Jack at 4 Years

I'm overdue for an update on our boys and their skills and likes/dislikes.  Since Jack turned four over two months ago, I thought I'd start with him.  Our big guy is growing up so fast.  He is a very bright little guy and he is excelling at school.  He is the oldest in his class (and will be his whole life) so he is well ahead of the others at this point, for example: he can spell and write his full name (and does so each morning when we arrive at school) while some of the other kids are just learning what letter their name starts with, and he knows the sounds that all the letters make whereas the other kids are just starting to piece that together.  Luckily his teachers have recognized this and have pledged to give him more challenging activities.

He loves going to school and his teachers Miss Erin and Miss Marcie are great.  He has lots of little buddies in his class, but is also the first to volunteer to go into the pre-K class next door for a bit when they need to even out their ratios.  The teachers in both classrooms are constantly telling me what a happy, smiley guy he always is.  While I wouldn't use the word always, I'd agree with them most of the time.

Jack is constantly making us laugh (either on purpose or by accident) and not a day passes that Jason and I don't smile at each other over his head over something he's said.  The things that come out of his mouth are just too funny.  Today's example: while we were driving he said "Mom, did you know that some people don't use their blinkers?"  I said "yes," and he said (in his best disappointed voice) "it's such a shame."  Where does he get this stuff??

He can count to 100 these days and is getting soooo close to starting to read.  He can sound out words with minimal assistance.  He knows the months of the year and the days of the week and loves to do puzzles and play with his Legos.  One favorite is our USA puzzle, and he always saves New York for last since that's where Aunt Kelly, Uncle Greg and Parker live.

At his doctor visit last month, Jack answered all the questions the doctor asked him (counting, colors, shapes, etc) with no problem.  He weighed in at 42 lbs (86%) and was 43" tall (92%).

Jack loves to pick on his little brother, but they are also really starting to have fun together.  Quite often they go downstairs to play together and we can hear them laughing their little heads off (with a little bit of yelling mixed in).  They are definitely becoming little buddies!

We still have a great sleeper on our hands.  He takes about a 3 hour nap on the weekends and at Grandma and Grandpa's house during the week; it's a little shorter at school.  I don't see him dropping the nap anytime soon.  He goes to bed at about 9:00 most nights, unless we're hanging out with friends on the weekends and he stays up later.  Bedtime is generally pretty easy.  After a going potty and brushing his teeth, we usually read a couple books and that's that.  That's not to say he hasn't mastered the art of stalling (one more drink of water!, I need socks please!).  Sometimes we go in to check on him and he's sleeping soundly but without his shirt which I always get a kick out of.  He ditched the night time pull-up probably 6-8 months ago and since then he has occasional accidents at night but they seem to be less and less frequent.

Jack had his 3rd dentist visit a couple weeks ago and he was a pretty good boy. I had to let him lay on top of me like we did the first time, but he let Grandma clean his teeth.  The breakthrough was that he actually let the dentist check his teeth this time without me having to hold him down.  Big guy!

Here's a video of Jack counting the other day:

And the boys being silly (Jack watched the play back of this on the computer just now and cracked up watching himself)...

That's our big four-year old in a (rather long) nutshell.  We can't get enough of this guy!