Lando, the 4 Year Old
Today, you turned 4 years old. You are so awesome. You make us laugh constantly. You make us roll our eyes constantly. You are your own Mann.
In the past year, you have jumped onto lots of LOVES. Dinosaur Train, Word Girl, My Little Pony, Powerpuff Girls but some things remain the same. You still love anything Thomas or Lightning McQueen. For your birthday today, I took you to Target to spend $15 and you spent your time going between the Cars display and the My Little Pony display. You wanted your fingernails painted to match your favorite Power Puff Girls. You then wanted to play Light Sabers with your PVC pipe daddy got you. It all makes me smile so big it hurts.
You are your daddy in so many ways. While sometimes you are covered in cupcake, in the same breath you can freak out over water on your shirt. Every time we go to a park with sand, you HAVE to remove your shoes. It makes no sense to anyone but you but you insist. You are cautious just like your Dad. Today, you wanted to go jump on trampolines, so jump we did. But you were ever so hesitant about being knocked off balance. The fear of losing that control was not your cup of tea. You wanted me to hold you to jump but “slowly mommy”. I guess I never noticed this as much before but your baby brother is quite the opposite.
While you are your dad, you fight like cats and dogs sometimes. You seem to favor me in cases. It’s ok. We each get one. When Ollie crawls on me and pulls my hair, you cuddle with me before bed. You tell me “Mommy, I love you.” randomly and I melt. You want to “push me out” at daycare, laughing the whole time. Even with all your dad traits, I see me in you too. When you get embarrassed or reprimanded, you want to go off by yourself. You want us to see you being pouty and want the attention to bring you out of your funk. I see it and know it is me. God, is that me.
In the last year you have learned your ABCs: reading and writing. you can spell your whole name, your brother’s name, and easily write anything we spell. You started site words this summer. matching and even number sense. You blazed through them with great ease. You make us so proud. You love preschool and learning all the new things that comes with it. You can draw trains out the wazoo. You recently started getting more conifdent and trying to draw things from memory. Your Power Puff girls make me giggle and I love them so much. Your favorite color changed from blue to purple because of Twlight Sparkle. Such the brony.
The best thing in the last year is watching you be a big brother. You are hands down one of the best I have seen. And I’m not just saying that. You LOVE “your baby”. You get irritated when he tries to take your toys but you really do want to make him happy. With your birthday money, you picked out a toy you could share with Ollie specifically. So tonight you gave him that squeaky frog with it’s babies to him in the bath. You were so proud. Every morning I grab Ollie from his crib and bring him to your room and he lights up and leaps from my arms and beelines to your bed. You yell ‘BEANS’ and he just pants with excitement. You started his nickname after calling him Ollie Beans. We, in turn, dubbed you Cornbread. You can’t wait for him to walk and ask to hold his hand to help him. You 2 are going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Oh, Landon Banando, you are the best thing. Seeing you grow up into a real kid is awesome. I have found myself wanting to spend more time with you in the last few months. Mommy/Son dates galore. Maybe a little guilt of the year of baby but who knows. You have also gone from the 3s until the curious 4s. You sure are sassy but less on the pure rage. I like to think that is maturity :). You can really carry on conversations {sometimes I have no idea what you are saying} but it makes me so happy to “listen”.
So Happy 4th Birthday, stinky Steve. I am so much better for knowing and loving you.
What a sweet post! My older boy will be four in October. It’s a fun and challenging age!!
Such a great post! Happy 4th Lando, sounds like you and mommy had a wonderful day.
Just this weekend C and I went to the playground and he was insistent that we take his shoes off in the sand box! It must be a sensory thing?
Lando looks like so much fun and it is apparent that he is one happy boy! Product of his environment, no doubt. š
Happy happy birthday Landon!
I didn’t realize their birthdays were so close. What is that like 2 weeks?
yup almost exactly 2 weeks
I hope Landon had a wonderful birthday! This whole thing was so sweet. The line “You two are going to be a force to be reckoned with.” made me tear up!
What a sweetie. Happy (belated) 4th birthday, Landon! Hope you had a wonderful day. š