Kaelan is 4!!!

Can you believe our little buddy is 4 YEARS OLD???!!!!!! Well, he can...haha! Obviously we had his pirate themed party at Chuck E. Cheese and we had a BLAST! He had 7 friends from school show up. Jackson and Ross (the boys from the snow-day) and Riley came too who he's become close with since the moms teach together. Plus his favorite teacher came and Grandma and Grandpa were down which was the icing on the cake. (Papa was out of town on business so we're celebrating with them next weekend when we go to the circus.) It was a great night full of games, pizza, cake, and of course presents. In fact, the amount of presents was RIDICULOUS!!!! It was worse than Christmas if you can believe it. However, I have to admit that many of them are fun for us too. :) Here's some pics and video from his birthday weekend...

Proudly showing off his birthday medallion

On one of the rides in the gameroom.

Little Brother happily eating his yogurt. He loved the music and watching the characters on stage. Thank goodness Grandma was there to take care of him while Mike and I were busy with the party. He was such a good boy all night but he was DEFINITELY ready to go home and go to bed when it was over.

Here's the beginning of the personalized birthday show when the kids get to meet Chuck E. Cheese. Make sure you have the sound up for this one, his reaction is priceless!!!

Chuck E. giving Kaelan his birthday crown which was pretty awesome by the way. I love how he shakes his hands when he can't contain his excitment. Just thinking of it now makes my cheeks hurt. :)))




The pirate cake

Hopefully there wasn't too much pizza on the cake since he had a mouth-full when he blew out the candles.

This was one of the highlights of the evening. He didn't even know what the tickets were for or even that he was supposed to be collecting them. But who cares, he had SO much fun and we loved watching him.

A hilarious video of our humble and grateful child...hahaha!

One of the things we got him was a soccer goal so he could practice before he starts little league in a couple months. He seems to like it so far...hooray!!!!

He shoots...

He scores!!!!!!

The ground was still way too saturated from all the melting snow and ice so we had to play out front on the edge of the street. Kaelan caught on to the good ol' Wayne's World lines of "Car!" and "Game on!" He was so funny every time he said it!!!

Te temperature was actually above 50 so we took advantage by going for a bike ride. We quickly realized that we need to raise his seat and handlebars. The poor guy was practically banging his knees on the handlebars with every pump. Such a big 4-year old!! :)

His new passion seems to be coloring, especially in his superhero coloring book. Here he's attempting to trace wolverine. Clearly it didn't work very well.

Mike traced this from one of his coloring book pages. His coloring has really improved over just the last month or so. He is taking his time and being much more careful about staying inside the lines. It's so awesome to watch his face while he's coloring. You can tell how hard he's trying...hilarious!!!

I just thought this was funny. We were sitting down to dinner and as I was putting things out, I looked over and saw K "reading" he comics. So cute!

Some updates on Kaelan:

