smile makes me tear up. He truly is becoming my big boy.
4. We found out that Luke hates to have his blood pressure taken. He put it on okay, but as it tightened up, he pretty much freaked out. Like really freaked out. So needless to say the reading we got was not accurate. We tried again with no success so we decided to give him a little bit of time. Just talking about it minutes later brought him to tears, so he just isn't quite ready for everything. And that is okay by me.
5. He wears an 11.5/12 shoe and his foot is still wide as ever. If it doesn't come in an extra wide, we aren't buying it. Which saves me a ton of money! We order one sneaker every couple of months and that is what he wears till he outgrows it. The only other shoe he wears is a croc because nothing else fits him. So although I am sad that he really only wears two types of shoe, it is actually better because it would be one more thing to grow out of pretty quickly. Oh and he still calls his New Balances his 'rescue shoes' (still not sure why) and his crocs his 'pool shoes' even though we rarely go to the pool.
6. Luke is currently learning to write his name and the sounds of the alphabet. He knows all his numbers and can count backwards. He works on cutting with scissors too. He goes to school three days a week -- Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 to 2:00. He loves school and gets so excited when we tell him it is a school day! I ask him what his favorite part of school and it is always "the playground". He loves to be active and outside.
7. I had Luke evaluated for his speech due to some articulation concerns. Although we haven't gotten the full report, it may be that he doesn't need therapy after all. The therapist thinks that most of the things he is struggling with are age appropriate and will work out over time. She even said some of his articulation is better than a kindergartner's, so that was great to hear. He did great at the evaluation too! The therapist said Luke was very observant as he pointed things out in the pictures that no other child had ever pointed out in all her years of doing this. She also mentioned that he was one energetic little boy! Apparently due to his chattiness and the way he liked to run everywhere, I got this comment. Ha!
8. Luke's favorite thing to do right now is either ride bikes, play chase or play hide and seek. He has started to really like Play Doh too and also build forts. And of course, my little social butterfly loves to be with his friends. It is his favorite thing of all. His best friend is still Connor and he tells me he loves Connor at least once a day.
9. He has started to finally color! He has never really been in to sitting still and using crayons or markers, but the past few weeks, he has flourished. His drawings are getting more detailed and a little bit more accurate. We spend lots of time now at the kitchen table drawing houses and dinosaurs and other things that really don't look like much. But he is loving it and so am I!
10. Luke still loves trains, but I finally see the obsession slowing down. He still likes to talk about trains a ton and always gravitates to them when we see them, but he plays with them significantly less at home. It is nice to see him have other interests!
11. He hates band aids. He will scream bloody murder if I even try to put a band aid on him.
12. Luke is such a good big brother. He loves Ben and has done a much better job of including him. Ben has turned into quite an instigator though and will go up and just hit Luke over and over. Luke gets really upset when this happens. He will hit back at times and always wants me to go over and "tell Ben the rules" or put him in time out. We are working on not hitting back just because Ben hits him and using his words to get Ben to stop (which Ben totally doesn't so he doesn't really see the point - ahhhh!). Most of the time, they play well and it is wonderful to see. When they are in moods and not doing so well, cover your ears because you just hear screaming ALL DAY LONG. With lots of tears. Just now, I heard all this screaming and so I walked in and asked what the problem was. I got "Ben was bothering me." This is VERY typical. Brothers will be brothers I guess.
13. He is such a sensitive guy. If I get mad at him, he gets very upset and says sorry over and over again. Then he will ask "Mommy, are you happy now?" and will even cup my chin in his hands. He really does not like to disappoint anyone, especially me or Chat. He gets very concerned if we are upset with him. A lot of times when I am fussing at him, he starts to cry and will say something like "you aren't proud of me" or "I'm not a good boy". I realized that I had to change the way I corrected or 'fussed' at him so the focus wouldn't turn to him being upset -- that we would still be talking about the behavior I wanted changed.
14. Luke is very polite! He says please, thank you and excuse me with ease and often. He is a kind little boy who enjoys being nice to others. There is nothing more that I wanted for my children -- to be kind, show compassion and be honest.
15. He goes to Sunday school each Sunday with ease. He still doesn't talk much about God and Jesus, but I think he is listening. We try to say a prayer before dinner and if not then, I try to do it with him before bed. It is hysterical what he comes up with to pray for!
16. He is still playing soccer and starting to get more into it and just started back up with swim lessons. And the best of all, we start T-Ball in just two weeks!!! We are pumped. Bring on the orange slices because this baseball mom is ready!
I could go on and on about the changes and developments in Luke, but I guess I have to stop somewhere. He continues to make us so happy each and every day! As with all kids, he has his hard days and can drive us crazy at times but four years old has been great for our guy. I try to remember what Luke was like at 2 (ohmylanta was that tough!) and how far he has come in two years and what a difference it makes. Especially when we have challenges with Ben and his terrible twos. It is not the kid, it is the age :). I can't believe another year has passed...
No comments:
Post a Comment