Grant's 4th Birthday!

Grant’s birthday presents started trickling in last Thursday night. One of the presents we’d gotten him had been hiding at my work & since I took off on Friday, I had to bring it home with me Thursday night. We decided to use it as a bribe hoping that it would improve his motivation to do well at soccer practice (with no luck!), and told him he’d get his present after practice. I had unloaded it earlier in the day & Thursday night we all went outside the house & I handed Grant the garage door opener & told him to open it up & see what he had. Inside he found this:

opening up the garage

driving off - I didn't get a good pic from the front. he is not a good driver!

It’s a 1960 Mercedes 300SL for anyone that’s a car buff. We were lucky enough to have this come across at work (which is a post in itself) so this is why he didn’t get the Lightning McQueen car that he kept asking for. I haven’t heard another word about Lightning, so I think he was pleased regardless! He is a horrible driver though! He cannot keep his foot on the gas. He regularly goes in reverse instead of forward, and I’ve already been run over a few times. Claire LOVES to ride with him, but the poor girl had bruises on her back after her 1st ride with him from being thrown forward & backward so much by his erratic gas “pushing.” It will be interesting to see how long we can go without tearing this up!

can you say whiplash?!

Another pre-party present was from Mammy for both Grant & Pook. Pook’s birthday is next month so she combined this for them. To be honest, I think daddy has played LOTS more than Grant has! I still haven’t had my turn, but hope to soon!

Grant had his party at a “bounce house” and had a blast. Though they are a little pricey, it was hands down the best party I’ve ever had to give! It’s so stress free! The people there are wonderful, and take care of everything. All we had to bring is the cake and the drinks, and they handled all the clean up and even wrote down his gifts. I didn’t see him the whole party because he and his cousin Ella just took off. This is the 1st time he hasn’t been dependent on me to do everything with him at one of these places. Four really is big, huh?!

the whole gang

Grant & Ella

claire & i had fun too!

Here is the cake that, once again, did not disappoint! Elisabeth always does such an awesome job! Grant was calling it his Special Spiderman Cake. By this time, G was totally worn out. It was afternoon and after a soccer game in the a.m. and all of that bouncing I could tell he was in a total daze. He kept on going through cake & presents and had a blast. He told me thank you for his party, which was the sweetest.

Since Grant’s birthday was on Sunday, we had his party on Saturday. The funny thing is that whenever anyone asks him what he got for his birthday, he says nothing because he didn’t get a present on his actual birthday. He says those other things were for his 3 year old party, not his 4 year old. I sense someone being a little greedy, :-)! I think he knew exactly what he was saying. He was just trying to wrangle a few more gifts out of it!

the birthday chair - he was sooo excited about getting to sit in this chair!

G, you are the sweetest little boy I know. I love you with all of my heart, even when I say you’re driving me crazy! You amaze me with all of the things that you say, do, see, hear, and remember. Your mind (& body) are constantly busy and I enjoy so much trying to figure out exactly which direction you are going next. You are changing so much each day, and we are so thankful that God blessed us with you 4 years ago.

turning 2 years old!

turning 3 years old!

I think from age to 3 to age 4 is such a dramatic change. I know from 2 to 3 was, but his comprehension of everything has increased so much this year. He’s telling me about his dreams (which apparently last night, he dreamed about beer!), what he wants to be when he grows up (a fireman), and all sorts of other stuff. He literally almost NEVER shuts his mouth. The tone of his voice & all of his inflections (along with his Southern drawl) are hilarious. They make it nearly impossible to understand on the phone, though person to person you get it all. His vocabulary is unbelievable! I dread the day that he starts sounding like a bigger boy! Though he’ll tell you he’s not a baby, he’s still a cuddler and still obsessed with my hair. He likes to touch other girls’ hair too, so if you happen to be in front of us at church, a movie, ballgame, etc. and feel a little tug, don’t be surprised! Sister is proving herself a force to be reckoned with and is extremely jealous of those increasingly rare moments when I pick Grant up or he sits in my lap. They play pretty well together, but neither has quite grasped the concept of sharing with one another (do they ever??!). I hope that they can be close as they grow up. I can’t believe that he could go to real 5 day a week Pre-K in the fall…not that he’ll be going, but he could and that’s what’s so mind blowing. Everyone tells you it goes so fast, but you never believe them until it’s your own babies growing up right before your eyes. Wow..marathon post!