• Behavior - well, to put it nicely, 3 was a ROUGH year for him/us. There were many times we didn't know if he'd make it through the day alive. Not from injuries, from behavior! :( He had many days with "red faces" at school which is the worst of the 3 faces (green, yellow, & red). In fact, there were even a couple days that he was threatened with 2 red faces or even no face at all. He went through phases of throwing fits, yelling at his teachers, and pushing and hitting friends. His teachers would say that it's normal for a 3-year old boy, but as the parent and a teacher myself, I was mortified at much of his behavior at school. Don't get me wrong, he had just as many green phases over the past 5 months (the behavior system began with the new school-year in August) but when 1 red face would come, there tended to be more that followed that week. I have to say that I truly believe much of the poor chioces he made were due to his lack of sleep. Also over the past 5 months (well, who'm I kidding...the past year), he got in the habit of waking up around 5:30 every morning. The poor kid is just so worried about missing out on something that he can't allow himself to stay asleep. So, obviously, not getting enough sleep can have an effect on behavior. Now, I'm definitely not trying to make excuses, but at least there might be some reason for the days I wanted to either kill him or myself. :) I embarrassingly admit to making myself cry on a couple occassions just to try to get him to make better choices. He DOES NOT like to see Mommy cry so I used whatever ammo I could get. Whatever works right? Anyways, I have to say that over the past month, he has shown incredibly improvement in behavior, attitude, and responsibility. He gets far more green faces than anything else and takes responsibility for his actions when he doesn't have a green face. He no longer throws a fit when I pick him up if he knows a punishment is coming. No fit, but boy does he try to charm his way out of trouble. :) The last "red face" he had, he repeatedly told me how much he loved me and tried to cuddle with me and tell me I was pretty. I couldn't help but smile but a rule is a rule and a consequence is a consequence. He still got his punishment but the little guy "took it like a man" and didn't try to fight it. It seems that he is finally starting to understand that his actions have consequences whether he, or even Mommy and Daddy, like it or not. His behavior has taken a toll on Mike and I as well since we are both relatively strict and expect nothing but the best from our children. We couldn't understand many of the things that were happening which broke our hearts and made us feel helpless, and honestly, like bad parents. We finally realized (with the help of past experiences watching SuperNanny) that the more we "reacted" the worse his reaction. If we didn't get emotions involved, things went much more smoothly. Now, it's like, "Well, you did, you know you did it, and you knew what would happen if you did it...so now we all have to deal with the consequences." So far so good in 2011!!!
• Eating - Kaelan is still not a good eater. The normal kid staples are pretty much what he sticks to. His favorites include chicken nuggets, cheese pizza (heaven forbid there be anything on his pizza), and fish sticks. For sides he LOVES cheese, pasta-roni, french fries, and bananas, grapes, or apples are his fruits of choice. He doesn't have much of a sweet-tooth but he is a snacker. He could eat cheetos, pretzels, or goldfish all day long. We do make him try at least a bite of everything but it is often a long process. Unfortunately his mind is stronger than his tastebuds because there are things he's tried that I know he would like if he would allow himself to. Oh well, in time I guess.
• Personality - The kid is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He says things on a daily basis that are so witty and comical. He has a great sense of humor, which is obviously a necessity in our family. We love to laugh and laughing together is the best!!! He is a true boy who loves to climb, play rough, run around, and get into mischief. I can only imagine what's in store once Max is old enough to "hang" with big brother.
• Education - He can count and recognize his numbers thru 10 easily. He still gets hung-up when he counts to 20, often going from 13 to 18 (who needs 14, 15, 16, and 17 right?). He can also count by using 1-to-1 correspondance (pointing to objects as he counts them) up to 13 or 14 as well. If he could remember those other #s consistently he'd be able to do it all the way to 20 easily. He of course knows all his colors and shapes. He's known his alphabet for a couple years but his letter recognition is getting really good. Mike thinks he knows them all (they go over them together in the bathtub) but it's probably more like 15-17 out of 26. He has been doing very well again during circletime lately (he used to LOVE it but the first 1/2 of this year was rough as I said above). His teachers say that he's one of the only kids who routinely transfers what they learned at circletime to the activities they do throughout the day. He likes it because he gets rewarded with Smarties! ;) They are also beginning to practice writing their names. He's already mastered about 1/2 of the SC kindergarten standards and he's only 4! We're very proud!!!
• Talking - I'm pretty sure his voice works from the minute he wakes up until the time he goes to bed. There are NO short stories or explanations. He will go through quite a lengthy description of why something is the way it is or what he's about to do - literally step by step as if he's the "play-by-play" sportscaster of a basketball game (much slower of course). "I'm gonna get down and play but if I get hungry I can come back and sit in my chair and eat my brownie and drink my milk and if I'm still hungry I can get more of everything that was on my plate...some fish stiiicks (he drags out the words as he lists them), some graaaapes, some cheeeese) and then when I'm done I'll get down and play. Ok Mommy?" That was literally the explanation he just went through after dinner tonight. It's really funny, but when you're in a hurry, it's reeeaaaalllly aggrivating. As far as he's concerned, you have to stop what you're doing and look at him if he wants to tell you a story so getting ready in the mornings can be a chore for sure. But, at least now he can get himself ready while I do the baby so that is works out super.
• Entertainment - He still loves music and memorizes songs very quickly. He also has a great sense of rhythm and we love to watch him dance. He enjoys cartoons and movies. Anything with superheros is his favorite. His new cartoon of choice is The Super Hero Squad. It has almost all the heros he loves all in one show. He also loves to watch Phineas and Ferb which is good cuz Mommy and Daddy think it's hilarious too. As for movies, Toy Story is still one of his favorites along with The Avengers but he likes all the Disney stuff. I'm sure he'll go through a Cars phase when the new movie comes out this summer. He loves to play with anything Imaginext, pirates, swords, and/or superheros. He also loves to wrestle and play rough with Daddy. So fun and great exercise, but not always great if it transfers to rough-housing with friends at school. We think he's starting to understand when it's appropriate and when it's not. Fingers crossed!!!
• Bedtime - his bedtime routine is cute but can be lengthy. He gets a bath every-other night. He has learned to come up with any excuse to prolong having to go to bed - drink of water, giving Mommy a hug and kiss, giving Max a hug and kiss, telling Jasmine goodnight, putting something away, ANYTHING! It's funny to see what he'll come up with. Once he's finally in his room, we read him a book, tell him a story about a character named Kaelan (who has amazing adventures as a pirate or superhero or pilot, etc.), and rock for about a minute. He usually sleeps from about 8:30ish to 6:30ish lately. I've even had to wake him up for school a few times over the last 2 weeks. If this keeps up I may even get to sleep like a normal person again!!! wink wink ;)

Well, I think I'm finally done. I'm sorry this is so long but this is how I document their fantastic childhood so it's as much for me if not more. Thanks for visiting our blog and please leave us a message/comment to tell us you were here.