Four

Liam celebrated his 4th birthday!  We started the day with a few presents, then we went out to breakfast for bagels (he chose bagels over pancakes with ice cream and chocolate sauce: he is my son).

After breakfast, we had a few errands to run to pick up a few things for his party later.  Including a big bunch of balloons.  This boy loves his balloons.

For Liam's party, he chose 4 friends to invite.  In the end, only his Joy School friends could make it-not that Liam minded-and later in the evening Liam's friend from our neighborhood stopped by for a mini party.  He had a great day.

Here are the boys doing the water balloon toss.  It's amazing how much fun boys can have just throwing water balloons.

Liam's cake perfectly suits Liam at this age: pigs playing basketball in the mud.

Liam at age 4:

• Still loves basketball but he isn't playing as much basketball as he did a few years ago.  He loves lots of sports and is as likely to play soccer, football, golf, tennis, or baseball as he is basketball.  
• He loves pigs and spends hours playing pretend games with his stuffed pigs or his "hard pigs" (Playmobile pig farm).
• He can mostly write his name, although sometimes he gets the letters backwards or in the wrong order.
• He has very recently begun playing a game called "bad guys" where he has to protect me or someone from the "bad guys" usually bears or wolves by cutting off their arms.  I think it is so funny to watch and especially interesting since he watches nothing violent of any sort.  Little boys will be little boys: it's just in their genes.
• He loves to ask questions and retains the information we tell him. Everything he asks is followed by "why".  Which I actually love trying to answer.
• He got a bike for his birthday and worked really hard to learn to ride it.  He really loves it now. 
• He still loves to read books with us and he frequently "reads" them himself.  He has an amazing ability to memorize books almost word for word-even lengthy ones-after a few times of hearing it.
• He has a very strong will and independent spirit, which can be a challenge but also really great as he matures and learns to use these traits the right way.  

We love Liam and it has been really amazing watching him grow and change these past 4 years.