Taft is FOUR!

Taft 4 Year Interview from heidi herway on Vimeo.

All of the sudden, this kid is four. Taft has personality. He will talk to anyone who will listen (ask Colie and Jed how long their "quick" birthday call ended up lasting). He does not hide his feelings, the good and the bad. He will randomly squeeze you and tell you he loves you, and it will come out of nowhere. He is super sweet most of the time. He is a typical first child and thinks he runs the show. Seth (and maybe some others) are convinced he has inherited this unfortunate trait from me, but I think it's an oldest child thing. For the record, I think my bossiness has really come down a notch or two or five. I know other grown ups who are WAY more bossy than me. Ahem, back to Taft... He has a really busy imagination. He would watch tv almost all day long if I let him. If he watches more than an hour though he gets really grumpy. On the flip side, he loves books and loves being read to.  He loves to ride his bike. He's a very sweet older brother and has recently started mentioning he wants a baby sister.

We made it home from St. George in time to celebrate his birthday. We started the morning off right with a bike ride to the donut shop. I think I'm going to request that for my birthday too. Donuts are deeelicious. Later that evening when Seth got home from work we opened presents. Taft got a new two-wheeler (he's been riding a balance bike) so he and Seth took it out immediately. Unfortunately it was a little too small so we're waiting for a new one to come in the mail. Taft requested Chuck E Cheese to celebrate his birthday. We were happy to oblige on the video game part, but talked him into something else for dinner. I told him Chipotle had chocolate milk and Chuck E Cheese did not. He was sold. I felt a little guilty but Chuck E Cheese food is NOT good, nor cheap. This was not my bossiness stepping in, Seth didn't want to eat there either. We came home to do cake. Taft requested a Spiderman cake, but since we picked it up last minute they only had a Batman cake or a Spiderman "puh-cake" (cupcake) so we got both. There's a new Mexican supermarket near us and Seth wanted an excuse to buy a Tres Leches cake. We thought that's what we were getting but I think it ended up being kind of soggy regular cake. Oh well. Taft liked it.

Although I swore last year that I would do a low-key party this year, it still ended up bigger than I had expected. Taft requested a "quinata" and a bouncy-house. I'm not kidding when I say that literally every birthday party we've been to since living here, with the exception of ONE, they have had a bouncy house. Since we're living in an apartment, there isn't really room for a party, so I knew we'd be having it at the park. The problem with the park is the city makes you get a $200 permit just for the bouncy house. I didn't want to dash Taft's birthday dreams of getting a bouncy house (although it is completely ridiculous to have children EXPECT that at a party!) so I convinced him that a baseball party would be way cooler than a bouncy house. Again, he took the bait and didn't mention the bouncy house again.

Taft was lucky enough to have his Grammie and Pop in town for his birthday party! Taft had lots of fun with all of his friends from our street, church, school, and other friends of ours. I think we had about 20 kids. Yeah...The thing here is that it's not just the kid who shows up to the party but the entire family. It ends up being a lot of fun, but kind of stresses me out mixing social circles and wondering if we'll have enough food. It all works out and we always have leftover food. We had t-ball set up with lots and lots of balls, some yo-yo balls -- whatever they're called, Pin the Ball on the Bat, baseball tattoos, a baseball pinata, baseball snacks, and of course Big League Chew as the party favor.

About to see his gifts...

Happy...

Very happy!

Testing out the new ride

Birthday call from Colie and Jed

Pirate costume from Nana and Grandpa

I wanted to mention Taft's "Pee Wee Sports of All Sorts" rec center class he just finished. We've been working on sportsmanship at our house and this was the perfect activity to have Taft learn more about it. His first day was rough, the second day was good and we celebrated with a treat afterwards, and the rest of the session was smooth sailing. He had a blast.  Excuse the pictures. I had to take them through glass and he was super far away.

Workout fuel. This class was 30 minutes after school so he always had to scarf his lunch on our walk over. 

Clean-up time. Look how efficient he is. 

Working hard

Cracker Jack, Popcorn, and Red Vines.  It wasn't around a meal time, so we opted for snacks. Oh and I threw in some veggies for good measure. And for all the hippie parents here who only feed their kids food that comes from the earth.

Don't judge. I'm clearly not a perfectionist. 

Grammie with Luke. Pop was here but I failed to get a picture. 

The pinata broke off the rope after about half of the kids went. Seth risked his arm being knocked off for the the sake of the party. 

Feeling a little embarrassed about the attention. 

We love our sweet birthday boy.