R's Stats...a little late!

R turned 4 in September, and partly because of my delay making an appointment, and mostly because it takes FOREVER to be seen at the medical clinic here...R had his 4-year well child checkup today...finally!

This has been a big year for R...he has seen LOTS of changes in his life in the last 12 months.  We moved into a new house about a month after his birthday last year.  Then 6 months later, Daddy left for 3 1/2 months.  In the meantime, we prepared for the HUGE move in the summer time.  He rode in an airplane for the first time (that he can remember anyway), lived in a hotel for a couple of weeks, and lived in an almost empty house for about 6 weeks until our household goods arrived!  He also started German kindergarten...where they only speak German...and he has been a real champ about it!  This move has turned his life upside down!!  He cried numerous times, begging to have his room back.  How heartbreaking it is to have your little boy cry for his room, and know that you can't give it to him!  Very sad!  And he cried, saying "I wanna go home"...and we would have to explain that THIS is our home.  Hard enough on the other 4 of us, who could prepare ourselves because we (somewhat) knew what was coming.  Even harder on little man...who had no idea what his life was about to become!

But now we have a "home", little R has his room back, and things are settling down.  He is still a "Mama's Boy", much to Daddy's dismay!  He tells me numerous times each day that he loves me...unprovoked, while he is playing.  Melts my heart everytime!  He also tells me he loves me anytime he gets in trouble!!  His strategy is that I will be so overjoyed that he is expressing his deep love for me, that I will forget whatever it is he just did that was wrong!!  Doesn't work, but creative nonetheless! : )

He still loves cars, monster trucks, and tractors!  He has a newfound fascination with good guys, bad guys, and superheroes.  He is very active, and will play by himself for hours, as long as someone is in sight in the house (preferably Mommy, of course)!  He loves to be read to...we read a story every night at bedtime, and it is one of his favorite moments of the day. 

His favorite foods are waffles and peanut butter sandwiches!  He (finally) gave up baby cereal at breakfast...but not until after his birthday! : )

He says some of the cutest things!  Examples:

UPDATE: I forgot a few that deserve noting!  He LOVES tractors and trucks...especially DUMP TRUNKS!!

He loves apples, but he doesn't like BEEnanas!

A word he uses often that we love...lasterday.  I know he will figure this one out soon...but it is so darn cute when he says "Mama, we went to the zoo lasterday."  Or..."I don't need a bath, I took one lasterday!"

He loves playing Disney Jr. games on the computer.  Except he leaves off the "com" completely...it is simply "Can I play games on the poo-yer?"

He LOVES the movie Cars 2.  He plays with his Cars 2 toys A LOT, and talks about them A LOT.  He loves Finn McMissile, and also Holly Shiftwell (except when he says it, there is no F in her name).  We finally had to make the girls stop having him repeat it constantly...they thought it was SOOO funny!!

He loves going to the zoo to see the am-nals...and talks about them a lot!

He has tons of cute things he says...but these are the only ones I can think of at the moment!

And finally his stats from his checkup:

He weighed in at 38.8 lbs...65th percentile.
He measured 39.5 inches..30th percentile.
So he continues to be quite short! Daddy has big dreams of him playing basketball...we will have to wait and see how that plays out! : ) 

All in all, it has been another year of being blessed and challenged by this little boy we call our son.  He is active, demanding, charming, sweet, and rotten all rolled up into one loved little guy!  We can't imagine our family without him, and we are thankful for every day we have with him.  He definitely adds a whole new dynamic to every aspect of our day to day life..and we wouldn't have it any other way!

A few pictures of the last year of his life:

He's usually a pretty happy guy!

A future in modeling maybe?  : ) He DID win the Baby Mr. Firecracker pageant, ya know!

4th of July fun...usually he gets very upset when he gets sweaty...but not this night!!

This is one of his new things...this is his "salute"...Daddy will have to work on that one!

And now a video that is just plain funny!   It's a little long....sorry!  He really doesn't usually have a hard time getting dressed...he can do it by himself except for buttons...but this day with his shirt inside out, he just couldn't quite get it!  Maybe if he had turned ONE more circle??  : )