As 4 Turns into 5

Oh, Noah.  My sweet baby and my big boy.  Next week you have another birthday.  But before we get there, here are some of my notes about you as your 4-year-old status turns to 5.

• The first three words that pop into my head to describe you are:  Active! Eager. Good.  Oh, so good.
• Just about all the adults in your life comment on what a sweet boy you are.  You are so obedient and well behaved.  You are so kind and considerate.  You are so gentle when needed and just so good. You never get in trouble at school.  I can't even imagine what that would be like actually - for a teacher to have to talk to me about you misbehaving.
• Growing up, my dad used to say to my sister and me while harassing us, "I'm the big brother you never had!" Well, Anna won't ever have to hear that from Daddy, because you fill those shoes well.  Your biggest vice and everyday cause of your being sent to you room is your messing with her. Irritating, antagonizing, teasing, aggravating - any and ALL of these things, you do.  Stinker.  You hear me say this a lot "If you can't be nice to be around, you will not be around.  Go to your room."
• Your favorite toys (today) are your action figures:  Batman, Robin, and Joker, Star Wars characters, Army men, Knights, Spiderman and his corresponding bad guy, Venom, and your firemen.  I love to hear how you role play with your figures when you play all by yourself.  You invite me to play with you by offering to teach my how.  You have begun teaching Anna to play them with you.  It is a hoot to hear.  If you aren't having your men speak, you are humming the Star Wars theme music or the Darth Vader march music. 
• Your favorite thing to do each day is play video games. On days when you don't get to play it is a source of real consternation and stress. Pretty much all you want to play anymore is Lego Star Wars.  You and your daddy have beat the game twice already.
• This year you started becoming very aware of wanting privacy when you are changing clothes, going potty, etc.  You also, for some reason unbeknownst to your daddy and me, are suddenly very squeamish about germs and eating or drinking after someone - even us!  Your daddy and I just look at each other as if to say, "Who is this boy!?" and who taught him to care about that!?
• You still need a pull up at night and probably will for awhile.  We recently got you an alarm that wakes you up in the night when it gets wet and you like the help it provides but the fact that it is not eliminating the nighttime wetting says that your body is just not ready yet.  And that's ok. 
• You sleep all wrapped up tight in your bedspread covered head to toe and you never, ever use the sheet.  It is always kicked down to the bottom and the floor.  That drives me crazy.
• You take your cereal with milk, now.  And you finally will eat macaroni and cheese.  Your favorite place to eat is "Chick Away."
• You are SUCH a problem solver, hunter, astute observer.  I think you try even harder because of how impressed I always am with the solutions you come up with.  One of the main things I think of when I speak of this is how you figure out how to reach little things for me that I can't get to because they have rolled or fallen out of reach under and behind furniture. 
• You make me giggle every time you trap me with a round of copycat and when you chase/stomp my shadow and vice versa.  You just giggle and thrill at the match up we are when we compete and outsmart each other in these games.
• Today you said with all the innocent energy and sincerity possible, "Wissen (listen)!  I can sing with my mouth closed!   Hmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmmm. etc., etc." (to the tune of the Imperial March).
• After a question I don't answer fast enough you try to hurry me up by asking, "Yes or no?" I think it's your inner salesman,  pushing me to decide before I am ready to commit one way or the other.
•  You are the preschool version of Weird Al with the way you will make up your own words for songs - usually inserting Anna's name and funny body parts for the words.  
•  It's still a struggle to get you to finish any amount of milk or liquid each day.  But you are a good eater usually as long as there is the promise of dessert right away.
•  The other day you impressed me with something I can't remember now.  But I remember saying, "Noah, when did you get so smart?"  And you guffawed at my silliness and said,  "From Go-o-d!"  Last night at bedtime you told Daddy that you wanted to get sick and die and go to heaven so you could be with Jesus because you love him...and you want to see his blood.  Oh, my.
• You have mastered some new skills this year and you are SO PROUD of yourself, as am I:  buttoning your shirts and pants, pumping your legs successfully on swings, sometimes getting through the night dry all by yourself, getting your own ice and water to drink, climbing up to unlock the back porch door, using the remote for the play and pause buttons, opening the car door and buckling yourself in, feeding Chewie, writing, and reading.
• Your bad habits include still biting your fingernails down to the tiniest nubs I ever saw, exaggerated outbursts and crying when you are hurt or upset, and leaving your clothes and shoes all over the house.
• And though you get older, quicker, abler, and smarter by the day, I still get to hear remnants of my baby boy every time you say any of the following words:

funder (thunder)
wissen (listen)
usgusting (disgusting)
A-weewins (aliens) 
fweepin' (sleeping)
toeteeya (tortilla)
camee-yope (canteloupe)
wuke and wucy (Luke and Lucy)
distresserating (frustrating)
stummy ache (stomach/tummy ache)
pokeypine (purcupine)