Ryan: 4 Years Old

Ryan is a bright, curious, talkative, and energetic 4-year-old. It's almost crazy to think about the differences from a year ago. In the past year, he has become potty trained, learned to dress, bathe, brush his teeth and use the bathroom by himself, moved to a new bedroom in the basement, became a terrific big brother, started preschool and has learned so many more new things.

Ryan has a large vocabulary and uses all of it. Often. His Sunday School teachers commented that he is a great storyteller and he is good at retelling all the details about an event, book, or TV show. He uses a lot of facial expressions and gestures.

Ryan is a great big brother and loves playing with Cohen, feeding him, wrestling with him, and making him laugh. He enjoys playing with friends of all ages at daycare, preschool, church, football games, and in the neighborhood. He is lucky to have terrific grandparents nearby, 4 great-grandparents, aunts and uncles who love him, and 3 awesome cousins. He also has a special bond with my cousins who live in town and we are very thankful for them!

Ryan shows some first-born tendencies in how he wants things done "right," like wanting to see a picture of whatever character he's coloring to make sure he puts all the "right colors in the right places." He insists on doing many things himself like brushing his teeth, buttoning buttons, and carrying his backpack. He also gets into habits and routines, such as how we say goodbye in the morning ("kiss, kiss, hug" then wave from the window), sleeping habits (3 books, rub back, CD on repeat, light on in hallway, door open, all the stuffed animals on the bed ), morning routine (get dressed in the living room, then eat string cheese, apples or peanut butter on bread while watching Curious George...and sometimes Jake if there's time). He likes to know what is going to be happening each day this week, but seems to adjust fine to different activities at night.

He loves playing outside, going to the park, driving his remote control car, coloring with crayons and markers, playing with race cars and his pirate ship,  playing ipad (especially Minion Rush), playing games on pbskids.org, reading books, visiting the farm and doing lots of "boy" things with Daddy. He asks lots of questions about God, heaven, the world, animals and the weather and we know he'll repeat whatever we tell him, so we have to be careful how we answer!

Ryan is growing up into such a fun kid and we are so proud of who he is becoming!