The Big 0-4!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but James is four years old today! What a precious gift he has been to us over the past four years! James fills our life with so much joy, excitement, NOISE, energy, enthusiasm, love, and fun. I can't imagine life without him! Josh and I both noticed that James has matured a lot lately. A couple of months ago, it seemed like he grew up before our very eyes. He has suddenly changed from little boy to almost big boy.

James at 4

~James weighs 39 lbs and is 40 in tall.

~James continues to be a ball of enthusiasm. Anytime we're going to church, school, a friend's house, the park, HEB, Daddy's office, outside, you name it, he give a HUGE reaction! It's easy to make him happy!

~He is particular. A church teacher told me he was the most particular one in the group of 3's,4's, and 5's!! Everything had to be just so! Not surprised here!

~My mom often describes James as a jack rabbit. He hops around, jumps around, and just has so much energy in each step.

~James right now is into: puzzles, being read to or pretending to read, drawing, all sports, race cars, but his favorite thing of all right now is probably building. He'll spend an hour building "statumes", and all sorts of neat buildings, bridges, etc.

~His favorite color is purple!

~He loves his brother, but has taken on the bossy older brother role like a pro.

~James is strong willed, yet compliant. He likes to obey, raises his hand in school, follows rules well at school, and asks permission most of the time. On the other hand, if he doesn't want to do something, like take yucky medicine, you will have to talk him through it for half an hour before he'll do it, with lots of tears in between.

~One of the things that makes me most proud is how he'll say he's sorry. When he does something he knows was wrong, we'll talk about it, and then always a little bit later, he'll give a very sincere apology. A lot of times, I'd forgotten about it, and he'll come up and tell me he's sorry for (xyz).

~It also makes me so proud how he takes care of and is protective of his brother. He gets him things without me asking when Jack's fussing.

~He is grateful. He says sincere thank you's a lot, with no prompting from me. Yesterday morning, when we pulled up to school, we hadn't been talking about our cupcakes at all, and he said, "Thank you for making cupcakes for my friends, Mama."

~He has been really into letter sounds lately. He doesn't do it as much now, but for months, he would tell me all day long what letter different words started with. He knows most of them very well, but gets confused sometimes with the tricky ones. He'll also read a few recognizable words (stop, mom, james, jack, georgia, no) and now likes to sound out words with me.

~James is having a wonderful year in "school" this year. I could not be happier with the wonderful teachers he has, and he is just thriving in there! He has the sweetest group of friends that have been together (most of them) since they were babies. I have been so blessed to get to peek my head through the window throughout the day and see what he's doing in there. I tear up sometimes watching him play so happily with his friends, watching him sit in circle time and do cute motions to cute little songs. His eyes are always glued to his teacher, sitting straight up, and obviously very into everything she does. Every time we pass each other, we hug, blow kisses, or wave. He is always so happy to see me. His friends will excitedly say, "James, there's your mommy!!" They are the cutest little bunch of kids! I just love them and truly can't believe they'll be in preK next year!

~James love to sing and do his crazy/funny dance. He loves to sing "God songs", read "God stories", and talks about God and Jesus a lot.

~James asks us lots of tough questions! "Mom, how are babies borned?" "Where do they come out?" "Did God reach into your mouth when I was borned?" (No, you just came out when God knew you were ready to come out.) "Oh, I came out like THIS (showing me) and breaked your body?"

and questions about adoption, resurrection (on and on and on, on this topic), heaven, where God is, who Deedah's mom is now that Gigi's in heaven, anatomy, etc.

~He's such a fun little person. He's funny, has a funny laugh (a growly "Eh-heh-heh-heh), and is fun to just sit and talk to.

~He's competitive. If I want him to do something, I just have to race him. He loves to wim, but then sometimes will be nice and say, "you won too, buddy" to his brother. :)

~He likes to create games to play and turns lots of things into games.

~He is still my sweet, sensitive, caring, compassionate boy. He just melts my heart in so many ways. When Josh was sick last week with the stomach bug, he immediately took on the role of caretaker. He kept going to him on his own accord, asking him if he wanted sprite, crackers, etc. He prays on his own for people to get better and just is often thinking of others, making sure all is well with everyone.

~He is still so affectionate. I woke up in the middle of the night to James kissing my forehead, he loves to give Jack hugs and kisses (much more than Jack does), and he's a big cuddler. He and Josh cuddle on the couch every morning for as long as they can, and he will bury his head into our necks when we pick him up.

~He's a picky eater. He has a decent reportoire now, but there are a lot of foods he refuses. He likes: chicken nuggets, life or honey nut cheerios, yogurt, peanut butter, pb crackers, buttered toast, beans, taco meat, rice, scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast, broccoli, sometimes mashed potatoes, grilled cheese sandwiches, taco soup, spaghetti with meat balls, apples, sweeties (mini oranges), breakfast bars, pizza, candy, cookies, chocolate, and THAT'S ABOUT IT! I so badly want him to eat other stuff I make, but he won't. I'm hoping that will get better as he gets older!

~He loves to play soccer in the backyard and shoot hoops over and over. He's already surpassed me in skills...I don't know if that says more about him or me! But I'll try to do what he does with the soccer ball and it just turns out wrong. I can't wait to see him play in the Fall!!

~James loves to strike up conversations with random people. A lot of times it's the young college girls, and he'll tell them his life story. He'll tell them anything from how we broke down in Birmingham to the latest neat thing he did.


Well, that's all I can think of for now, but I'll try to add to this as I think of more. I just want to freeze this adorable age! I feel like this is the end of the little-boyness in him, and I just keep looking at him lately and being sentimental about the rate at which he seems to be growing up. I know it just gets faster, too, so I'm just soaking him in right now.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Jamesy! Your daddy and I couldn't love you more!!!

More pics









Date with Nana and Deedah for James' birthday...Fazoli's ("Dazoli's") and Barnes and Noble ("Barnes and Nebble")