Four

Our firstborn is four years old. Time just keeps marching on.

The great thing about writing a blog is that you can look back. I read what I wrote one year ago, to see if I had expressed the usual amazement at how fast time is flying, and how our boy has changed in the last twelve months. And to my surprise, I realized I could almost cut and paste what I wrote last year. I don't mean that Zach hasn't grown or developed, but it's very obvious that at this age, he is who he is, and that basic personality isn't going to change. Everything is just MORE now.

Some examples:

Zach's love of cars, Pixar and otherwise: cars are still his number one go-to toy. When I get around to posting pictures of his birthday party, you'll notice a familiar theme. His love of Lightning McQueen seems to know no boundaries. :)

The need for speed: Zach would still rather run than walk. And boy, is he getting fast. He loves to look at old videos of himself, and recently we were looking at one taken when he was about 20 months old. Scott and Zach were playing t-ball in the backyard (another thing that hasn't changed); after Zach hit the ball a few feet Scott was encouraging him to run to first base. Four-year-old Zach got a HUGE kick out of watching how slowly he "ran" at that age; Scott was taking those huge exaggerated steps, walking slowly to "chase" him. Now not only can Zach run with an amazing amount of grace compared to that little Zach in the video, he can hit a ball without the assistance of a tee, and hit it far. And now Scott has to put quite a bit more effort into catching him!

Numbers: I think Zach has definitely inherited a fascination for numbers from his father and maternal grandmother. He understands basic addition and subtraction at this point, and is constantly pondering the concept of infinity. I never thought I'd be trying to explain infinity to a preschooler, but Zach likes to know what numbers are bigger than others, and that led to the question: what's the biggest number? One drive home from preschool he spent the entire time asking me which of four numbers was biggest; he'd throw out numbers like 999, 9000, 52, and 28. The last I heard him count, he can make it up to 109 (for him, 200 comes next). He's starting to understand that 59 is a smaller number than 72; previously he would focus on the second number rather than the first (ie 9 is bigger than 2 so 59 must be bigger than 72). For someone who isn't all that fond of math, it's been very interesting for me to watch his brain work!

But of course, he has changed in some ways since last year. Becoming a big brother was definitely a big change, but one he adapted to amazingly well. I still get tears in my eyes at times watching my two boys play together. Charlie finds his big brother absolutely fascinating, and I'm often surprised how interested Zach is and always has been in Charlie. And now he's turning into another parent; he speaks to Charlie in the same voice we do, trying to teach him the signs for more or eat. Once I overheard him say "Charlie, we really need to cut your nails!" and the other day he explained to Scott that it was ok to give Charlie lots of cheerios at once now, giving his dad the same explanation I'd given him earlier that day.

My other favorite change is Zach's new ability to read. He has always loved when we've read to him, and I've tried really hard not to push him on learning to read himself - I didn't want reading to become a chore, something he HAD to do. Basically I want him to love to bury himself in a book as much as I do. And he does! He's always been interested in letters, and we've been working on some basic phonics with him when he's interested. But now his memory has clearly taken over - he can recognize an amazing amount of words. He also uses the context of the book - the pictures, etc, to figure out what he's reading. Now everywhere we go he's trying to read the signs, so proud of himself when he can tell us what it says!

We've been skipping naps occasionally the last couple of months, replacing them with "quiet time" in his room. And I can't tell you how much it makes me smile when I go up and find him happily sitting in his chair, poring over a book, his little fingers pointing to the words as he reads them. And I have to hide my smile the times I have to go up to tell him he's being too loud when he's reading his books with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm (he loves Mo Willem's Piggie & Gerald books, which contain a lot of exclamations). To me, learning to read is as exciting as when he learned to walk - there's a whole new world out there waiting for him to explore!

Related to reading is writing - another skill Zach is acquiring. He's been writing his name for a while, but working on a letter a day at preschool has really accelerated his abilities. And since he's so interested in reading words, that has translated into being able to write those same words. It's so fun to see.

Zach has also become more interested in the calendar, now that he has a good grasp of the months of the year and days of the week. So now he likes to say things like "What day in June will we go to lake Elmo?" or "How about I take a nap on Monday and Friday?" He's become a planner. :)

Other than playing cars, Zach LOVES to play the Wii (so we, like many parents, are trying to find the right balance of "screen time"). He started out loving the bowling and golf on Wii Sports, but his new favorites are beach volleyball and snowboard cross (downhill snowboard races). Watching him with the Wii just emphasizes what we already know, that technology is going to be a HUGE part of his childhood and the rest of his life. He had absolutely no problem figuring out how to maneuver through the menus, which is done using the remote control like a mouse.

But the part about the Wii that makes me smile the most is his absolute absorption into the "people" of the Wii games. The games come loaded with opponents, who all look different, have names, and in some cases, different strengths. When Zach plays, he's mostly interested in WHO he is playing... is it Flores? LeBron? Ashley? He knows them all - and there are lots of them!

Another favorite activity for Zach is any type of game. He still loves Uno, but lately has shown a lot of interest in checkers. He tried it a few months ago, and at that point just loved the idea of jumping and taking someone else's checkers - he didn't care if you got to jump him as a result. But now he's starting to get the strategy, the idea of trying to plan what your opponent might do. He also loves to do mazes. I've gotten him a few books of mazes, but mostly he likes me to draw them on his whiteboard for him (a common "quiet time" activity). And sometimes he draws them for me too!

As you can see in the pictures, we had a great afternoon at the Mall of America on Zach's actual birthday. We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe; he was so thrilled when they sang to him! And then back on the rides - he tried two new ones - the bumper cars and the swings. We ended up going on the swings FOUR times - I think it's a new favorite!

I'll close with this recent quote from Zach's preschool teacher:

"I just absolutely adore Zach and would love to have him 3 days a week! He has been interacting so well with the children. He is probably one of the best at talking to all the children and asking where they are if they are missing too. He talks to us great too....but it is fun to hear him having fun and being goofy with his classmates during snacktime or centers!!"

That's our boy!